News recently dropped that Showtime would be reviving Dexter for a mini-series. It has been met with mixed reactions. On one hand, the series is beloved and was well-received, evidenced by the 8.6 rating it holds on IMDb. On the other side, it ended with a whimper in a finale that is considered among the worst in televised history.
Michael C. Hall returns as the titular character, along with original showrunner Clyde Phillips. With this news, it is now the perfect time to look back and see which seasons of Dexter are considered the best. Were they the ones during Phillips' run? Did the show really end on a low point?
Season 8 (7.5)
Dexter indeed went out with its worst-reviewed string of episodes. The penultimate season set the stage for a fantastic finish but fans never got it. Season eight featured the introduction of Dr. Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling), a psychiatrist who just so happened to have helped Dexter's dad create his code. It felt shoehorned in and like too much of a stretch that late in the game.
This set of episodes also was bad for Deb (Jennifer Carpenter). It undid the harrowing events of the previous season finale and brought her back to something of a status quo. The ing cast continued to have storylines that didn't really matter, either. Then, there's the finale, which holds a 4.6 rating on IMDb, easily the lowest in the series. Dexter left his son with his girlfriend, dropped Deb's body at sea, faked his death, and became a lumberjack.
Season 6 (8.3)
It was around the sixth season when fans started to notice cracks in the armor of a show that had mostly delivered in its history. It saw Dexter chasing down killers Travis Marshall (Colin Hanks) and James Gellar (Edward James Olmos). Travis wasn't much of an intimidating threat and audiences figured out that Gellar was just a figment of Travis' imagination weeks before it was revealed on TV, meaning they ended up being smarter than Dexter or the showrunners.
There was also the much-maligned storyline where Deb came to a revelation that she might be in love with Dexter. On the positive side, Mos Def had a fun guest-starring role as Brother Sam. The finale was also easily the best part, ending with the long-awaited cliffhanger of Deb catching Dexter in the act of one of his kills.
Season 3 (8.5)
The only Clyde Phillips-led season to rank in the bottom half. Here, Dexter had someone really look at him as a partner for the first time since his brother. That was Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits), an Assistant District Attorney who even ed him on a kill. Smits and Hall played well off of each other but the storyline didn't fully click.
It didn't help that the season's main villain, known as The Skinner, wasn't up to the level of the best the series had offered. It did mark a big storyline for Dexter's personal life, as Rita (Julie Benz) became pregnant and his family grew. Deb was also in the only good relationship of her time on the show.
Season 5 (8.7)
There are fans out there who are a bit harsher on this season than they should be. It had to follow a season that fans adored and didn't quite live up to it. Despite that, it provided viewers with some great content. For starters, Dexter had to deal with being a single father and how to handle his urges alongside that. That's when he met Lumen (Julia Stiles), a victim who had been raped by a group of men.
This proved to be an unexpected but great storyline. Lumen bonded with Dexter and actually ed him on kills as they went after those who had wronged her. The romantic side of their relationship was also strong. Unfortunately, this was the opposite of season six as it started great but ended weakly. Lumen's character simply walked off in the end, never to be seen again. Meanwhile, Deb came frustratingly close to catching Dexter, only to let it slip through her fingers.
Season 7 (8.8)
It's often said that the show's best seasons all came in the early years but that's not true. Sandwiched in between the disappointments of seasons six and eight came this underrated gem. It started with a bang as Deb caught Dexter in his lies and unraveled everything he had done in the past. She brought up stuff fans hadn't even thought about in years. It added a new wrinkle to the show and was capped with the incredible cliffhanger of Deb shooting LaGuerta (Lauren Velez) to save Dexter, which broke her as a person.
Carpenter gave the best performances of her career in these episodes. This season also excelled with ing characters. Isaak Sirko (Ray Stevenson) worked as a fantastic antagonist for a few episodes and then Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski) turned out to be a phenomenal love interest for Dexter.
Season 1 (8.9)
As soon as Dexter began, fans were thrust right into a huge mystery. A sadistic killer was preserving his victims' bodies by chilling them. He was dubbed the Ice Truck Killer and he also seemed to have a personal connection to Dexter himself. The reveal that Rudy (Christian Camargo), Deb's boyfriend, was the murderer and was Dexter's blood brother was a shocker.
While that main storyline was enough to engage viewers, the season had other things going for it. It set the stage for the series and introduced major side characters. There was also a lot of backstory involving Dexter's relationship with his adoptive father Harry (James Remar).
Season 2 (8.9)
Season two was so good that the series could've ended right there and it would've been fitting. You'd expect a show about a serial killer like Dexter to do a storyline where he's hunted by the cops. However, you wouldn't see it coming so soon. The season two premiere ended with Dexter's dumped bodies being found and sent the police on the hunt for the Bay Harbor Butcher.
It made for thrilling television. That was especially true when watching the cat and mouse game between Dexter and Seargent Doakes (Erik King), who ultimately discovered his secret. Dexter's conversations with him even led him to agree to turn himself in, only for his psychotic new girlfriend Lila (Jaime Murray) to murder Doakes by blowing up the cabin he was held in.
Season 4 (9.0)
As great as season two was, season four just edges it out. That's mainly because of John Lithgow's incredible performance as Arthur Mitchell, aka the Trinity Killer. He won an Emmy for his chilling work as the antagonist, a serial killer with a successful family life for over 20 years. Dexter became obsessed with him as he tried to emulate how he balanced his two lives.
The season also featured the return of Keith Carradine as Detective Lundy. It saw the outstanding twist that Quinn's (Desmond Harrington) girlfriend Christine Hill (Courtney Ford) was Mitchell's daughter from a previous relationship. Still, they saved the best twist for last, as Dexter's mistakes with Mitchell cost him. He didn't kill him when he had the chance, so Mitchell murdered Rita before he died, giving fans a huge cliffhanger.