‘Dexter’ Season Six Shaping Up for Change

Each season of ‘Dexter’ has introduced at least one new central bad guy that Dexter sets his sights on. We already know that the show’s sixth season will have at least four new cast additions, and now Showtime president David Nevins has told TV Line that Season Six “is not [about] one big bad.” It looks like we may be in for a multi-killer season with an unexpected story at the focal point. Are you excited? I sure am.

“There’s one interesting story that will move through the season, and it will be cast very interestingly,” says Nevins. “But it’s not exactly that one person.”

Although each season has given us a few new characters, this is the first time that ‘Dexter’ has introduced us to so many new characters played by recognizable movie and television actors in key roles.

Perhaps the most well known of the new actors is Colin Hanks (recently star of ‘The Good Guys’), son of Academy Award winner Tom Hanks. In Season Six, young Hanks will play “a highly intelligent expert on ancient artifacts who gets linked to a series of grisly murders in Miami.” Hanks is expected to appear in all 12 of the season’s episodes.

Hip-hop artist-turned-actor Mos Def (‘The Italian Job’) was the second to sign on for the season. Mos Def “will play a hardened ex-con who claims to have found religion yet seems to continually find himself surrounded by violence.” The number of episodes in which Mos Def will appear is currently unknown.

Joining the cast this week are television actors Edward James Olmos (‘Battlestar Galactica’) and Billy Brown (‘Lights Out’ and ‘Californication’). Olmos will be playing “a brilliant, charismatic professor of religious studies” and Brown will be playing “a no-nonsense Chicago homicide detective who transfers to Miami Metro, where he immediately ruffles some feathers.” It’s also unknown as to how much Olmos and Brown will appear in the season.

Just after Season Three, Showtime renewed ‘Dexter’ for two more years. Both the fourth and fifth seasons set viewership records for the series. By the time Season Five ended, ‘Dexter’ had not been renewed for a sixth year. (The Season Five finale felt like it was a series finale, not just a season finale, because the writers believed that it truly was the end of ‘Dexter’.) Although no official word has slipped about a seventh season, with contracts renegotiated for the sixth, it’s very likely that ‘Dexter’ could continue running if this one is as successful as the last couple.

Unlike some ‘Dexter’ fans, I have loved each season completely. The news of a unique plot shift doesn’t worry me one bit. Some may find that the news causes flashbacks to the downfall of ‘Spider-Man 3’ – too many villains – but after the strong fourth and fifth seasons, I’m not worried. What about you?

13 comments

  1. The season five finale took a lot of the air out of the show. There are only two ways that it can end for Dexter, either he’s killed or he’s caught and arrested. If they thought that the last season was indeed the series finale, then it was a pretty bad cop-out for a show that spent so many seasons becoming the most intense show on TV. I’ll still watch this season, but I don’t have high hopes yet. There isn’t any conflict being carried over from the previous season, and that makes me less excited to watch.

  2. Tim

    The best seasons of Dexter have ones with standalone killers. Seasons 1 (ITK), Season 2 (if you consider Dex that) and Season 4 (Arthur). The seasons where its been a little bit here and there (3 and 5) have been the weakest ones.

    We’ll see how it goes

  3. TJ Kats

    Even the first one is the only season like the books this sounds a lot like it could be bringing in a lot of the elements from the third book in the series.

      • TJ Kats

        The more I think of it the less I think it would actually be like the book other than the possible occult angle.

        In the book all of the murders are being committed by a cult that looks up to a god named Moloch.

        They are doing the crimes with the sole purpose of trying to get dexter to follow them so that they could kill him. The reason they want to kill him is that his dark passenger is a “child” of Moloch’s that has gone off on it’s own so it has to be dealt with.

        The reason the description reminded of the book is the main suspects to the cops is a couple of professors who are experts on things like these which is what the Hanks and Olmos characters remind me of.

        This is also the book, and they’ll never go with this angle it is too late in the show, this is where he finds out that Cody and Astor want to follow in his path.

        • Luke Hickman
          Author

          Sounds awesome! I remember another article referring to this season as focusing more on the dark passenger. Sounds to me like you are right!

        • motorheadache

          Ugh… I really hope they don’t include the child of Moloch thing from the books. That was a completely abysmal and unnecessary addition to Dexter’s character.

  4. I just got on to Season 3 and I’m not liking it too much, I quit watching after plowing through 1 & 2, they were fantastic, but a few episodes in to Season 3 and I just lost interest, I hope it picks up as I intend to go back and continue here soon, to me it just seems like the same formula over and over again and I cant see the show really improving over the first couple seasons, but we’ll have to see I guess

    • TJ Kats

      I enjoyed three but is a step down from 1 and 2. Season 4 is easily the best though so I would stick it out.

    • KR

      Yeah, 3 wasn’t as strong as the previous 2, but it does stay solid overall. And season 4 is by far the strongest IMO, so I’d encourage you to stick with the series.

      I didn’t love season 5, but am hopeful for what they have in store for season 6.

  5. motorheadache

    This show quickly became one of my favorite series. I thought the first four seasons were all fantastic (not sure why there’s dislike for 3). Season 5 I agree wasn’t quite as good, but it still had great moments. I’m definitely looking forward to season 6.

  6. the best things about season 3 is that it adds weight to events in season 4, which is simply an amazing season of tv.

    season 5 was a dip down, but come on, 4 is a tough peak to reach again. 5 was still enjoyable. I’ll keep watching until they make it obvious I shouldn’t be. they’ve earned a bit if blind faith.

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