HopsGuy

Like I said, it's subjective. I guess if they had reversed the two seasons, fans would have probably hated the "Barrel Girls / Lumen" season more because it would have then been the latest in another round of similar tropes (assuming the DDK finale didn't involved Deb). Hmmm.. imagine Deb barging in on Dexter & Lumen but still with her understanding for the victim of rape/torture needing revenge - now that would be something! I agree that examining the religious/moral aspect of what Dexter does was long overdue. In season 5 Dexter's nanny Sonya had put the statue of some saint in Harrison's crib, so they started down that road but never really finished. Dexter was probably completely turned off of religion by whatever it was that Travis Marshall was doing. LaGuerta has never been known for her detective skills and with Deb running interference it's going to be a stretch for her to link anything back to Dexter, right?

It's subjective, but the consensus is that Season 4 with John Lithgow as the "Trinity Killer" is the best. I agree but Season 2 is quite good IMHO. I like them all (especially Season 5 with Julia Stiles) but I'm also with the masses that last season (Season 6) was probably the worst. It felt like the writers had gotten lazy and fell into what had become the "Dexter Big Bad" trope. Such a shame with great actors like Edward James Olmos & Colin Hanks. But like I had said before - at least it got us to the point where they had to blow everything up and have Deb know the true Dexter.

Agreed. Man, that bothered me. Even NG folks know about setting up a defensive position/perimeter. The camp in the 2nd episode of season one had a wire perimeter with cans to provide an early warning. At the very least, the gate should have been closed and the vehicles organized into a circle (even Chris Berman knows about circling the wagons). Now we have two armed camps with a built-in rivalry of Merle vs. Rick/T-Dog with Daryl being the wild-card. The whole scene with the Governor and the heads was reminiscent of Colonel Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now". How are they powering Woodbury? (I haven't read the GNs).

More progress in this episode: Dexter being more Dex-like with his lizard-brain skills of knowing Isaak was in his apartment and Hanna was lying. Isaak is now behind bars - but for how long? Deb saves Dex this time by getting that photo of him at the wedding (that was the exact face I have while doing the Hokey Pokey). Quinn being Quinn. LaGuerta not letting go of that BHB bone. Deb channeling her own LaGuerta when she shut down Batista's doubts about bartender Alex's being responsible for Mike Anderson's murder just like when Deb was trying to re-open the "Barrel Girls" case in season 5. The "Deb is in love with Dexter" theme was still there when they were in the roach motel hiding from Isaak. The biggest plot hole I had with this episode was "Who lives in Miami but goes to Myrtle Beach for vacation?"

If there were a way to ensure that views were monetized so that TV/films were a complete meritocracy (most views, most pay), I'd be in favor of that. I'm more than happy to watch ads to watch when I want to watch - thought I do tend to FF through ads on Tivo. Unfortunately, this sort of "breakage" will continue. You would need a central clearinghouse for everything and when that happens (RIAA, USSR, etc) it gets poorly managed.

It would be nice if Fox (FX et al) had an app or a website for folks to watch episodes like HBO GO. You log in with your provider ID and bam - you're watching your show. The basic cable providers would have to insert ads like "The Daily Show" does but at least they're still delivering content to their customers. Appointment viewing is over and folks shouldn't need a Netflix subscription to catch a recent show they missed.

Folks, the lines (on both sides of the ball) are soft. It's been this way for years. I'd like to think that a motivational speech could cure it but it's almost institutional at this point. We're soft. Then there's this:

There's some chatter going around about Doakes: I could have used a little more "Louis vs. Dexter", too. I'm thinking that Hanna will proved to have had more to do with the spree killings than we're currently being told. Another thing... I think Calista Flockhart was mentioned to be in this season but I don't see anything at IMDb. Was she Kaja, the stripper that Viktor killed? I'm sure an actress like her would want to, y'know, actually have some speaking parts - right? Maybe we see her in another flash-back? Trivia: Desmond Harrington (Joey Quinn) is one of the young brokers in the Ben Affleck scenes in "Boiler Room" where he's talking to the young brokers. He's probably 22-23 at the time.

Maybe a regular fetus - but a zombie fetus? The rules of physiology go out the window here. Though admittedly, they could hardly be called "walkers". Now I'm thinking of clever zombie onesies. "Born a zombie, redefining breast-feeding."

