Lately there has been some speculation on the future of Dexter.  The contention is, basically, this:  Michael C. Hall’s team has put a salary requirement of $24 million for the next two seasons of the show, and Showtime is only willing to pay $20 million.  The situation is referred to as a “stalemate”.

Here are some points to clarify, so that folks can understand the situation a bit more:

Firstly, Michael C. Hall is an enormous draw, on a pay-access network.  In this business model, he is a direct source of revenue, not an attribute that is used to lure advertising revenue.  In other words, his performance is directly related to the product, not just to the marketability of the product.

He’s been clear that he has ambitions on Broadway.  So far, he’s done television for most of his public-facing career, including a battle with cancer, and divorce.  Both of those were, by the way, during his run with Dexter.  Over time, bad experiences can color your enthusiasm, even if you’re professional as hell.

Finally, and this is the biggest point – according to this, and the show credits, Michael C. Hall is an executive producer on the show.  This means he’s invested in it behind the scenes, and is not just an actor in it.  He helps create the show at the very basic financial level, takes risks when it’s made, and profits when it airs; end of story.

This means that he isn’t some petulant actor bidding for more money, but better characterized as an investor who is ready to settle on an asset and go back to achieving forward career inertia.

A good way to maintain forward career inertia is to display your interest in concluding a business settlement, most often in terms of increasing expenses for your retainer.  It’s known as a position of strength – you are either willing to walk away to increase your gains, or you desire an overall conclusion, but are open to being persuaded to stay (in exchange for a more profitable renegotiation).

Put simply, no.  Not in any actual real-world context do people with that amount of trauma and scarring just recover one day after killing enough people.

Here’s the thing – she may be okay for a while.  She may have sated herself.  But the fact of the matter is, she will be in the middle of an attempt to return to her normal life, maybe even doing pretty well at it, when she realizes she has no remaining connection to the people around her.  She will be alone when she’s with her family and friends.  None of them will understand, or will want to understand, or could understand.

And then she will start to see evidence of the same cruelty and trauma that broke her, all around her.  Every public fight between a man and woman will become an unkind caricature of her memories of rape and torture.

And before she knows it, she’ll have a new target, and she will be buying tape, and plastic sheets.  And she’ll still have her gloves – because, didn’t you notice?  She took the gloves with her.

There’s also the possibility that she had evolved past Dexter, and had to strike out on her own.

Any way you cut it, Lumen, as she exists, is a risk to Dexter.  Letting her go was a mistake.  She will kill again, and although it’s very unlikely that she would just roll over on him, it is a definite risk.  Speaking from a storytelling angle, there’s virtually no way Lumen should not be reintroduced – of course, from a simple production angle, this may never actually happen.  At least not on camera.

I had a chance to watch the season premiere last night, and it was certainly enjoyable.  There were a few things that hit, and a few things that missed, overall.  The first impressions I have on the show aren’t all positive, but I’d rate the episode highly just the same.

First of all, Dexter is Dexter again.  There’s no more fumbling, clumsy executions anymore.  I can’t tell you how much of a relief this is – I wasn’t exactly getting tired of seeing his humanity poke through, but it seemed like a way to take an overall very dangerous character and render him a little easier to oppose.

Enter this season’s Dexter, who casually and gladly executes several targets throughout the episode.  No hesitation, no mistakes.  Just a pure killer.

But the problems I had with the episode should be mentioned, too – the off-camera divorce of LaGuerta and Batista, the arbitrary shootout-at-dinner (which interrupted a wedding proposal – oh no), etc.

Yes, I know everything skipped ahead a year and some of this stuff had to happen for the characters to really advance (the divorce mainly).  I mean, I didn’t really think that Angel and Maria should have been married in the first place, but, it seemed as though they were divorced in the same uninteresting manner.

Honestly, shouldn’t the supporting cast mainly be there as foils to Dexter, potential adversaries?  He is surrounded by police officers at all times.  Each and every last one of them is a potential risk, and they all are more deeply familiar with his habits and targets than anyone.  One misstep and, as Dexter himself put it, “it all unravels”.  We shouldn’t be hearing about their love-life, unless it sets of a chain of events which endanger Dexter’s ability to feed his dark passenger.

Here’s another thing:  I was a little troubled that the actual seasonal adversaries – Professor James Gellar and Travis Marshall – were introduced so prominently in the first episode.  There was no foreshadowing or setup, they just appeared in the show and took a few minutes to enjoy their own arc.  It could feasibly go anywhere from here, sure, and I had the same reservations about the Trinity Killer at first – but the storytelling angle here is baffling to me.

If Dexter has no awareness of them, shouldn’t the snakes and evisceration of the fruit-vendor be our sole introduction?  Remember the Ice Truck Killer?  You actually had to guess who he was.  Just like Dexter did.

On the up side, Masuka was a gem, and my Dexter drinking game was ridiculous – far too many opportunities in just this one episode.

I missed last night’s episode, and haven’t watched the (slightly edited) Youtube episode of it yet, so this is what I plan on doing tonight.

