Showtime president Gary Levin admits the original Dexter series finale wasn’t good enough for a show of its caliber. Later this year, the acclaimed drama Dexter will return for what is essentially season 9, a revival of the series that came to an end back in 2013. Michael C. Hall has returned to play Dexter Morgan, the forensic technician who moonlights as a serial killer. Titled Dexter: New Blood, the series will pick up with him years after the finale, after he’s begun living under a new name in the fictional small town of Iron Lake.
The news of Dexter‘s return came as a relief for fans who were let down by the season 8 finale. Though some might say that the show’s quality was already on the decline, the final episode of the original series, “Remember the Monsters?”, quickly tarnished Dexter‘s legacy. In addition to killing off Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), Dexter opted to fake his own death and leave his young son in the care of his girlfriend Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski). The original Dexter series finale concluded with him living as a lumberjack all by himself, a decision that baffled fans.
As part of an EW feature on Dexter: New Blood, Levin, Showtime’s president of entertainment, looked back on the legacy of the original series. Dexter was one of the shows to help define the premium cable network’s brand. As a result, the series finale has always bothered Levin, who admitted it “gnawed a little at us that a series as good as Dexter didn’t end in a way that was perhaps worthy of the series.” Whether that feeling came even before the finale aired isn’t clear, but it’s evidently long been a source of disappointment.
Television fans know all too well how a bad series finale can ruin a show’s reputation forever. Just look to recent examples like Game of Thrones and How I Met Your Mother for shows that are now living in the shadow of a poorly-received ending. Dexter: New Blood can give Hall and original series creator Clyde Phillips (who had left the show after season 4) the chance to rehabilitate the drama’s image. While it perhaps can’t ignore all of the events of the season 8 finale, it can give Dexter a more fitting end.
There are already signs that Dexter: New Blood is taking steps to fix the mistakes of the finale. For one thing, Carpenter will be returning as a form of Deb, this time as Dexter’s Dark Passenger. And while Dexter has seemingly settled into that quiet life he began in the season 8 finale, it won’t be long before he’s tempted to go back to killing. The emergence of a new villain, played by Clancy Brown, will surely aid with that. Dexter didn’t get the ending it deserved in 2013, but it can get a much better sendoff now. Here’s hoping it does.