It seems like we've seen lots of walkers that just sort of stay relatively motionless when there's no fresh food nearby. The one one the bus in season 1 that got up when Rick walked by. The one stuck in the mud was just sort of sleeping on his feet until Carl started chucking rocks at it (sort about that Dale). The "grandpa walker" in the store that sort of came awake just before Michonne dispatched him with her katana. The thing is, they sort of come awake slowly while this one grabbed Hershel's leg rather quickly. Too bad for the Greene clan. We're down to Maggie & Beth and Beth already tried to off herself. (BTW - I sort of liked the singing. They held onto a little humanity there for a bit.) It seems the previews have given away quite a bit of what happens this season but I am quite curious of what happens with the alive inmates. They weren't too keen on having these interlopers here but also didn't appear to hate it either. Maybe because of Maggie? How about Lori theorizing that maybe the baby is dead because it has stopped kicking? Then thinking she might get eaten from the inside-out? I got really excited at that possibility.

Are you starting from season 7 or from the actual beginning?

Very solid 2nd episode. The Dexter/Deb scenes were great. I really liked the way the scenes were shot with Dexter in the light confessing to Deb who was sitting in the dark as if they were in an interrogation room. Her reaction to his revelation that he has a "Dark Passenger" was funny: "You gave it a name?" As she tries to point out that he's making himself to be a victim and that those people in the box are victims he goes all John Doe in "Se7en" about the pedophile choir leader, the psychiatrist who drove women to suicide, etc. Later when she's making spaghetti, the sauce was almost a glowing red as Dexter recounts how he feels when the Dark Passenger takes over starting with blood. The Louis vs. Dexter drama ratcheted up with Dex finding out that Louis sent him the ITK arm and stumbling onto Louis' vlog. He found out how Louis had cancelled his credit cards and moved his boss at the software company out by framing him with some child porn. Louis seemed scared when Dex pushes him to the wall and demands he get out of his life. But later Louis takes a beer from Dexter's fridge and tousles Harrison's hair. That gets him on the wrong end of an M-99 hypodermic. But since he really doesn't meet the code, Dex calls Deb and makes it look like her brand of "Serial Killers Anonymous" is working. I think it was just a ruse so that she'll get off his back. Joey Quinn is talking to strippers. That's not going to be good for anyone. This whole Ukrainian mob thing is boring. It's a good thing that Jamie watches Harrison now because Sonya never would have put up with this. LaGuerta is now convinced that Doakes was not the BHB but by screwing up the chain of evidence, how does she get the case re-opened? Dex thinks he can get some insight from spree killer Wayne Randall. But the guy just wanted some Sunshine and Frosty Swirl. Now we get to meet Hanna, Robin to Wayne's Batman. Heard a theory on how Dexter is a re-telling of Pinocchio with Dexter the doll (serial killer) trying to be a boy (regular person with feelings). On the Wrap-Up podcast, James Remar (Harry is Jiminy Cricket, I guess?) compared Dexter to Hamlet. I supposed this works.

I hope you're wrong but you might be right. It has to be expensive to produce and since Lily is gone...

Why did you feel the need to respond? Are you trolling? Do you know what I mean when I ask?

I follow our own Lori on Twitter (@LChase_RA) to get my NWPA high school news & her re-tweets help to sift through the other stuff I might want to know. I follow quite a few female sports journalists because they bring an interesting take you don't normally get. One of my favorites is someone I found through Lori - Amy Moritz (@AmyMoritz) of the Buffalo News. She covers local college sports. Also, she will make you feel bad that you're not working out because she trains like crazy for distance running and triathlons. Other than that, the best way is to look at the "Similar" section. I just checked and I follow 415 "people". I'm pretty sure most are either stock market folks, comedians, sports journalists and people I know. Take some time and you'll find what you're looking for. Also - I use TweetDeck for my desktop and the Twitter app for my Android phone and iPad. I hated Hootsuite for the 5 minutes I used it. If you're into stocks/futures/FOREX trading, the StockTwits app is great. Good luck.

That's a great story. Thanks for sharing.

