Dexter/YMMV

TV Series
": I am the last person you wanna fuck with because I WILL FUCK YOU BACK! IN WAYS YOU NEVER EVEN IMAGINED!"
 * Adaptation Displacement: This show is more popular and well-known than the original novels.
 * Alas, Poor Villain:
 * The Bad Guy Wins: Dexter has yet to be caught.
 * Broken Base: Half of the fan-base can't stand Lumen for being annoying and whinny (despite being you know, a rape victim) or for constantly shouting on about getting revenge on the men that raped her whilst doing things without thinking. On the other hand, the other half love her and find her to be an ideal woman for Dexter that relates to him in so many ways, is a great match for his personality and someone that actually understands him and accepts him in a way that Rita definately would not have.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Lila, oh so much. She caused a fire just to try and control Dexter. She then tried getting revenge against Dexter just because he left her. She tricks the authorities into thinking Batista raped her due to rough sex and taking the date rape drug, stalked Rita and then tried to murder Dexter, Astor and Cody in the season finale because Dexter chose Rita and the kids over her.
 * Complete Monster: A great deal of Dexter's victims, but the main bad guys of seasons 1 and 3 in particular.
 * The Barrel Girl Gang,
 * Jorge Orozco
 * Ice Truck Killer
 * Critical Research Failure: In season 2, Masuka has to remind Dexter what "eukaryotic" means. The undergrad work preceding Dexter's medical degree apparently didn't teach him one of the most basic pieces of biological jargon.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: The music is unusual, but fits the show, especially the instrumental pieces. Special mention goes to Blood, the full version of the eerie ending credits theme.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Doakes. Despite being a complete Jerkass and having the foulest mouth in the series, he has a large amount of fans that can't seem to get enough of him and is fondly remembered as one of the high points of the two earlier seasons. That and he's a complete and undeniable Badass that held his ground well as one of the two primary antagonists of Season 2 and had a.
 * Masuka is this in the eyes of fans as well. One feels there should be a studio audience applause for whenever he enters the room or says something ridiculous.
 * Fan Disservice:
 * John Lithgow appears completely nude several times.
 * A shirtless Deb scene is marred by
 * Flanderization:
 * Dexter used to be a cold-hearted, meticulous, intelligent killer with no capacity for emotion and empathy. He had to put up a front to hide all that by using his then girlfriend Rita and her children. Seasons 3 and 5 are evidence that he's turned into a bumbling idiot, allowing two other strangers to watch his kills and confessing his murderous activities to them. In addition he is more sloppy than ever; one example being the season five finale where he left his blood and fingerprints in the crashed stolen vehicle in a ditch for cops to eventually see.
 * Deb has gone through some radical Flanderization throughout the series five season run. Originally she was tough but occasionally emotional and had a habit of sleeping around and cursing. As the series dragged on the sleeping around angle turned into a minimum of one illicit, Romantic Plot Tumor a season. Her strong emotions, which Dexter once commented she worked hard to hide, escalated to the point where she would break down and cry almost every episode. The culmination of this was a breathtakingly terrible scene in the beginning of season five in which Deb immediately after with the help of a male friend, Deb breaks down crying, then fucks him.
 * Foe Yay: Dexter and
 * Dexter used to be a cold-hearted, meticulous, intelligent killer with no capacity for emotion and empathy. He had to put up a front to hide all that by using his then girlfriend Rita and her children. Seasons 3 and 5 are evidence that he's turned into a bumbling idiot, allowing two other strangers to watch his kills and confessing his murderous activities to them. In addition he is more sloppy than ever; one example being the season five finale where he left his blood and fingerprints in the crashed stolen vehicle in a ditch for cops to eventually see.
 * Deb has gone through some radical Flanderization throughout the series five season run. Originally she was tough but occasionally emotional and had a habit of sleeping around and cursing. As the series dragged on the sleeping around angle turned into a minimum of one illicit, Romantic Plot Tumor a season. Her strong emotions, which Dexter once commented she worked hard to hide, escalated to the point where she would break down and cry almost every episode. The culmination of this was a breathtakingly terrible scene in the beginning of season five in which Deb immediately after with the help of a male friend, Deb breaks down crying, then fucks him.
