Daniel.
BK to NJ, but always a New York Knicka
Let me preface this thread by saying I'm one of the biggest Dexter stans on this site...
With that out of the way, I JUUSSSTTT finished Breaking Bad on Netflix and felt compelled to make this thread.
There were so many parallels between the shows, so many things Breaking Bad did that Dexter probably should have done for the general consensus not to be that the show fell off. So let's get some perspective on the shows, now 2 years after they both ended - where things went right, where things went wrong.
From a purely visceral level, I will never be able to say Breaking Bad was better than Dexter. I had an emotional connection to the show and the character's that just didn't happen with BB. It's like the difference between watching the Knicks win a championship versus the Jets - I'm a fan of both, I follow both, I enjoy them when they're successful, but I could happily live life without a Jets SB win - I wouldn't be able to say the same about the Knicks.
I WILL say, however, that BB was much smarter (might even say safer) with their overall approach to the show. BB at its core had a main character that was down on his luck, hated so many aspects of his life and allowed the one success of his life to be his downfall and made him a monster. Dexter was a monster, constantly striving to become human. Both were stories seeking redemption, but from two very different places in life. Keeping the timeline of the show so limited allowed for a much more simplified approach in that everything mattered because everything tied together. Dexter, on the other hand, became an overly complicated clusterfukk that would have benefited from that simplicity in that ultimately, as a fan of both shows, everyone wanted to see/know if he would get caught and what the consequence of that would be. BB had real consequences for WW's actions and he didn't skate by unrealistically like Dexter did for much of the show which I liked, while evolving WW from woe is me victim to callous monster.
Dexter evolved as well, but by the end, the player's in his evolution that mattered were all gone, leaving what I considered to be a very fitting, but also very underwhelming end. that was nowhere what it should have been because of the lead-up. Imagine if Rita was still alive, aware of Dexter's secret due to Trinity, them breaking the Big Bad formula and Dexter having to confront that exposure. Imagine if somehow they reconciled, but ultimately, we still got Lumberjack Dexter after he almost had his humanity back, versus the shyt with Hannah falling on its face. They opened the floodgates for so much that I think they ultimately oversaturated what could have been a much simpler story for such a complex character.
I'm not 100% on my goal in making this thread, outside of really putting together my thoughts on the two shows and seeing how other's feel about the show, but more than anything, I'm a little jealous to be honest. BB really kept it simple and stayed true to the core of the story and rarely felt like it had filler episodes and really worked within the confines of the character the show was built around. Dexter blew their wad early and just got so convoluted at times that it took away from the confines and while the stories all logically made sense, they didn't resonate because they all seemed rushed together at the end. Seasons 1-4 were the best because they were all built from each other. 5-8 could almost all operate independent of each other, with 7 being the best of them solely because it was built off the last bullet in the chamber they had in their season 6 finale. With all the potential, there was no way it should go down as lesser than BB.
IDK ya'll, I'm ranting and it's 1AM. If this is still front page by the AM, good looks. Just my thoughts.
With that out of the way, I JUUSSSTTT finished Breaking Bad on Netflix and felt compelled to make this thread.
There were so many parallels between the shows, so many things Breaking Bad did that Dexter probably should have done for the general consensus not to be that the show fell off. So let's get some perspective on the shows, now 2 years after they both ended - where things went right, where things went wrong.
From a purely visceral level, I will never be able to say Breaking Bad was better than Dexter. I had an emotional connection to the show and the character's that just didn't happen with BB. It's like the difference between watching the Knicks win a championship versus the Jets - I'm a fan of both, I follow both, I enjoy them when they're successful, but I could happily live life without a Jets SB win - I wouldn't be able to say the same about the Knicks.
I WILL say, however, that BB was much smarter (might even say safer) with their overall approach to the show. BB at its core had a main character that was down on his luck, hated so many aspects of his life and allowed the one success of his life to be his downfall and made him a monster. Dexter was a monster, constantly striving to become human. Both were stories seeking redemption, but from two very different places in life. Keeping the timeline of the show so limited allowed for a much more simplified approach in that everything mattered because everything tied together. Dexter, on the other hand, became an overly complicated clusterfukk that would have benefited from that simplicity in that ultimately, as a fan of both shows, everyone wanted to see/know if he would get caught and what the consequence of that would be. BB had real consequences for WW's actions and he didn't skate by unrealistically like Dexter did for much of the show which I liked, while evolving WW from woe is me victim to callous monster.
Dexter evolved as well, but by the end, the player's in his evolution that mattered were all gone, leaving what I considered to be a very fitting, but also very underwhelming end. that was nowhere what it should have been because of the lead-up. Imagine if Rita was still alive, aware of Dexter's secret due to Trinity, them breaking the Big Bad formula and Dexter having to confront that exposure. Imagine if somehow they reconciled, but ultimately, we still got Lumberjack Dexter after he almost had his humanity back, versus the shyt with Hannah falling on its face. They opened the floodgates for so much that I think they ultimately oversaturated what could have been a much simpler story for such a complex character.
I'm not 100% on my goal in making this thread, outside of really putting together my thoughts on the two shows and seeing how other's feel about the show, but more than anything, I'm a little jealous to be honest. BB really kept it simple and stayed true to the core of the story and rarely felt like it had filler episodes and really worked within the confines of the character the show was built around. Dexter blew their wad early and just got so convoluted at times that it took away from the confines and while the stories all logically made sense, they didn't resonate because they all seemed rushed together at the end. Seasons 1-4 were the best because they were all built from each other. 5-8 could almost all operate independent of each other, with 7 being the best of them solely because it was built off the last bullet in the chamber they had in their season 6 finale. With all the potential, there was no way it should go down as lesser than BB.
IDK ya'll, I'm ranting and it's 1AM. If this is still front page by the AM, good looks. Just my thoughts.