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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Michael C. Hall On A More "Paranoid" and "Manipulative" Dexter In Season 7

New interview with Michael C. Hall, on cinemablend.com: With Dexter entering its seventh season on Sunday, September 30th at 9pm EST, we’re all left wondering, can our favorite serial killer really pull it off again? The show’s core idea, a guy addicted to killing but only murdering bad guys, is certainly on the high concept side and when you’ve got a high concept, it’s far more susceptible to running dry.

However, if you caught the grand finale of Season 6, you know that a whole new door has been opened, a door that’ll likely welcome more conflict, new relationships and, of course, a new adversary for Dexter. While promoting his upcoming feature release, The Trouble with Bliss, Dexter himself, Michael C. Hall dedicated some time to discussing his perspective on the character, touching on what he’s looking forward to exploring in the new season.
“I think it’s good that the writers have found a new way to really turn up the heat on the character and force him into situations that he’s going to have to use his wits to fight his way out of.” Hall added, “And the newest development is sort of unprecedented in its complexity; it’s a real mess.” Hit the jump below to read more...



Clearly with that “newest development” will come many lifestyle changes for Dexter, and that’s something Hall is excited to dive right into...
“I’m interested in exploring a Dexter who is even more, for necessary reasons, wary, even paranoid, managing relationships in a more meticulous way in terms of what he does or doesn’t say or what he does to move people in directions that are advantageous to him.”

You think Dexter’s been devious in the past? Hall suspects he’ll grow to become even more calculating in the future...
“I think he’s going to have to be more consciously manipulative in a way. And those are all things that he’s been in varying degrees, but not to the degree that I think he’ll be required to be now.”

The “newest development” will likely be a major player in round seven, but a new season also means a new villain and while Dexter’s entire list of adversaries has been particularly successful, it’s Trinity who’s unforgettable. So, can the show writers possibly top John Lithgow’s infamous killer in the upcoming season? “Not in that sense,” Hall began...
“Other people who were adversaries for Dexter had their list of dark characteristics, but Trinity was the most prolific serial killer up to that point in the history of the world.”

While he mentioned that that scenario cannot be done again, he joked, “It’d be interesting if we did some sort of face off in another realm of all the big bads over the course of the seasons. I don’t think that would ever happen, but if we did, I have a feeling that Trinity would come out on top.”

31 comments:

  1. Dexter becomes Walter. :P

    Bring on S7!

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  2. Yea, please let's not go down that road. Dexter is interesting, even though he is messed up there is something heroic about him.

    Walter is a L O S E R... "I've had some hard times, I am sick, so... instead of manning up I am going to fuck over the rest of society and hurt everyone else who is struggling to get by on my way out."

    Yea, when you watch Dexter you hope that some day he might find peace. With Walter you just want the fucker to burn in hell after someone caps him. Especially if you are a person who HAS actually been sick or survived cancer and had to go through the shit and you have still manned up and carried on and done the right thing.

    Walter is so pathetic he makes Tony Soprano seem like Ned Stark and Dexter seem like Jesus!

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    1. Heroic? Clearly you haven't been watching S6. Dexter is anything BUT heroic. He's quite the opposite, actually. That's why they introduced the Deb-loves-Dex subplot so late in the game. She's supposed to be his salvation because his constant cat-and-mouse games with other killers are SERIOUSLY messing him up. Dexter puts his faith in his 'Dark Passenger', even though he has Harrison and Deb around him; Brother Sam said that if you put your faith in the wrong thing, it would fuck you up. Parallel, anyone? Dexter is no hero. AT ALL.

      And I'm pretty sure that first guy meant that as a joke, rather than to start a BrBa/Dex war.

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    2. yeah!!! also breaking bad is like ten times better than last season of dexter so there´s that....

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    3. And that's the one thing I DON'T like about Dexter in the last few seasons, he is getting "less heroic", not that he's ever been a real hero, but at least he was targeting bad guys and he "meant well".

      And I am so tired of people talking about that show on Dex forums. Trying to make Dexter into THAT show. It's NOT better than Dexter, it's not even close.

      It's about a meth dealer - having had to deal with meth addicts (the biggest fucking losers on the planet) the past few years, I pretty much would like to pour gasoline on anything to do with meth and burn it all down - meth dealers and tweakers are the second most vile thing in society, they are only people that are worse are pedophiles, and I wouldn't watch a show about a pedophile, no matter how "exciting" the plot.

      I don't watch shows so I can hate the main character, there has to be something redeeming in them. There is in Dexter, that's why I signed on.

