Whatcha Bleedin' Watchin'?

[Dr. Insomniac]

The most ironic part of last week's Curb was Seth Rogen of all people trying to teach Larry to be likable.

[Avaitor]

I enjoyed this week's Sunny episodes more, I wasn't sure about the former, since it seemed like it would be full of easy shots at the 90's, and that's not too far removed from what happened. And I'm also not sure if I buy Dee having a nice phase, especially when she should just be getting over her aluminum monster phase. But it was classic Sunny otherwise, and had me laugh a lot. I especially like how Dennis started off as Cousin Greg, following Frank's every step in the business.

The second was just a lot of fun. Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing more of Dee being an acting teacher, that had serious potential to be fun.

[Peanutbutter]

Didn't we have a thread on Cobra Kai? Could have sworn we did.

[Avaitor]

I don't think so.

But ugh, need to see season 4. Really hoping I don't get spoiled.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm continually surprised by how the show manages to keep the story going without feeling dragged out and still managing to balance between giving you what you expect while doing it in an unexpected way. It still feels fresh after four seasons and still makes me want to see more. Granted, I do think that they should wrap things up with the next season, but I'm definitely here for it.

[Avaitor]

Just one question- do they set up for Hillary Swank next season? I have a feeling that they want to bring her in before wrapping things up.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

If they did, I missed it. I'm sure they want to bring her in but I'm supposing they couldn't get her on-board. I feel like they would have already done it by now if they could.

After how good Terry Silver was in this season, though, I'm hoping that they can at least get Mike Barnes's actor back to complete that arc from The Karate Kid Part III.

[Peanutbutter]

I won't go deep into Season Four yet as others haven't watched it. What I'll say is I can see them bringing in Barnes in, as that's probably the only way of justifying a sixth season if there is one. Barring him getting a surprise teaser I have a feeling he won't show up until late into Season Five.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Dexter New Blood was a surprisingly good revival of the show... for the first 9 episodes. Then the finale happens, which in a way, was dumber than the original finale. Obviously nothing as bad as "Debra suddenly going brain dead from a stomach wound" or the Lumberjack ending, but it's up there.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Dexter New Blood was a surprisingly good revival of the show... for the first 9 episodes. Then the finale happens, which in a way, was dumber than the original finale. Obviously nothing as bad as "Debra suddenly going brain dead from a stomach wound" or the Lumberjack ending, but it's up there.

It's funny, because on the one hand, I'm on board with what they were thematically trying to do with this ending. Part of many people's problems with the original finale was Dexter got off scott free but also mircaulously survives a fucking hurricane and then changes his identity and decides to abandon his psychopath ways because....(and that's about as much thought as the writers put into it).

Having Dexter be caught, essentially made to confront the fact that he is just as much of a deranged psychopath as almost everyone he's ever killed, and essentially meet his own fate is a much more naturally fitting for this kind of story.

The execution on the other hand, was shockingly just as bad as the original finale, but it feels worse in a way because the show had already gotten so bad and overly convluted that it wasn't all that disappointing to see it end on a lousy note because we had gotten used to the whole thing being off-key for several seasons by that point anyways. With New Blood, while it had it's messy bits of writing, it did actually do a fairly good job of shedding the baggage of the last few seasons of the show's original run, and managed to tell a pretty comprehensive and thematically rich story up to a certain point.

Then logic pretty much goes out the window and we are lead to plot contrivance after plot contrivance as well as character turns out of left field. I already disliked how so many bombshell clues were just falling into Angela's lap without rhyme of reason throughout the season leading her to Dexter's identity, rather than her slowly uncovering it after just one slip-up (preferrable on Dexter's part to make it more ironic given how careful he tries to be). It didn't make Angela feel like a smart detective, which is what I think that the writers were going for, but rather just incredibly lucky to have the right clues fall into her lap at the right time, and then just research or act on them accordingly. Likewise, if they wanted to have Harrison's internal conflict lead him to reject Dexter, that's again fine on paper, but the execution was laughably bad. Harrison completely turning on Dexter's psychotic ways was out of complete left field and not set up for until the penultimate episode. The rest of the season depicted him as being more emotionally unstable than Dexter and needing the kind of guidance that Dexter had needed at his age (but was lead down the wrong path). Up until that point he wasn't even slightly seeming conflicted about the messed up psychological influence he was receiving from either Kurt of Dexter, but then all of a sudden he's a righteous hero because Dexter kills his coach and he kind of liked that guy? And him going off on Dexter about him being innocent is rich considering how he hospitalized his own friend earlier in the season just to know what slashing a guy felt like. The show clearly depicted him as psychologically disturbed throughout the rest of the season, and if it wanted him to be on the path of wanting to be normal they should have set that up properly.

