If by "post hoc rationalization" you mean that I was only able to elucidate my enjoyment after watching more than a few episodes you would not only be correct but merely restating what I had just spent two paragraphs describing.

To me Season 4 was more like the start of "Arrested Development 2."  It took me a while to get spun up on the new running gags but I settled in a lot quicker than I did with the original run.  I didn't really LOVE Arrested Development until early in season 2 .. which is the amount of time it took me to get spun up on…

The term "clockwork universe" calls up a particular image in my mind but not one that I find particularly helpful when attempting to analyze a story be it film or book or tv because of the confusing nature of the criticism.  It doesn't seem very well defined, and despite the fact that I can get an outline for the idea…

"If that person enjoys killing, he's going to enjoy killing…"

"He’s got tears in his eyes, and he has to take off his glasses and just collect himself, and it felt like he was so saddened and sickened by the taking of a life and imagining doing it with his own hands that you couldn’t help but feel how detrimental that was to his psyche. How upsetting that was."

I got the complete opposite impression and felt this was one of this season's strongest episodes.  Starting with Debra fantasizing about killing Dexter and ending with her acting to save him when all she had to do for him to die was not risk her own life?  She was faced with the real consequences of Dexter dying and…

"…their positions if they do so may be dramatically changed, which makes the cliffhangers more exciting than annoying."