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    4. dude are u even watching Dexter? He is now much more "heroic" than he used to be...in the first seasons he was a much darker and more complicated character....now he is basically just a guy with a strange hobby. also and i feel like i MIGHT have mentioned it once or twice before,while I like Dexter quite a lot (with the exception of horrible 6th season) Breaking Bad is really better on EVERY level.

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    5. Watch S6 again. Specifically that Travis kill scene. Not a hero there. He doesn't even put up the pictures of the people Travis has killed... he's not as conflicted as he was in earlier seasons, he's hit an all-time low. Hence the reason why they introduced some of the subplots they did last season

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  3. Anon at 4:08 Yes, absolutely, you are dead on right. Thank god someone understands the show.

    Dieselguy - You have no idea what you are talking about on "any" level. Dexter was absolutely uncomplicated in the first season. He was a simple happy sociopath following the Harry Code to the letter. Since he has started to gain emotions, he has gone down the rabbit hole, at one point almost going to the dark side in episode 7. The fact that you hate S6 so much is probably tied to the fact that you have no concept of what was happening, how Dexter is losing his faith in everything and giving into the dark passenger. You don't see the memes of the show in metaphors, you don't look past anything but the surface plot. You sound like someone who is just looking for cops, robbers, thrills, chases, and cool plot twists. The show is more grown up than that, it always has been.

    It's like this, there are two types of viewers:

    If you were to sit down and watch Full Metal Jacket or Platoon, there would be quite a few people that would like Platoon better, and say that the "plot was tighter" and it was "better on every level".

    If you were to sit those same people down to watch a WW2 flick. Say, "Saving Private Ryan" as opposed to "The Thin Red Line" many people would prefer Saving Private Ryan and say that it was a superior movie - they would say that The Thin Red Line made no sense to them. There is a reason for that. Mallick does not make movies so post teen boys can say "coooool man, that kicked ass!"

    For the rest of us, who look deeper than the plot, we would understand the psychological and spiritual stuff that's going on in FMJ and TRL more than we would appreciate the mainline stuff that's meant to be "cool" and easily digestible for the masses.

    Dexter is harder to decipher, the plots are nothing more than vehicles for the metaphors going on in the show. It's definitely a psychological playground.

    The fact that half the audience never understood the main love story of the show until they had to get beat over the head with it at the end of season 6, is proof that Dexter goes over the heads of many of its viewers. Dexter is not 'tight' it's loose and fluid, it's a dreamlike state of a show that has more to do with what is not being told in the plot, than in the plot itself.

    There's really never been a show like it - it even goes further than Six Feet Under, further than Soprano's when it comes to the metaphors. It's part satire, it's part comedy, it's part horror, it's party police procedural, it's part superhero comic, it's part detective thriller, it's part family drama, and it's part romance.

    It's the most unique show in television history. If that other show is more your speed, fine, but don't come here talking about how much better your other thing is when you don't even understand this thing.

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  4. im fans of both Breaking Bad and Dexter....and comparing the two shows is ridiculous, because they are two completely different shows...both amazing in their own ways

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  5. dexter is a most unique show in television history??? oh please...i mean i love the show, but let´s face it, its just a procedural with a clever twist....

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  6. Dieselguy, you just described The Mentalist, not Dexter.

    It's obvious to me that you are just flinging boogers like a child. You can't offer the discussion anything other than a surface level B.S. - you have no case to state - you don't even try. You haven't even said anything other than "my show is better on every level" yet your levels are all empty air. It's all just posturing.

    I don't understand this constant need for fans of Breaking Bad to flock to Dexter blogs and Dexter forums across the net and tell us how Dexter should be more like Breaking Bad. It's gotten so out of control on the Showtime forums that the moderators have let the Breaking Bad crowd completely take over. If I like another show, (I currently watch Game of Thrones, Fringe, and Madmen) I don't go to that show's forums and discuss how that show should be more like Dexter.

    As far as Breaking Bad, I am never going to like it because of mitigating factors. This has nothing to do with how it is written, or the quality of the directing, other than to say that I generally like shows with an R rating that air on Showtime and HBO over the semi-network stuff that airs on AMC - I often find myself wishing that Madmen was on Showtime instead of HBO, just because they wouldn't be tied down by censorship.

    Of all things I hate the most, censorship is one of them.

    The idea that we might lose this Dex/Deb storyline that has been set up for six years, because of moral outrage and an attempt to impose censorship by outside clicks of entertainment bloggers (like E or Salon) and certain groups of moral watchdogs, just ticks me off. Imposing outside morality and altering your art appease someone who might be offended by the story you were going to tell is the DEATH OF ART. And more and more it does appear that Showtime is losing their spine and backing off to the pressure despite the fact that they promised they would not.

