Clyde Phillips offers to reveal how he would have ended Dexter after the finale.

Sofiztikated

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1mkv67/i_am_clyde_phillips_showrunner_of_dexter_and/cca6hew

So, Clyde Phillips, showrunner seasons 1-4, has offered to reveal how he would have ended the show, during a Reddit AMA.

This I can't wait to read.

syklops

To be honest, Elmo from the muppets could say how he would have ended it and it could be entertaining, but the truth is, one week from today we will have seen the very last episode and short of resurrecting Trinity, I think we are all going to be disappointed. Episode 11 felt like the first Dexter episode I had seen in a while. The last 10 episodes have just been dross.

I was just thinking there when it was revealed that Christine was Trinity's daughter and you were like :eek:. This season we have had reveals such as Saxon is Voguls son, and that hot chick is Masoukas daughter and that Vogul masterminded Dexters code, and still the way it was directed/produced filled me with so little interest. There was no drama. Christine was in Season 4 for a good 5-6 episodes, before it was revealed who she really was. Vogul turned up in episode 1 with a name badge that said "Hi, Im Dr Vogul and I know all about you Dexter". There was no subtlety at all. Dex standing outside the cafe is the prime example, and Ghost Dad pointing out to those of us not paying attention that the tyres were slit. No wonder most of us open up boards about half way through an episode, we're just bored.

vitani

I didn't realise there was a different showrunner for the first four seasons. That explains a lot.

syklops

vitani wrote: »

I didn't realise there was a different showrunner for the first four seasons. That explains a lot.

It sure does.

The question I want to ask is "Why did you leave?!?"

SomeRandomer wrote:

I guess I have one more question, if that's ok. Of the four seasons under your direction, which was your personal favorite?

ClydePhilips wrote:

by far it was the fourth season, the trinity killer year. the writing room and the directors had all been with me since the start and we were really firing on all cylinders by then.

They were indeed firing on all 4 cylinders.

Pang

I too had no idea Dexter had a different show runner for the last four seasons. It explains so much.

Sinfonia

syklops wrote: »

It sure does.

The question I want to ask is "Why did you leave?!?"

According to a news article I read, he was working his ass off in LA 9 months of the year, and only really spending 3 months with his family on the other side of the country.
Bastard, how dare he have a personal life while we all wallow in the misery of Dexter Mk II !

pixelburp

Huh, yeah in retrospect it suddenly seems kinda obvious that there was a change in leadership with this show, considering how quickly South it all went from Season 5 onwards. It just shows how a simple change in leadership can result in such a dramatic shift in quality. Part of me doesn't want to know Phillips' ideas for the finale really, because whatever it turns out to be, it'll be leaps & bounds above the actual ending.

syklops

Sinfonia wrote: »

According to a news article I read, he was working his ass off in LA 9 months of the year, and only really spending 3 months with his family on the other side of the country.
Bastard, how dare he have a personal life while we all wallow in the misery of Dexter Mk II !

WTF is the point of this comment?

According to some random article you read which you have no link for.

Dude leaves show, show quality drops, audience is disappointed, audience discovers dude left, audience goes "that makes sense". Whats your problem?

DesperateDan

syklops wrote: »

WTF is the point of this comment?

According to some random article you read which you have no link for.

Dude leaves show, show quality drops, audience is disappointed, audience discovers dude left, audience goes "that makes sense". Whats your problem?

Testy, he's just commenting on why Phillips left for those of us who didn't know (me included), what's your problem? Here is your link.

Sinfonia

syklops wrote: »

WTF is the point of this comment?

According to some random article you read which you have no link for.

Dude leaves show, show quality drops, audience is disappointed, audience discovers dude left, audience goes "that makes sense". Whats your problem?

You asked "why did you leave?!?"
I remembered reading an article in which he explains why, so I told you what he said, because you asked.
I don't know why the link matters, I was doing you a favour, you could've googled it.
Then I made a tongue-in-cheek comment about him going to spend more time with his family while we all suffer what Dexter has become without him ('Bastard' was referring to him, obviously sarcastically).
So I dunno if you thought I was in some way attacking him or you or something, but jaysus, pull the cactus out of your ass!

syklops

DesperateDan wrote: »

Testy, he's just commenting on why Phillips left for those of us who didn't know (me included), what's your problem? Here is your link.