 * Foe Yay: Dexter and


 * Dexter gets this a lot, actually. He seems to have a disconcerting habit of getting really close to his victims once they're on his table. Physically, I mean.
 * Entirely deliberate, as killing was Dexter's equivalent of sexual release. (Back before he managed to have sexual release during... y'know... sex.)
 * Harsher in Hindsight:
 * At the end of season two, Dexter Trying to convince his captor to turn himself in,  describes Dexter's urge to kill as being "like a cancer - and in case you haven't noticed, it's spreading". Michael C. Hall contracted Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 2010, before recovering later that year.
 * A lighter, in show example is Batista in season three going around having sex with hookers after his bad luck with women. Turns out, one of the hookers was an undercover cop, and the only reason she does not bring up the incident to her superiors and ruin Batista's career is because it would screw up the case she's built up. Cue season 6, and.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: In season 2, Doakes tells Dexter "You owe me a new Michelin, motherfucker." Years later, Erik King would work as a spokesman for Michelin.
 * Ho Yay: Season 3 has tons of this between Dexter and.
 * There's a lot between him and in season 4, too.
 * Was I honestly the only one who noticed that Brian's interest in Dexter went a bit past ?
 * Idiot Ball: Dexter has a nasty tendency to hold onto this, especially in later seasons.
 * Magnificent Bastard:
 * Lieutenant LaGuerta. It becomes apparent in Season 2 when, after getting demoted by her superior, she.
 * Also, her maneuvers against Deb, feeding her to the press to cover herself.
 * Takes it Up to Eleven in season 6, where not only does she, but she then.
 * The Ice Truck Killer, Brian has his moments of MagnificentBastardry as well.
 * Whenever listing Magnificent Bastards for this series, one should remember that Dexter's very survival is only possible because he's the best of them all.
 * Memetic Mutation: "It's all about strategy. Out-maneuvering the opposition." [cut to him trolling or being a Magnificent Bastard in a PC game] "What are you doing in my office, Dex?" [Dexter looks up and grins, having succeeded trolling] "Winning."
 * "Surprise Motherfucker!"
 * And of course, the many gags mixing him with Dexter's Laboratory.
 * Moral Event Horizon: When invited to forgive his enemy, Dexter takes the right step along the fork to forgiveness. When the enemy spits on the mercy he has been showed, Dexter backtracks to the other tine and drowns him.
 * Narm: In season 6,
 * Nightmare Fuel: The Season 4 finale.
 * How
 * Any of the times Dexter talks to his about-to-be-dead victim has slight indications of this, but when Dexter finally finds the man who killed his mom, well...
 * Trinity's killings. All  of his MO's. Considering his very first appearance consists of him physically overpowering a small woman in a manner that is very reminiscent of sexual assault (both of them being naked does not help), and then sticking a razor blade between her legs in the tub. He only cut the femoral artery, but this troper honestly thought he was attempting some form of genital mutilation at first, and almost had to turn it off. Then there's his absolutely chilling forcing of a woman to jump to her death, with her begging him to push her because she's too scared, then the incredibly brutal beating of a man to death with a hammer..
 * The Barrel Girl Gang made DVDs of them torturing and raping their victims. Mercifully, virtually nothing is shown but the screams definitely qualify as this. Lumen's is especially horrific.
 * Romantic Plot Tumor: Various seasons are afflicted with this, such as 2 and 5, but the grandaddy of them all must be Season 4. We're repeatedly taken away from what is arguably the best A-Plot of the series to concentrate on Laguerta and Batista's relationship. It's particularly galling because there's no build up to this romance: they're already lovey-dovey by the time we see them and Batista's previous relationship is merely handwaved away. Oh, and this plotline affects the A-Plot in precisely one instance.
 * The Scrappy: LaGuerta, Quinn, Lila, and Astor.