    I hate that the show I invested in all these years is constantly being bombarded by opinionated jerks who rip on the writers and producers and want to transform it into something else. I don't want the same old same old, I don't want Dexter to be like Breaking Bad in ANY way shape or form.

    In the past few months, instead of being able to have discussions with Dexter fans about what we loved about Season 6, it's been nothing but taking crap from fans who have come from another show to rip on this one. Worse, as you can tell from all these polls, it's a vocal MINORITY that is dictating all of this negativity.

    I am tired of it, fed up, and worst of all, sick of dealing with mindless parrots who have no rhyme or reason behind their constant ignorant and empty yipping.

    If I don't like the direction of a show, I go away and I shut my yap. I stopped watching and discussing Lost after season 3, and I am better off for it. For all those fans that stuck it out and actually enjoyed the final seasons, GOOD FOR THEM. They didn't need my negative viewpoints on the show to ruin it for them, because when you love something and someone else doesn't - it's shitty behavior to force the person who likes something to listen to your negative crap.

    I've gone through this so many times, it reminds me of every so called Radiohead fan who was not happy that every album after OK Computer was not OK Computer - they moved on, either move on with them or go away, stop bitching or telling us that Radiohead should sound like Coldplay. UGH, it's just stupid.

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    1. One thing you have to admit, however, is that, for the most part, BrBa has smarter fans than Dexter. It's a less widely appealing premise so it attracts more of a niche following than Dex has; included in that are smarter fans. The reason why people have such a hard time grasping Deb/Dex? Because they aren't smart fans and started watching the show to live vicariously through a serial killer and were blind to practically everything else in the show. A smarter following is the reason why there has been less continual bitching about BrBa than there has about Dexter. We just have dumb fans who want to see Dexter kill some bitchez rather than actually develop as a character.

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    2. Nah, Anon at 10:21, the biggest Breaking Bad fans - people like Dexapprentice, Dieselguy, Anna B, or whatever her name is, and so on - and whoever posts here on whatever name they have, did not see it coming at all.

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    3. Well, most of the people I know personally, who understand film, and are BrBa fans that I introduced to Dexter caught onto the incest-y vibe at least by 'Shrink Wrap', if not earlier. Most of the people I see online watch Dexter because they want to see him kill people, rather than develop as a person. They'd be totally fine if Dexter had no personal connections at all--if he didn't have Deb, or Rita (in the books, at least), or Harrison/Lily-Anne, or any of his 'friendships'--and just killed. In fact, I think a lot of them would've preferred Dex killed Deb and run off with Brian. They'd prefer a dumbed-down show than nuanced, psychological characters.

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  7. Anon at 4:06

    Sadly you are right. There are some great posters out there on this subject, a few different Z whatever's, that vileangel person, the one girl who makes the awesome Dexter vids. I can't remember all their names but they are generally so positive and excited about the show.

    But that crowd completely controls Showtimes Dexter forums, and they are trying to dictate policy on the show from a bully pulpit, even going so far as to cry out for producers and writers to be fired for putting this storyline in.

    If this show was on HBO it would all be laughable. I remember listening to David Chase talking about his creative process on Sopranos as opposed to critics and fan bloggers and how ridiculous appeasement is, but Showtime is the little brother. Sometimes they don't seem to have the same balls as HBO when it comes to sticking with what brought them here. In fact season 6 seemed to start as some sort of "appeasement" to whining fans who wanted the "old murderous Dexter" rather than a continuation of the story.

    The worst part of it is, that bulk of these negative whiners and kill crazies are predominantly young singles (mostly male) between late teens to late twenty's who have little spending power and usually illegally download stuff on torrent anyway. Sometimes the most vocal contingent of fans is not necessarily reflective of the audience at large. Especially in this case. I know about a dozen people in real life who are really into Dexter and every single one of them is 40+ years old, in fact, 5 of them are 60 years old or older, and all of them have always believed that Deb has a thing for him.

    One of these people got me into the show, and since then I have gotten another dozen friends addicted to Dexter. Crap, I think between the blue rays and dvd sets I have bought, and they have bought, it's a small fortune!

    Now the big question is this: Will Scott Buck try to appease the fans who asked for his head on a spike? Will the producers of the show "drop" this storyline as so many of these idiots are suggesting they do? We will find out.

