I thought Dexter "jumped the shark" in the Colin Hanks season. Season 5, with Julia Stiles, wasn't quite up to the Trinity standards, but it seemed fine to me. Season 6 started out okay, but once the cat was out of the bag about Gellar, things just got out of hand. For one thing, the Hanks character was mentally ill, so really didn't meet Dexter's "Code". Basically, Hanks just went "over-the-top" and things got a bit silly. Then, Deb had to find out and Season 7 became a mess with the Ukrainian mob nonsense, Deb acting like a party pooper and the nonsense with the lab geek. Well, you know the rest.
The series did go through a decline on a more subtle level for several seasons though with several characters fading away so to speak. The Laguerta character was much more interesting in early seasons, as were Quinn, Batista and even Deb. Deb had a rawness in Season One, along with an attractive speech impediment that somehow disappeared with her rapid promotions. |
