Review: Dexter Season 6 (Spoilers)

I recently caught up with season 6 of Dexter, which has been over and done with for quite a while now (I believe they're gearing up for season 7, the first of the final two seasons).  If you're not familiar with Dexter, here's the basic premise: Dexter is a serial killer who works for Miami Metro Homicide as a Blood Spatter Analyst.  Oh, he only kills those he deems to be "bad".  Season six deals largely with a couple of religious fanatics who believe they are bringing about the end of the world by re-enacting scenes from the Book of Revelation (and also killing people).  It also deals with some other things, but that's the spoiler-free version.

**** SPOILERS FOLLOW THIS POINT ****

More specifically, season six also explores Dexter's spirituality.  As in, does he have any beliefs beyond his Dark Passenger?  This is something with which he struggles for the first half of the season, until he comes to a decision and the matter is abruptly dropped.  This is where I was slightly disappointed with the season - but we'll get to that.

I suppose I should dive into some specifics.  The season starts with Dexter trying to get his son into some prestigious school that just happens to be Catholic.  This launches the question: What does Dexter believe in?  Dexter at first determines that it's not important for him - but he needs to let his son, Harrison, decide for himself.  Enter Brother Sam (played brilliantly by Mos).  Brother Sam is a formerly violent man, who did the time he was sentenced and came out a religious, reformed person.

Sam challenges Dexter to accept that there is a light within him, that it's not all about his Dark Passenger.  Dexter *almost* buys into this, until Sam is torn away from his life by someone he trusted, and Dexter reacts on impulse and kills in revenge.  He then goes on a trip to Nebraska, where he faces temptation - and gives in a couple of times - but ultimately returns to his own "light" and sticks to the Code that has always steered him in the right direction (well, right for Dexter at any rate).

I suppose this is what amounts to the highlight of the season for me - this attempt to figure out the balance between "Good" and "Evil".  No doubt, the writers present Dexter as "Good", and Gellar and Travis (okay...it's just Travis, in a reveal straight out of Psycho.  More on that later.) are "Evil".  But they go a little deeper and try to give Dexter some layers - and they were succeeding, right up until the moment Brother Sam dies.

I've never been a big fan of Dexter's interactions with his "Father", and Season 6 brought this to a whole new level.  When Dexter kills Nick (who murdered Sam) out of revenge, Dexter's brother returns and acts as temptation for him - and he goes through with some pretty impulse-based killings.  Dexter ends up realizing that he doesn't want to do that, and returns to familiar territory.  Where am I going with this?  Oh yes-  this was basically your standard Angel on one shoulder, and Devil on the other.  It was slightly silly, even if it did serve to illustrate the twist in the next episode.

What was that twist?  We're originally presented with the premise that there are two killers, played by Edward James Olmos and Colin Hanks.  It's revealed that Olmos has been dead for years, and all along it's been Hanks.  He was seeing visions of Olmos, just like Dexter sees his Father.  It's at this point in the reveal that everything goes downhill for the season.

Basically it's a race against the clock to find Travis (Hanks), and the final episode is Dexter's usual "Damsel in Distress" - except in this case it's Harrison in Distress.  I suppose the story has to be resolved somehow, but look at how they ended season 4 - I thought that was done quite well.  Instead we get this.  At least they did end with Deb witnessing Dexter kill...we're left to wonder what the heck is going to happen with that in the next two seasons (which are going to be one big arc, according to the producers).

I'm starting to ramble now, so I do want to get to a some observations before I forget.

Number one - I really am creeped out by the whole Debra being in love with Dexter thing.  While technically, it's okay - they're only adopted brother and sister - it's actually how she comes to realize it that makes it strange.  She sees a therapist, who plants the idea into her head (and can someone tell me why Deb can't just be a loving sister for having Dexter in her life, and not be in love with him?), and she just accepts it. To me, it feels like she was manipulated into feeling that way.  It's just creepy.

Number two - I always felt that in every season, Angel's character was sort of like Tyrol in Battlestar Galactica.  He's the character that always Does Something Stupid to mess everything up.  It seems like Angel made some better choices this season...except for once, and it was such a weird moment that seemed both in character and out of character at the same time.  He smokes up with Quinn in his car - and while that seems like something he would do in the past, his character's decisions so far in season 6 negate this.  But at the same time, Quinn is the one making Stupid Decisions this season.  It's easy to see how he might influence Batista.

Number three - Lewis (or is it Louis?).  This seems like a creepy guy - I'm not sure what his angle is, and I'm interested.  I'd like to see where his character is going to go, and why he mailed the prosthetic limb from season 1 to Dexter - and what the markings on the hand mean.

Overall, I thought season 6 was pretty good, but it had some low points.  There are only two more seasons left, so I'm already on board for those.  Hope it's a good ride!

2012 Priorities Revisited

It's been a while since I wrote here.  As a short explanation: I've been busy.  I haven't read as much online or watched as many movies.  My time is starting to free up though - but I don't have time to do the things I wanted to.  What better time to revisit my New Year's "Priorities", 7 months into the year?

1) Weight Loss
      - I'm currently hovering around 276-280.  Weight loss hasn't gone the way I wanted, but it's getting there.  I'm attempting a new thing with biking (because I really can't do 30km a day, 5 days a week) though, which is to bike part of the way and hop on the bus the rest.  It's working out decently...let's just leave it there.