    If they do, it is the death knell for this show and for the Showtime network. They will be in the same situation NBC was in, where they had a show called Chuck - fans got mad about X storyline, the writers/producers got scared and tried to appease said fans, and then the quality of the show and the ratings went into an all out freefall. By the time it reached the series finale, the whole thing was a running joke and the show's legacy was destroyed forever because all consistency is lost.

    When you appease you lose your vision as an artist. You gotta stay true to your initial instincts, always, even if it makes you and your audience uncomfortable.

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    1. The problem is that if they appease the 'Hell no!' crowd, they also make S6, which was already pointless in the eyes of those chuckleheads, even more meaningless. The producers definitely moved towards a creative endgame with Dexter and his desire to connect with a person who is not forced to love him. If they drop the storyline, Dexter will certainly lose the ratings it garnered for 'Sin of Omission' and 'This is the way the World Ends', and the S7 will suffer from needless backtracking and sweeping it under the rug because Deb saw Dex kill Travis would be such a horrible copout--it'd completely fuck up next season! But they don't think ahead, it's all about the now for them. Going back would kill the first half of next season, and I'm willing to bet that if the vocal haters tried it, they might like it.

      Sorry, I pay for Showtime, and the people who torrent it and bitch about tension that has been brewing from the beginning of the series should have no say. But, it doesn't matter. If Dexter has any true devotion to its art, then it will keep the storyline. If the producers feel that this was never meant to fully develop and dropped the storyline with some class, then more power to them. But if they drop it for the sake of appeasement, then BrBa fans ARE right, Dexter HAS lost its edge. And that's worse than anything, really.

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    2. Anon at 5:25

      Yes, I agree with everything you say. I am going into this season absolutely terrified as a result. I've invested several thousand dollars into DVD's, Blue Rays, subscripts, et. for this damn show because I love it so much. So far they've never "undone" anything that they've done, and they've followed through on all the little details they put into the show.

      And let's face it, every serious fan who has a brain saw the "Gellar as Dark Passenger" coming from a mile away, and "Ice Truck Killer is Dexter's older brother/real father" coming from a mile away, and every serious fan with a brain saw the "not incest" storyline coming from ten miles away. It's not a shock if you know your literature and your cinema.

      But what happens to a show when a portion of your fanbase is vocal AND illiterate? Do you dumb your show down to fit them in? Do you throw away your story and your art and the way the show is perceived ten years from now to appease big mouths?

      Like I said. I am terrified.

      I've gotten involved in about five shows that had a highly critical portion of the fanbase. In only two of those shows did the producers/writers stay true to their original vision: Soprano's and BSG. Yes, they got crap for it, but now they are both looking pretty. The legacy is intact and growing strong. :)

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    3. From what I have heard Scott Buck say in interviews, I DO NOT think he is the kind of showrunner that will do or will not do xyz to please fans. He has said himself, if he were to do x for these fans, then other fans would hate it and vice versa. He is going to go where the story takes him. Period. And I just can't get over how idiotic some people are that are so outraged by the Deb/Dex love story thing. I mean really? On a show that has shown mutilated, chopped up bodies, blood galore, sex, all kinds of gruesome shit, and it's the idea of two people getting together that are not even blood related that is crossing a line? Really? That's just moronic. And imo, I say if you haven't seen that storyline coming for a long time now, then you are not a real fan of the show, and should just move on, because it's been obvious to most of us dexperts for a while now. Like from episode 1 season 1. HELLO!!!! No, I am not worried at all. Scott Buck is going to do what he and the writers and other executive producers feel is the right thing, and it won't be based off of what a portion of the fanbase thinks should happen.

      Sincerely,

      Not worried at all

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    4. Amen, brother!

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    5. JessieJames - You have renewed my faith! LOL

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  8. It's a stupid conversation period to compare Breaking Bad and DEXTER. They share similarities, but are also very different. Not everyone will like BB that like DEXTER, and vice versa. I enjoy both shows, and I think BB is more consistently good. The thing is, is that DEXTER is going into it's seventh season and they have produced 72 episodes so far. Breaking Bad is only going into their fifth and final season and the series will consist of 62 episodes when it is complete. When DEXTER is over it will have at least 96 episodes. It's quality over quantity with Breaking Bad, but that's not to say DEXTER is crap now, like some people seem to think it is. I'm just not as excited about DEXTER as I used to be, but I sure as hell keep watching, because I am so invested in the character.

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    1. Nicholas:

      The worst thing about it for me, is that I had only seen just a few episodes of Breaking Bad, and I was really looking forward to checking it out. But now, it's possible that the show is ruined for me for all time because of the BB fans that constantly ripped on what I love and tried to proselytize their show.

