Ranking All 8 Seasons Of Dexter

8. Season 8

It has to be, right? Seriously? What was this? Even in weaker seasons the show had been entertaining to watch, but season eight never seems to build up any steam. Charlotte Rampling joins the cast as an old psychiatrist friend of Harry’s and is promptly crowbarred into Dexter’s backstory. This late-in-the-game addition to the mythos never quite fit and didn’t prove as intriguing as the writers clearly hoped. The so called “Brain Surgeon” proved to be an unfulfilling antagonist for the season (to be fair, didn’t they all lack in comparison to Trinity?) and what resulted was a series of uninteresting encounters and a multitude of missteps.

This is all wrapped up in a finale that sees the unwarranted death of Deborah Morgan, which came across as less shocking and more mean-spirited, as if the writers were trying to spite the fans. Dexter, who has supposedly grown so much as a character in the previous eight seasons, eschews all of his development to return to his old self, seeking isolation in the forested wilderness and leaving his young son with another deranged sociopath. But sure, you did that because you cared about him, right Dex?