Just watched the 5 seasons over the past month. And I agree with the consensus here, phenomenal show that has gotten a bit stale recently.
Spoilers below, so if you are not caught up, skip it.
The worst part of season 5, for me, was that the Rita murder went nowhere. Other than the first episode, it didn't change anything. I really liked the interactions with Astor, because they made it feel like there was some continuity there, but those were almost irrelevant. I know we are supposed to believe that Rita's murder is what led Dexter to help Lumen, but Dexter was already willing to have a partner before with Prado. So pretty much the biggest, saddest, most shocking finale for a season in recent memory in the end served only as a reset. Like the writers didn't know what to do with the Dexter family man story anymore and so just found a way to erase everything. Because that is what they did. Astor and Cody conveniently go away. Dexter somehow manages to hire a babysitter willing to work 100% of the time.
And so we are back to the old formula. Big bad guy that we know will die in the last episode. Yet another person who sees Dexter for who he is but can't make it work in the end (and how are we to care if Lumen dies or not after seeing Rita die?). Deb being a supercop solving every case but being absolutely blind to who Dexter is. Rinse and repeat.
This whole thing is made more disappointing by the recent interviews from the head producer. She basically said that Deb will only find out about Dexter during the "end game" of the series. In other words, they will have filler after filler until the show stops being popular and they wrap it up with Deb finding out.
I think the contrast between Dexter and Breaking Bad is interesting. Not to give anything from Breaking bad away, but on breaking bad the writers are not afraid to make the main character really unlikable, they are not afraid of killing off the big bad guys in the middle of the season, they are not afraid of moving the plot forward. On Dexter, they found a formula and are deathly afraid of moving forward. Any advances in the story will eventually be negated by a big event that only serves to reset the clock.
I really wish Dexter's writers were bolder. There is no reason why the story can't continue after Deb finds out, after Dexter is discovered by everyone, etc. They could continue the show with Dexter on the run, killing people in a city and then moving on. They could continue the show with Deb knowing, just like she knows in the novels. There is no reason why they can't have Dexter's character evolve. For example, after losing both Rita and Lumen, he could go nuts, giving up the code and becoming a straight up bad guy, with Deb chasing him. The opportunities to take this show somewhere new are literally endless, and yet we will start season 6 as if seasons 5 and 4 never existed.