      It's like with Christianity, maybe some agnostics or even atheists might actually feel like going to church on an occasion - or would be more sympathetic to that belief, if folks weren't out there beating on them with a Bible and screaming, REPENT YE NOW OR OFF TO HELL! Believe or suffer eternal torment!

      I mean, really. Talk about the biggest turn off in the world. Spit on me, tell me your thing is better, then expect me to agree with you. Um, no thanks.

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    2. And why aren't fans ever allowed to give the show any criticism? The writers and producers are professionals. I think they can handle it. They probably don't even pay attention to the positive comments, either. If you follow the negative or the positive, you are basically screwing yourself. Anyway, I think we can all agree that the changes in writers and showrunners has (understandably) affected the show, to some degree, these past two years. Hopefully with Scott Buck remaining in the position of showrunner, the series will become more consistent again.

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    3. Yeah, I can understand being turned off of BB when the fans keep telling you how much better it is. You do nothing but sit there and wait and wait and wait for something to happen that will justify those comments. I can't say which show is better, because I think they are equally good.

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    4. LOL, yea, I wish I could get a brain scrub so I could go into BB with an open mind and enjoy it.

      It's why I never push something on someone who doesn't get down with it right away. If I see no interest, I back away. Nothing worse than being force fed.

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  9. Nicholas:

    There is criticism, and then there is beyond the pale. I have criticism for the past few seasons of Dexter (actually I have had a criticism from season 2 on) but the lengths certain people are take it too is ridiculous. Running down actors that participate in the show, delving into their personal lives and spreading rumors, pretending to speak for the majority of the fanbase and asking for show-runners to be fired over storylines you didn't like is completely preposterous. These people are despicable in every sense of the word.

    For example. If Showtime were to appease these fans, and rewrite the show to fit what some critic on Salon.com said, then you would not see me posting here. I'd just realize that the show was dead. I would grieve, cancel my subscription, my DVD's purchases and then move on. The only thing that really matters are the numbers.

    Most fans who walk away from a show, do so silently, not vocally.

    Season 5 of Dexter, ratings dropped after an extremely successful season 4 and a big debut.

    Season 6 had a good punch out of the gate, lost some steam in the ratings, but then soared as soon as the Deb/Dex thing started coming to light. The more people bitched on the internet, the higher the ratings vaulted. It was the people that were interested in what was going on that pushed those ratings up, not the internet complainers.

    This is why shows get cancelled - it's always the silent majority that dictates a show's legacy. Not the internet ranters. Again, Chuck is the shining example of that. The more the hard core complainers and militant internet fans were happy, the lower the ratings plunged. Recently the president of NBC pointed that out in a semi-rant. NBC actually put stock into what these bloggers were saying and they got burned BIG TIME.

    You write your story and you shoot your show and you do everything well, and the fans will come, even increase. If you allow X segment of fans to shape your show, then Y segment will fall away. Usually the angriest, most militant, and insistent segment is the minority segment. When you appease those people, you fall into trouble. I've seen it time and time again.

    It's one of the problems with this whole internet/technology thing. I've learned, in my profession, never to pay too close attention to the comments I get. Instead, I watch my sales numbers. If sales are up and people are bitching in comments, I am good. If sales are down and people are happy... not good. If sales are down and people are bitching... definitely not good!


    Which is why I am generally applauding the things I like in a show, and fairly quiet with my criticism.

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    1. I agree with almost everything you said but I have to correct you about season 5 of Dexter. Season 5 was the highest overall rated season of Dexter until season 6 beat it. Season 4 episode 12 had the highest rating for any episode, but overall season 5' ratings were higher. And you could NOT be more right about Chuck. NBC really screwed the pooch with Chuck, but I seriously do not think Scott Buck/Showtime will make that same mistake with Dexter. Buck has already said that he can not and will not let fan reaction shape the path the show takes. And I for one believe him.

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  10. Personally, I enjoy watching Dexter. It is one of the greatest shows. I think Dexter has grown as a person over the years. He had finally got emotions for some one. In the first few seasons, he was just a person who killed. Now he is one man with a son who does what he has to do along with his hobby on the side.

    If you have a comment about another show, please don't share it on here, especially if it does not have to do with Dexter. No one wants to hear a couple of grown ups arguing over the 'best' TV-shows!

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  11. I used to watch a lot of tv shows....until i came across Dexter. I let down all the other shows and i only wanted to watch Dexter.

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