Why would anyone other than Lindsay do this?
I get why Lindsay was doing this. She's seen as unreliable and uninsurable. Nobody wants to have a full union cast and crew waiting around, burning money while she oversleeps until two in the afternoon, and nobody wants to shut down production because she has to go to…

Still pretty good
S 14 had Scrotie McBoogerballs and Medicinal Fried Chicken, which were awesome. Crippled Summer was pretty hilarious as well. I agree with Sean's assessment that "Coon and Friends" wasn't worth half the run, but the Cthulhu/Totoro stuff was funny, and the Mintberry Crunch payoff was hilarious. …

harsh
any episode where Randy or Cartman sings a song should get an automatic B.

Maria Laguerta death watch
There's no way to pay off this long running story without killing characters who have been around a long time. I'm calling it now: Maria doesn't make it out of the season alive.

I'd put Bored To Death above Dexter as well, and Californication. I would put Dexter neck-and-neck with Castle at this point.

Premium cable justifies its subscription fees by original programming. Showtime's monthly fee is about the same as a 1-at-a-time Netflix plan with unlimited streaming access. Dexter can't just be a show like CSI that people watch because it's on; Dexter has to justify the existence of Showtime. And this season, it…

I think some viewers' desire to see Dexter become a spree killer stems from frustration that the show is spinning its wheels. With no endgame to move toward, the show is in a holding pattern, and the potential game-changer of Rita's death turned out to be just house-cleaning. Astor and Cody and the emotional…

Actually, now that I think about it, there's another way this plot could end up: Robocop tries to rape Lumen, and she kills him. Then Dexter has to kill Quinn to cover it up.

The gun is an example to demonstrate a rule, and the rule is that you don't introduce an element with no narrative purpose. You don't set something up if it has no payoff.

Possible endings for Lumen:

Also, it would be nice if some of Lumen's hair turns up in Boyd's book, and Dexter has to explain to Deb why Lumen is living in Rita's house. I wouldn't mind Dexter having to explain that to Rita's kids, either.

Dexter would be better if they cut it to six or eight episodes a season
I read an interview with Jonathan Ames, and he said that writing for "Bored To Death" has taught him a lot of things about narrative efficiency, which television demands. "Dexter" by contrast, has gotten incredibly slack.

Carvel black card
The Kenneth/Jenna plotline is extra funny, because Lindsay Lohan actually got a "free ice cream for life" card from Carvel, and then they revoked it because they felt her mother was abusing the privilege.

He didn't sneak pills into the jelly beans
He recorded the line himself and dubbed it over video of Tracy chewing the jellybeans. That's the way they made the horse talk on Mr. Ed.

This season is kind of a catastrophe
Quinn's random suspicion that Dexter is Kyle Butler spent weeks slow-boiling to anti-climax. This plot thread ends with either Quinn's little Dexter investigation going nowhere, or Quinn dead. As a viewer who is aggressively indifferent between these outcomes, the suspense is…

I hope this show is about…
…characters who keep killing each other and coming back to life in increasingly implausible ways.