This should be a pretty great way to get trashed.  You can’t really just confine it to events surrounding the guests on the table – that would actually be a pretty tame experience.  I recommend you include the items on the following list:

1. When Dexter loses touch with reality (sees Harry, daydreams during a conversation, etc).
2. When any of Dexter’s supporting cast stumbles across some information about him, without knowing it.
3. Dexter removes, plants, or tampers with evidence.
4. Dexter disposes of a body on camera.
5. Dexter thinks one thing, and then immediately says another.
6. On every character death.

“This character seems to be the connection between Brother Sam and Travis.  He is an academic professor, specializing in religious studies, and seems to be somehow beholden to Travis.  My favorite guess is that this character has worked himself into a mess with Travis regarding an artifact he obtained (and possibly traded off) during the course of his academic pursuits.  This sets up a good recurring relationship of extortion between the two characters, something hinted at in the trailer.”

That’s what I wrote last Friday regarding this particular character – and I was entirely wrong.  With a little more research, it’s become apparent that this character is more likely to be a mastermind than a henchman.  He’s even described as a “brilliant, charismatic professor of religious studies.”  His character name is Professor Gellar.

At this point, the most attentive of Dexter’s audience will be aware that there are many changes on the way for our favorite anti protagonist. Just to sum things up, I’ve gone and researched the most basic elements to expect in the upcoming season. Certainly, some of this is speculative in nature.

It will take place “next year”

The reality of Rita’s death was a huge draw on the following arc with Lumen.  It permeated the entire season with a heavy, dramatic pall.  In order to drop this as a story arc, the story crew have decided to have this upcoming arc take place a year in the future of Miami, where Dexter and his surrounding cast have come to accept the loss.

Some call this time traveling.

In personal speculation, the reality is that Astor and Cody have grown a bit as actors, and there is a definite quandary concerning child actors in any continuing series – namely, how can they really fit in, in a world that has no genuine chronological watermarks?Harrison, on the other hand, they can (and have) swapped other babies out for.  He’s an easier character to perpetuate.

The kids are excellent actors, and I’d hope that this is wrong, but already, in season 5, Cody was dramatically downplayed and the Astor storyline seemed to be an overall resolution.  And there was, really, no involvement whatsoever from Rita’s parents – oh, our daughter was just murdered, you say?  Well, we’ll come and get the kids, I suppose.  Thanks for letting us know.

On the other hand, they aren’t part of Dexter’s true life, and so it couldn’t have been forever, anyway.  As Dexter himself would think, it was all going to end somehow.

Mos Def

Pretty old news by now, but Mos Def is on the crew, supposedly as one of the antagonists of this story arc.

Really, I’m hoping this isn’t going to be another Peter Weller moment. If you missed it, in Season 5, Peter Weller was on cast as a nemesis of Dexter’s.  Which, in a fashion, he was – but, in the end, I felt like Dr. Weller deserved a better, more menacing role.  He certainly could do better than a burnt-out cop.

Mos Def, on the other hand, appears to be taking a similar path.  It could be that his character and Dexter’s are entwined somehow because of Mos’ supposed ethical code – if Dexter identifies someone who lives with a strong code, he may (as we’ve seen before) drop into an observational, researching mode, instead of going immediately for the kill.

His character is called Brother Sam.

Collin Hanks

An ancient artifacts researcher and archaeological consultant named Travis, Collin Hanks is said to play Dexter’s main nemesis, and is scheduled for every episode of the show.  He’s said to be “linked to a series of grisly murders in Miami“.

In no uncertain terms, this seems to strike me as the Guest on the Table.  He and Dexter will spend the season, predestined to revolve around one another until, in a final climactic sequence, one will best the other.  Of course, he is somehow guilty of all of these grisly murders.

It’s true that the script writers have denied that there will be just one Guest on the Table.  But that doesn’t mean Travis isn’t the dominant.Travis has definite academic connections and is closely related to Edward James Olmos’ character.

Edward James Olmos

This character seems to be the connection between Brother Sam and Travis.  He is an academic professor, specializing in religious studies, and seems to be somehow beholden to Travis.  My favorite guess is that this character has worked himself into a mess with Travis regarding an artifact he obtained (and possibly traded off) during the course of his academic pursuits.  This sets up a good recurring relationship of extortion between the two characters, something hinted at in the trailer.

A religious motif

Another thing strongly hinted at in the trailer, and even more so with the previous expectation points, is a very powerful religious theme to the sixth season arc.  From the occupations and personalities of the new characters, to the imagery, to the Depeche Mode / Marilyn Manson cover in the trailer, everything refers to religion – or Christianity in particular.

Some have speculated that Dexter will find religion, and I’d like to say that this seems a little strange of a prediction.  Dexter does not have an external locus of control regarding his actions – he sees the plain cause and effect of everything he does.  And although he indicates at several times at least a passive mention of an almighty, he doesn’t show any sort of proclivity to believe the almighty is anything other than an intangible, remote force.And let’s not forget his most dominant ethos already in play – the code of Harry.