Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Dexter: Resurrection season 1.As fans of Dexter and its prequel and sequel shows, there are nine harsh realities we all have to face about the beloved franchise and its main serial killer. After four total Dexter shows and nearly 20 years, Dexter is one of the most beloved crime thriller franchises out there. Even though we all love Dexter and Michael C. Hall’s portrayal of him, there are some harsh realities about the franchise.

There are also some glaring problems with the Dexter shows. Things like the controversy surrounding New Blood‘s ending and the ending of the original Dexter aren’t really harsh truths, as we can all agree on them. That being said, these nine things are all problems with Dexter, whether we like to admit it or not.

Dexter Had A Huge Fall Off After Season 4

It seems fairly obvious to most Dexter fans, but it’s still worth saying: Dexter had a huge decrease in quality after season 4. There are certainly still bright spots in seasons 5 through 8 — like Lumen, Hannah McKay, and Isaak Sirko — but the show simply wasn’t as good after the Trinity Killer. It didn’t have the same tension as Dexter once did, and it took over a decade to find it again.

After Dexter season 4, the franchise started getting more convoluted and less satisfying. Some big mistakes — like having Deb fall in love with Dexter and killing him at the end of New Blood — contributed to that. Rita’s death also robbed the franchise of its most wholesome qualities and made Dexter’s personal life a lot less interesting than it once was.

Even though many of us would consider Dexter one of the best shows ever made, the fact is that it’s wildly inconsistent. The later seasons of the show really dragged Dexter down and kept it from being a true masterpiece. It’s a harsh truth, but Dexter can’t be considered one of the best shows of all time with four lackluster seasons.

Dexter May Not Be Able To Replicate The Trinity Killer

On a related note to the fall off Dexter had after season 4: it may not be possible to replicate the Trinity Killer. Trinity, real name Arthur Mitchell, is widely regarded as the best villain in Dexter. John Lithgow gave him a perfect balance of sinisterness and joviality that made him truly compelling, and his impact on Dexter’s life has never been replicated since.

In a way, the Trinity Killer was almost Dexter‘s “jumping the shark” moment. He was just so perfect, so tailored to Dexter’s personal life and internal struggles, and so utterly compelling to watch. None of Dexter’s villains have been able to measure up since. That’s honestly a big reason why Dexter seasons 5 through 8 are worse; their villains can’t compare to Trinity.

At this point, 16 years after Dexter season 4, we may just have to face facts. Dexter probably isn’t going to face off against another serial killer who is as perfectly diabolical as Trinity was. We may not even get someone as good as Brian Moser, the Ice Truck Killer. Even Dexter: Resurrection‘s killers weren’t as compelling, mostly due to having to share screen time with each other.

Only One Original Dexter Character Is Still Alive After Resurrection

One of the more recent harsh realities of being a Dexter fan is the fact that there’s only one original Dexter character aside from Dexter himself still breathing after Angel’s death in Resurrection. All the foundational characters who made Dexter what it is, like Deb, Doakes, Maria, Batista, Rita, and more, are dead. Only Vince Masuka remains.

To make that realization worse, Vince is the last holdout of the original show’s cast, but he’s also not in Resurrection for more than a few minutes. He probably won’t be in Resurrection season 2 much, either. If anybody from Miami Metro tracks Dexter down, it’ll be Quinn, not Masuka. There’s also no guarantee Miami Metro will even go to New York now that Angel is dead.

I think it’s good that Resurrection has new characters and didn’t just bring back the same cast from the original show, but it’s also a bit disheartening to know just how many people are dead. Dexter made us fall in love with Dexter’s coworkers and friends, but now they’re all dead. With other shows, you at least get the ability to imagine what supporting characters’ lives are like now, but not with Dexter.

Dexter Has Completely Abandoned Astor & Cody

One of the only harsh realities about Dexter Morgan is his two stepchildren, Astor and Cody Bennett. It has been 13 years since we’ve seen or even heard about Astor and Cody, and at this point, we have to face facts: Dexter abandoned his adoptive children. He pawned them off on their paternal grandparents and forgot about them, instead focusing solely on raising Harrison.

Logistically, Astor and Cody’s absence makes sense. Being a single father of three would have kept Dexter from doing any killing, and it would have dominated his entire personal life. Regardless, it’s outrageous that a show like Dexter, which has a huge main theme relating to family and familial love, has completely disregarded its main character’s stepchildren.

All the focus and messages of Harrison and Dexter’s reunions in New Blood and Resurrection are basically meaningless because of Astor and Cody. Dexter finally confronted his status as an absentee father with Harrison, but he hasn’t done anything to rectify how he abandoned Astor and Cody. It doesn’t look like Dexter will ever reconnect with his stepchildren, which is a huge shame and a massive missed opportunity.

Dexter Relies On A Lot Of Plot Contrivances & Lucky Breaks

Across all the Dexter shows, one issue keeps popping up: Dexter gets away with everything very easily, and the shows rely heavily on plot contrivances and sheer luck. I literally can’t count how many times Dexter has escaped being caught simply through the virtue of sheer luck and divine intervention from the show’s writing staff.

I will, however, list a few instances of it happening. Frank Lundy disregarded Maria LaGuerta’s very compelling evidence painting Dexter as a killer. Dexter somehow killed a man inside a busy airport in season 7 without being caught. He also killed a man in season 5 and didn’t do any cleanup, yet there was seemingly no investigation into the death.

