It isn't inherently stupid obviously. But even "great" shows like BB are no better written than, say, a Stephen King novel. Television has to appeal to mass uneducated audiences to survive. That makes it virtually impossible for a TV show to hold itself to high-brow aesthetic standards.

Please. A lot of (barely) 15 year old guys are virgins. The point of the name is that it's silly and funny.

Joshua has become a deluded hater of Dexter. Of course this episode was cheesy and pulpy; remember the show we're watching and the medium (remember: *television*, sophisticate) we're watching it on. I simply am baffled at the view that this is an F on a curve where average TV drama is a C.

I mean from the police's perspective, Doakes had a clear incentive to commit suicide. Dexter wasn't even there, so he certainly would've had a concrete alibi.

The "peanut gallery" here is as immersed in group-think as Dexter's YouTube fans. For instance, 5 people like a commentator for using the word "retarded" as an insult.

Satire is a genre of film and literature. Is "comedy" also by definition funny?

Exploded for no reason? He (Doakes) was deemed by an FBI investigation to be a serial killer and was thus the subject of a manhunt, the end result of which would've been life in prison or the chair. Given this, you really think there was no plausible motive for suicide?

I love it when people reply to criticism by saying they're not going to reply.

They probably wouldn't, given their prior characterization. Suspecting a member of his "family" is so out of character for Batista that he'd just deny the possibility barring a smoking gun — which I expect he'll receive with the bodies washing up after the storm in E12. Ditto for Matthews, who loves the Morgan family.…

It seems like AV Club users automatically deem long and elaborate satirical posts as witty. None of this was remotely funny or even well-phrased.

Is it really unreasonable to think that Miami Metro detectives who — stupidly or not — think of Dexter as family, will believe his (and Deb's) word over that of an exposed mass-murderer?

This is a good example of how people are overstating and even imagining plot holes in Dexter. Saxon got the gun after Dexter left (he took it from the Marshall he stabbed). The Marshall entered the building before Deb left out the opposite way.

Television generally is full of plot holes (See "House" or "Downton Abbey" for examples even more egregious than Dexter). It's an unfortunate product of generally lower standards than film and the difficulty in reconciling logical consistency with the demands of producing a fresh and commercially successful show over…

One thing I don't buy at all is that this season negates Seasons 1-4 (and arguably 5 and 7) of Dexter. Those seasons constitute dozens of hours of entertaining, compelling, superbly-acted and well-scripted television. Saying they are now worthless because of Season 8 just proves that people are fickle and have a short…

What's maddening about Dexter is that it would always be so easy for the creators to go where they want to go without being totally contrived and unbelievable.

Here is how the 'worst show ever' "movement" emerged: A few years ago, fat loser virgins such as myself screamed "Breaking Bad" while other fat loser virgins screamed "Dexter." Both shows were critically acclaimed at the time.

I have to admit that the trolls here are not only very funny but remarkably incisive (as of course was Joshua's review). But I do think, owing in part to a totally wrongheaded comparison with Breaking Bad (and also due to annoyance with the throngs of idiot co-workers who regularly proclaim — over morning doughnuts,…