Anyways, all of this is just an overly-long way of saying that the actual ideas of how this series ended were in and of themselves fine. The execution was just as bad as the first time, which makes it sting all the more.

Also, what was the point of that B sub-plot with the rich billionaire that never came back up? And I mean other than to be an obvious red-herring as to who the season's killer might be until it was revealed to be Kurt (which was still obvious).

::EDIT::

Also, the more I think about it the more plot issues keep springing into my mind that really is more of a problem with the whole season at large rather than just the finale. Like, at what point did Dexter and Angels get back together? Like, it was made abundantly clear after she found out his identity that she was pretty disgusted with him and kept her distance. I could buy her at least being less antagonistic towards him when he helped her investigate her friend's murder, but it clearly didn't make her inclined to actually start liking him again. What made this worse was how clearly oblivious Dexter was at her apprehension around him and her clear suspicion towards him. It's not even a case of it being a blind-spot. The show, even back when Clyde Phillips was running it and writing and directing several episodes, established that Dexter was not so socially inept as to not understand different social demeanors. Like, we know that he can clearly understand when people are acting off, so it was really jarring when Angels was so obviously giving off incredibly oppressive vibes around him, and he was genuinely thinking (as in, even in his own internal thoughts) that everything was OK between them. It's just insultingly bad writing.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, don't know what the deal was with the oil billionaire. Clancy Brown was obviously going to be the season villain because he's Clancy Brown. Same thing with the show alluding to Batista and Dexter reuniting but doing nothing with it. If they had a couple more episodes to deal with the fallout instead of hastily throwing everything in this last episode, maybe things could have been better.

Though Angela instantly finding out clues about the Bay Harbor Butcher was stupid too. Ketamine isn't such a rare drug that only one guy would use it in Miami.

[GregX]

If they did, I missed it. I'm sure they want to bring her in but I'm supposing they couldn't get her on-board. I feel like they would have already done it by now if they could.

After how good Terry Silver was in this season, though, I'm hoping that they can at least get Mike Barnes's actor back to complete that arc from The Karate Kid Part III.

Is Cobra Kai going to culminate with some bullied kid pulling a gun on one of these karate assholes and pulling the trigger? The more this keeps escalating, the more I think that this is the natural end point.

[Peanutbutter]

If they did, I missed it. I'm sure they want to bring her in but I'm supposing they couldn't get her on-board. I feel like they would have already done it by now if they could.

After how good Terry Silver was in this season, though, I'm hoping that they can at least get Mike Barnes's actor back to complete that arc from The Karate Kid Part III.

Is Cobra Kai going to culminate with some bullied kid pulling a gun on one of these karate assholes and pulling the trigger? The more this keeps escalating, the more I think that this is the natural end point.

Much as I love the show, to be fair I can see this happening. Hope I'm wrong though, 13 Reasons Why's stupidity was bad enough.

[Dr. Insomniac]

If they did, I missed it. I'm sure they want to bring her in but I'm supposing they couldn't get her on-board. I feel like they would have already done it by now if they could.

After how good Terry Silver was in this season, though, I'm hoping that they can at least get Mike Barnes's actor back to complete that arc from The Karate Kid Part III.

Is Cobra Kai going to culminate with some bullied kid pulling a gun on one of these karate assholes and pulling the trigger? The more this keeps escalating, the more I think that this is the natural end point.

Much as I love the show, to be fair I can see this happening. Hope I'm wrong though, 13 Reasons Why's stupidity was bad enough.

I was disappointed 13 Reasons Why didn't end in a shootout.

[Peanutbutter]

Would have watched the other two seasons if they went through with it, but they didn't.