Dec 14, 2010 11:09 GMT  ·  By

The other day, season 5 of Showtime’s “Dexter” wrapped up with “The Big One” episode, as fans must already know. The finale offered some kicks and even more hints of what’s to come in the next seasons – but, overall, season 5 was a disappointment, some fans believe.

As we also noted yesterday (*and you’re encouraged not to read any further if you haven’t seen the finale*), the last episode came with 2 very important surprises for the fans.

First of all, it showed Lumen’s departure, leaving Dexter abandoned once more – but never before wanting something so badly like now. Secondly, it showed Deb finally coming to terms that life is not all black and white – it also has many patches of gray.

While there’s no denying that this was one of the most romantic and emotional seasons of the series so far, NY Mag’s The Vulture can’t but help feel it was somewhat of a letdown – and there are many who happen to agree with it as well.

It’s not that writers or the series simply gave up trying to come up with new, original stuff after Rita’s death at the end of season 4 (which will probably remain one of the most shocking elements in television for years to come), the report says.

Instead, in order to show just how much our favorite hero, Dexter (Michael C. Hall), had evolved from the first time we saw him, they made everything about him: Lumen, Deb, the kids, Rita (her death, more specifically), and everything else revolved around him.

In other words, instead of allowing Dexter to exist in a world populated by multidimensional, believable characters as was the case until now, the writers made the world exist in order to give Dexter a justification for his existence and his growing into a real human being, The Vulture says.

Because of that, some fans feel let down by the show, which has been, until now, one of the most complex, intriguing and oddly fascinating series to ever air on TV.

“It’s just wrong that the show has dealt with Rita’s death only as something for Dexter to recover from. Historically, the character has been an antihero: He makes us uncomfortable. Yes, we root for Dexter, because he is smart and funny, because he kills people who deserve it and because he looks like Michael C. Hall,” The Vulture says in a piece suggestively called “Betrayed by Dexter.”

“But in the early seasons (and even in the flashback to his courtship of Rita), we’d also see him in another light: Dexter is a compulsive, ritualistic, premeditated murderer. His motives aren’t pure – he’s killing because he gets off on it, using righteousness as his excuse,” the same piece reads.

“And if, over the years, he’s learned to first fake and then maintain intimacy, there’s always a troubling undercurrent, which the Trinity Killer made explicit: The more family Dexter has, the more hostages he’s holding. When his children find out who he really is, they’ll do what his father did: vomit with fear and anguish. The more he loves them, the more he’s potentially hurting them,” says The Vulture.

Suddenly, all that changed with season 5, as if writers no longer wanted to allow the character they created walk down the same path again. In doing so, they took from Dexter this duality that made him so interesting and fascinating for audiences.

“Really, in the second half of the season, Dexter was pretty purely a romantic hero. The men he killed were so evil they practically oozed radioactive oil. Their victim was loving and pure. Any collateral damage was accidental: Jordan was the one who killed Emily – and though Dexter killed Liddy, the dude was a gone-rogue cop whose own ex-partner feared him. Good riddance!” The Vulture says.

Of course, that’s far from saying that season 5 was bad: if anything, The Vulture concedes, because of how writers handled the Deb story in the season finale, many fans will still return next year to see what happens.

On the other hand, many found the ending, and the entire season, for that matter, excellent: in his constant bid to find a spark of humanity in him, it’s good that Dexter learned that he too could be loved, all his gruesomeness was revealed – even if he were to lose that love afterwards.

For the full piece in The Vulture (which also includes more arguments than those presented above), please refer here. Also, feel free to make yourself heard on this in the comments sections below.