‘Dexter’ finale: Fans unhappy with how it all ended

One week before the finale of “Breaking Bad,” fans of tough and dark cable dramas are grappling with the idea that a beloved series could really have one stinker of a finale. The series: “Dexter,” which aired its final episode on Sunday night. The reaction? Not good.

If you haven’t watched the final episode, beware. Spoilers are lurking in here.

At the conclusion of the Showtime show’s eight-season run, cop/serial killer Dexter (Michael C. Hall) took his foster sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) off life support after a blood clot caused her to suffer a stroke. He took her body out to open sea on his boat to dump it, and then, in an apparent suicide attempt, steered his vessel into an approaching hurricane.

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But he didn’t die. Against all odds, the killer somehow survived and managed to relocate far from Miami to the woods, where he was employed as a lumberjack and living a new life.

That ending, according to most fans of the series, just didn’t cut it.

Culture critic Ken Tucker looked back fondly to Season 4, which featured a much-praised arc featuring John Lithgow as the Trinity Killer. Tucker’s short response to the finale? “Finale of #Dexter reminded me how mediocre its source material was; how the “Dark Passenger” crap steadily overtook show. Viva John Lithgow.”

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Horror website Shock Till You Drop’s managing editor Ryan Turek also looked back fondly to “Dexter’s” Lithgow days, writing, “That #Dexter finale was for real? Yikes. No. I’ll forget everything post-Lithgow existed.”

Tallahassee, Fla., resident Joe P. Clements hated the final twist, writing, “Oh Hey, I’m a lumberjack! Oh cool, thanks for wasting 5 years on my life. #dexter #showtime.”

Another fan, Ryan Glenn, expressed his displeasure in faux realtime, writing, “The only way the end of #dexter could have been worse, would be if they made him a lumberjack... Wait... Crap.”

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Wrestling fan Chris Bujun wrote, “the series finale of #Dexter was so disappointing ... i can’t believe a show that started so well could end so stupidly.”

And fan Bethany Coulter wrote, “#dexter officially the worst ending to what was a really great show. So disappointing.”

But fan “Kiss My Sass” wrote what was probably the most disturbing reaction, which at least kept in the spirit of the show’s lethal leading man. “Plotting the murder of every #Dexter writer who contributed to that series finale because I want it rewritten... IN THEIR BLOOD.”

Perhaps the plot of “Dexter” Season 9 on Netflix? Doubtful.

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