 * Although some consider Quinn Rescued From the Scrappy Heap somewhat by his
 * Debra to some. She teeters back and forth. On the one hand she really does love Dexter, but on the other she can be a completely unapologetic bitch if she wants to be, she has apparently no common sense whatsoever when it comes to who she chooses to date (her track record so far: a serial killer, an FBI agent who's old enough to be her father, and she was apparently not smart enough to realize he'd leave Miami after the case was over, a drug dealing/using CI, and a dirty cop), and in season five, makes a few less than pleasant comments about people who speak Spanish in America.
 * That's arguable a lot, since most of her boyfriends were Jerk with a Heart of Gold (which was the most she could hope for, considering her career choice and her temper, language and general behavior; hell, Anton kept wanting to hint that he was too good for her), and Brian... well, he was a very good liar. Hell, he could fake emotions .
 * Seasonal Rot: Generally held to have set in around season 5. Season 1 and 2 are held in very high esteem, while season 3 just divided the fans a bit. Season 4 received perhaps the most acclaim from both fans and critics of any season thus far, especially for John Lithgow's performance. Season 5 however gets a lot of flak on account of the Lumen character, the weak resolution of many of its plotlines, and overall dissapointment at the entire season finale. Season 6 is now also largely considered this, due to poor pacing and writing problems and severe character derailment. Sometimes within the span of two episodes, such as with Quinn and Travis.
 * Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: This show is just sort of the best example ever. Not an episode can go by without someone making some sort of unintentionally ironic comment about Dexter's double life. Really went for broke with this trope in the season 4 finale when
 * Special Effect Failure: The snakes in the season six premiere. It is quite obvious that they are CGI.
 * Squick: An unlimited supply related to the Trinity killer. Most notably,
 * In season 6, a lot of people found  more than a little off-putting,  . Thankfully this plot seems to have been resolved, especially.
 * Spiritual Successor: To the Hannibal Lecter series.
 * Strangled by the Red String: The Batista/LaGuerta relationship, which comes out practically from nowhere and takes a lot of screen time in seasons 4 and 5.
 * And now in season six they are divorced.
 * Tear Jerker:
 * Also, almost the entirety of the Season five premiere. Especially  and seeing Astor lose it after
 * Dexter's  gets a special mention.
 * How about when Deb goes back to where Lundy was killed? Whatever you might think about her, seeing her break down like that is truly heartbreaking.
 * Unfortunate Implications: While avoiding any outright racist statements, in the first few episodes of season five, Debra makes a few less than pleasant remarks about spanish-speaking Americans.
 * The handling of religious believers in Season 6 also is getting a lot of criticism.
 * The Untwist: A lot of viewers guessed that
 * Wangst: Dexter
 * The Woobie: Several, though Rita and Lumen take the cake.
 * Iron Woobie: Deb, LaGuerta, Batista
 * Stoic Woobie: Dexter himself
 * Jerkass Woobie: Doakes, Christine
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Brian, Arthur.

Books

 * Alas, Poor Scrappy: Poor, we hardly knew yee. As well as
 * Angst? What Angst?: Debra concerning Dexter and what he does Justified in that she is a Badass and we don't see how she deals with her life by herself.
 * Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Or as close as this series gets to one. Dexter is perfectly willing to go after  despite, for all he knows, is only guilty of attempted murder.
 * Franchise Original Sin: Many fans were displeased over the Genre Shift in the third book, but in the first book there is mention of how animals don't like Dexter, which is hardly scientific.
 * How Unscientific: The second and third books abandon the true-crime/psychological thriller format and explain that Dexter kills because he's possessed by a demon called the Dark Passenger. This is referenced in the television series in a metaphorical sense, rather than implying that Dexter is possessed by a literal dark entity. This deviation from the original narrative is a positive example of Executive Meddling since it would have placed the show in the Sci Fi Ghetto.
 * Not that it seems to matter, since the fourth book shoves it into a corner with barely a passing mention, and it's likely to go unexplored from here on out.
 * Squick: "Jenny's Leg", fourth book. The fun part? It's also Foreshadowing.
 * True Art Is Incomprehensible: The plot of the fourth book revolves around the antagonists' efforts at art with dead bodies.