2) Writing
     - Not going so well here either.  Not a big deal, I'm not worried about it.  I was doing some movie reviews, but as I said, I ran out of time and haven't been able to do as many.  I hope to get some more written up here though.  I still need to go through all of those DVDs.

3) Sorting out leisure time vs work time
     - I've done a pretty good job here, I think.  I rarely play video games, and have actually added a second podcast.  It's called Futurama Pedia, and I record it with my friend Mike.  It's pretty good!  Check it out on iTunes - we only have two episodes so far, with one coming that I am in the process of editing.

4) Be better with money
     - No better, no worse here.

ShoStoWriMo - Week 2

Well that was a bust.  Didn't get anything done.  My goal this week is to try writing a scene as a story rather than what I traditionally call a story.  That probably makes sense to no-one but me.

Short Story Writing Month: Week 1

A while back - not sure when exactly - I pondered the idea of doing a short story writing month.  Well, I decided to do it this month, with the basic rules being that no matter what state the story is in, it gets posted in a public place immediately following the end of the week (i.e., post last week's story today).

Well, I failed spectacularly in the first week.  I started with good intentions, but things got in the way (read: the Excuse Monster came for a visit).  I did manage to write something, though:

"I winced as I watched the events unfold on the monitor to my side."

Yeah, seriously, that's it.  So, lacking an actual story, I thought I might talk about what was supposed to come out of that sentence (which, I can admit, is actually not that great on its own).

I had a few ideas; my first idea, and one I don't think I'm going to run with anymore, was going to be a superhero story told from the villain's point of view.  I don't think I had any specific direction beyond that, aside from attempting to garner sympathy for the "villain".

The next idea, when I was going to just try and finish the story in a hurry, was that of a museum security guard who encounters ghosts of some sort at night.  I'm not too great at writing "horror" or suspense, but I might have had a little fun with that.

So, back to the drawing board, as they say.  My goal this week is to at least get a coherent story written.  I'm not going to overthink it, but rather I'm going to find a writing prompt somewhere and just run wild and see what I get.  Who knows, I might like it!

Review: Black Sheep

So the reason why I didn't immediately post my review of Black Sheep was because I got invited on to do movie reviews over at http://www.moviemarker.co.uk.  I decided to throw that review (and use any future movie reviews) over there.

You can read it here: http://moviemarker.co.uk/?p=2151

DVD Survivor: An Introduction

Alright, so in my last post I mentioned my concept of "DVD Survivor", wherein I have a list of DVDs that are teetering on the chopping block, and I watch them to determine whether or not they stay on the shelf.  Simple, right?  In Part 1, I will not only list all of the movies I'll be watching, but also do the first review.  Everything is listed in alphabetical order, which is also how I will be watching the films.

The List

1. Black Sheep* (1996)
2. Ed Wood (1994)
3. Good Night and Good Luck (2005)
4. Hero (2002)
5. The Last Samurai (2003)
6. Lost in Translation (2003)
7. Saw II (2005)
8. Shaolin Soccer (2001)
9. Syriana (2005)
10. Taxi Driver* (1976)

Some quick stats: Oldest movie: Taxi Driver (1976); Newest movie: Good Night and Good Luck / Syriana (2005). Percentage of movies with George Clooney in them: 20% (tied with 'Movies with Bill Murray in them).
* - Denotes a movie I haven't watched yet

Well, this should be interesting.  The first review up is 1996's Black Sheep (not to be confused with 2006's film about zombie New Zealand sheep)!

My original plan was to actually put the review here on the blog.  I've watched it, and written it, but for some currently secret reasons I am holding it back.  So how about we play a little game?  Let's go through the list and see which I think I'll Dump or Keep.  Even though I've watched Black Sheep, I can still give you my initial opinion when I first made the list.

1. Black Sheep* (1996) - DUMP
2. Ed Wood (1994) - KEEP
3. Good Night and Good Luck (2005) - KEEP
4. Hero (2002) - DUMP
5. The Last Samurai (2003) - KEEP
6. Lost in Translation (2003) - KEEP
7. Saw II (2005) - DUMP
8. Shaolin Soccer (2001) - DUMP
9. Syriana (2005) - KEEP
10. Taxi Driver* (1976) - KEEP

So, we shall see in the coming weeks/months!

A Problem With Being Creative

Here's the thing.  There are currently a lot of things going on in my head creatively, and I find I am thinking about them constantly.  This is both a blessing and a curse (and not one of those cool superhero curse type of things); on the one hand, this is way better than being in a creative funk where you can't think of anything.

On the other hand, I feel sometimes that I've put too much on my plate.  There's so much that I'm trying to do, when I probably should be doing One Thing, and putting my focus on that.  Ostensibly, that One Thing should be my Podcast, but I think I should be trying to relegate that back into hobby territory.*

I don't mind that I'm working on several things at once.  What I would prefer is to set aside specific times in the week where I can just switch this on, rather than be thinking about it all the time and become frustrated when I can't do anything about it, or have no time to work on it.  Also, I have a lot of things going on at work right now, and I probably should be focusing on that, you know?  Instead, I am writing a random blog post to eat up some time at work.

Once again this comes back to time management.  I think I made that a resolution at the start of the year?  I'm not sure.  In any case I'm not going to re-visit my resolutions until June.  In the meantime, I plan on watching the first DVD of my "DVD Survivor" series soon...I just need to find some time in my week to do it.

* - This will help in my feelings of "wow this is not nearly as good as it could/should be" re: the Podcast.