The problem continued in the spinoff shows. Dexter should have been caught when the police were looking for Matt Caldwell in New Blood. He also managed to get the NYPD completely off his trail by lying once and giving them information about a cold case in Resurrection. The entire Dexter franchise is held up by unrealistically lucky breaks and convenient writing.

Dexter: New Blood May Have Ruined The Franchise’s Ending

There are a lot of problems with the first Dexter spinoff show, New Blood, but one of them is the harshest to face. At the end of New Blood, Dexter had Harrison shoot him in the chest. Dexter was presumed dead until Resurrection was announced, and everyone hated the ending. It was infamously divisive and retroactively ruined New Blood as a whole.

The harsh reality isn’t that the ending of New Blood was bad, though, it’s that New Blood may have ruined the most logical way to conclude the Dexter franchise. Many fans — myself included — think Dexter’s death is the only satisfying way to end his story. He is a killer, after all, and he does need to pay for his crimes, as much as we’d all love for him to go on killing forever.

After the huge backlash to the ending of New Blood, however, the executives and creatives behind Dexter may not let that happen. Why risk another huge controversy by killing Dexter when they can just keep the story going in Resurrection? Unfortunately, that fear of dividing viewers may prevent Dexter from ever facing justice for his hundreds of victims.

Modern Dexter Is Afraid Of Taking Risks

Credit: Patrick Wymore/ ©Paramount+ with Showtime / Courtesy Everett Collection

The original Dexter, and even the start of New Blood, were hits. A big reason for that was because they took huge risks. Making a show about an awkward serial killer working a very technical crime scene forensics job isn’t exactly a guaranteed moneymaker, after all. Not all of those risks paid off — namely making Deb fall in love with Dexter — but they were bold decisions nonetheless.

The harsh reality is that modern Dexter is incredibly risk-averse compared to classic Dexter. Neither Original Sin nor Resurrection would dare kill Dexter like New Blood did. In fact, both shows are only doing what they know will work. Dexter is back to his old personality from the start of the show, his relationship with Harrison is wholesome again, and neither show is interested at all in interrogating the morality of Dexter.

Again, many of the risks Dexter and New Blood took didn’t pay off. There were certainly missteps along the way, but there were just as many brilliant decisions too. Casting John Lithgow — the guy from 3rd Rock from the Sun, at the time — as Trinity was a huge gamble, but it paid off in spades. Modern Dexter, however, wouldn’t take such a big risk, and it couldn’t have such a big payoff as a result.

I’m not saying that’s entirely a bad thing. I love how Resurrection and Original Sin feel like classic Dexter, and so do many others. It works, but I don’t know how long it will work for. Can both these shows really survive if they never take a chance or try to do something new? How long will fans be happy with the highlight reels of the original Dexter?

Modern Dexter Is Very Reliant On The Original Show’s Legacy

Credit: Zach Dilgard / ©Paramount+ with Showtime / Courtesy Everett Collection

Building off the idea that modern Dexter isn’t taking risks, modern Dexter also is entirely beholden to the franchise’s glory years. New Blood tried to go in a new, darker, direction, and it failed. Now, Original Sin and Resurrection are stuck referencing and mimicking the original series. Original Sin was a prequel, while Resurrection had cameos from Doakes, Trinity, Brian Moser, and the surviving members of Miami Metro.

Surprisingly enough, Resurrection is actually more guilty of this than Original Sin is. Harrison’s relationship with Dexter is the cornerstone of the show, but that’s really a holdover from the original series and New Blood. The main twist of the season was also Angel Batista’s death, and he’s also a legacy character. Resurrection basically can’t find its footing as a separate thing from Dexter.

To be fair, Resurrection does do its fair share of innovating. A new setting, a new plot device of multiple killers, and more make it feel fresh. The harsh reality, however, is that Resurrection and Original Sin used the characters and events of the original Dexter as a safety net. For example, instead of building its new characters up as adversaries to Dexter, Resurrection just brought Batista back and let his legacy from Dexter do the heavy lifting.

Dexter: Original Sin’s Cancellation Really Hurts

The last and harshest reality to face as a fan of Dexter is the cancellation of Original Sin. While it was a prequel and did hit many of the Dexter tropes, Original Sin also felt like the most original Dexter story we had gotten in a long time. Dexter was young and inexperienced, Harry was alive and teaching him, and the show had a lot going for it that set it apart from Dexter.

From Original Sin‘s cast to its story and the truly innovative ways it found to make a prequel suspenseful, the show was a hit. It was also a literal hit that pulled in millions of viewers to a more expensive tier of Paramount+ with Showtime. Original Sin had everything going for it, and it looked like we were going to get two Dexter shows every year, as it functions as a sister to Resurrection.

Original Sin was absolutely brimming with potential after a phenomenal first season, and Paramount canceled it. We were watching peak Dexter for the first time in over a decade, and Paramount pulled the plug. Not only that, the cancellation news also came months after Original Sin had been officially confirmed, which only added insult to injury.

Even Clyde Phillips, the creative head of Dexter, was upset about Original Sin‘s cancellation. It feels like a personal betrayal and huge missed opportunity that we won’t get more of Original Sin. I was legitimately excited to watch Patrick Gibson play Dexter and grow even more into the role, and now that won’t happen. It’s probably the most disappointing thing about being a Dexter fan to date.