Yours and other fans around the web - nothing personal. If the writers could have pulled off a 3-episode arc where Deb puts together the details from the first 6 seasons, it might have been interesting. I just don't trust them to do that given what we saw for most of season 6. Knowing what we do, watching Deb catch up would have been a bunch of "OMG" faces from Deb as she pieced together ITK, BHB, & "who killed Jordan Chase? - oh and the guy in the warehouse with Dan the Dentist was covered in plastic, too" Pushing us to "Deb knows - let's go from here" is more expedient for them and they probably went down the lane of rolling it slowly and weren't able to work it out to a satisfactory result. I'm just guessing. For me, the most positive thing to come out of S7E01 was that Jennifer Carpenter's overly emotional acting worked very well in the opening scene. Never thought that would happen. Also good to see Jason Gedrick after "Luck" was cancelled. I really liked that show. Watched it again and the stripper that Quinn interviews (the one that says in perfect English "I don't speak English") also had one of those bracelets on just like the girl in the car. Is Titus Pullo going to have to go deep-sea diving?

Rumor:

I'm glad the writers blew up the show with Deb discovering the truth about Dexter. Also, I'm okay with her going from seeing Dexter kill Travis Marshall (DDK) and getting to him being a serial killer in one episode. I don't think we needed a multi-episode arc for her to catch up with the audience. Things from 701: La Guerta finds the blood slide but then takes it from Masuka's lab destroying the chain of evidence. How will she prove Doakes' innocence now? The Russian mobster that Dex offed and dumped in the Gulf Stream had taken a bracelet or something off of the stripper. I assume that thing is somewhere in the North Atlantic now. I'm thinking that was an important piece that will make Ray Stevenson come to South Florida. Batista & Quinn now appear to be comic relief. RIP Mike Anderson - we hardly knew ya. Louis is going to be a problem. AJ - as far as catching up, Clippers did a decent job, though a few were slightly off. You can go to the Wikipedia page and read through stuff. I actually liked season 5 with Julia Stiles. She was the only person that knew Dexter's secret and lived. Season 6 was the weakest but at least it got us here. I'm looking forward to this season and the final season next year. Dexter is an interesting character and now he has to explain to the person who has known him the longest that his entire existence has been a lie.

When I was in my Officers' Basic Course, our TAC Officer (the guy who made sure we weren't screwing up) was transferred to Ft. Leavenworth (he was Field Artillery & need to get away from the Signal Corps). We had a going away party for him and he was leaving early but admonished the young lieutenants, "Look, nobody get behind the wheel if you've had a few too many. I know you're not looking to slide into a family of six, but you know..." He looks at me and I say, "Sam Kinison, sir." CPT Cool: "Screw you, Lieutenant Hops." Hand to god, that's how it happened. I must have listened to that routine a hundred times.

Sam Kinison is dead and yet his teachings live on, just like Jesus.

Marty Biron (@martybiron43) just tweeted that he's at the game: "Tailgating at the Bills game right now. Any Bills fans out there, let me know where you are and what you're eating and I might swing by!!!!" Offering to come by and eat your food. What a mensch!

Totally agree. I guess I knew him but his brand of comedy hit me when listening to a Joe Rogan Experience Podcast last year. They were discussing about how wanting to have children was the most narcissistic thing anyone could want to do. "Hey lets make a little person that is just like us! - Oh and by the way it's the biggest frigging thing you can do to increase your carbon footprint!" It was great. Do yourself a favor and look for YouTube clips of Stanhope. A couple of his specials are there.

We think alike. Maron's pod is really good. The one with Russell Peters is my favorite. Maria Bamford is a chameleon. She can be many things but always funny. Lots of good comedians mentioned in this thread. If I've missed them: Greg Fitzsimmons, Bryan Callen, Jay Mohr, Jim Jefferies, Mike Birbilgiia, Nick DiPaolo etc.

Actually what I was concerned with was the timeline. Beside the OBL remark, the other thing that has put the show in the present time is the product placement of Walt's 2013 Chrysler 300 (& Jr's Dodge Challenger). I mentioned that the dealer types would use flip-phones (burners) but that we hadn't seen any smart phones other than Lydia's BB in the show. Remember Jesse meeting him and tossing a burner to him and saying "Here - prepaid cell phone. Use it!" In the first season, Walt's original phone was also a flip-type. Those were still the predominate phone in 2008 but the timeline suggests. That DanWins guy was using a Bluetooth earpiece but that was fine for 2008. To me this suggests the show that debuted in 2008 was set in 2010. That's sort of the corner they've painted themselves into. I'm picking-nits but that's what we tend to do on shows like this. Heck, it only took a couple of days for the intarwebs to examine just how much cash was in the storage unit.