The exclamation point and the second question mark should have indicated that it was a rhetorical question. I said "Why did you leave?!?" not "Why did he leave?". The quality of the show dropped after his departure, surely it is natural to ask this question rhetorically.

"To spend more time with my family" is a line used by politicians who have been sacked for sleeping with inappropriate people, or being caught swiping the silverware, so I didn't buy that line. I still don't. Why didnt he move his family to LA?

So I dunno if you thought I was in some way attacking him or you or something, but jaysus, pull the cactus out of your ass!

You said:

Bastard, how dare he have a personal life while we all wallow in the misery of Dexter Mk II !

It was a rhetorical question. I thought it was obvious that it was a rhetorical question. Dexter turned to sh!t after his departure. Post hoc ergo propter hoc, I asked the rhetorical question why did you leave.

I'll try to be clearer in future.

Sorry for any offence taken.

splashthecash

syklops wrote: »

To be honest, Elmo from the muppets could say how he would have ended it and it could be entertaining, but the truth is, one week from today we will have seen the very last episode and short of resurrecting Trinity, I think we are all going to be disappointed. Episode 11 felt like the first Dexter episode I had seen in a while. The last 10 episodes have just been dross.

OK Elmo...call it - how would the show's frontrunner ended Dexter had he stayed on?

syklops

splashthecash wrote: »

OK Elmo...call it - how would the show's frontrunner ended Dexter had he stayed on?

You misunderstood my post.

The 'he' refers to Elmo not Clyde Philips.

splashthecash

syklops wrote: »

You misunderstood my post.

The 'he' refers to Elmo not Clyde Philips.

Ah I get ye....damn, was looking forward to reading the ending. I guess I'll have to wait until Monday now. I actually more excited to read how it was going to end than how it will actually end.

iMuse

I suppose it is no worse than the actual ending anyway

"In the very last scene of the series," Philips explained, "Dexter wakes up. And everybody is going to think, 'Oh, it was a dream.' And then the camera pulls back and back and back and then we realize, 'No, it's not a dream.' Dexter's opening his eyes and he's on the execution table at the Florida Penitentiary. They're just starting to administer the drugs and he looks out through the window to the observation gallery.
"And in the gallery are all the people that Dexter killed—including the Trinity Killer and the Ice Truck Killer (his brother Rudy), LaGuerta who he was responsible killing, Doakes who he's arguably responsible for, Rita, who he's arguably responsible for, Lila. All the big deaths, and also whoever the weekly episodic kills were. They are all there.
"That's what I envisioned for the ending of Dexter. That everything we've seen over the past eight seasons has happened in the several seconds from the time they start Dexter's execution to the time they finish the execution and he dies. Literally, his life flashed before his eyes as he was about to die. I think it would have been a great, epic, very satisfying conclusion."

Source

Shane St.

iMuse wrote: »

I suppose it is no worse than the actual ending anyway




Source

that wud have been a great ending!

gnfnrhead

iMuse wrote: »

I suppose it is no worse than the actual ending anyway




Source

You're right there. It's a million times better.

FlyingIrishMan

I think that is a terrible ending too. But we don't have enough context, can't fully judge from hearing just one scene.

pixelburp

There's not a lot to go on, but presumably with this ending Miami Metro wouldn't have been written completely into the ground and instead would have been involved with outing Dexter as a serial killer. That alone could have been a superior vehicle to the limp mess we actually got. Deb hunting Dex could have made for an interesting finale ...

jaykhunter

That would be a cool ending, but I'd want to know how we got to that point - like what would he have done for S5-7 is the bigger story. There were some major season arcs that they could've done.

mdwexford

I imagine he would have made season 5 the final season from the way he talks on reddit.

He certainly woouldnt have went through the motions for four years of crap.

syklops

iMuse wrote: »

I suppose it is no worse than the actual ending anyway




Source

I dont think that is much better to be honest. Its not a million miles from the explanation of Lost which was Jack waking up on an airplane and going "Oh. It was all a dream...". Telling the viewer that what they have watched for the last 8 years was random firing of neurons in the seconds before death is a smack in the face to the audience. Thats a smack in my face.

Seriously, you are story tellers. Can you not end the story, by telling the story? In some ways I think this end was very safe by the writers. Dex is still alive and there is nothing stopping a sequel, or a one off episode, or a straight to video feature. They had an opportunity to finish the story. Instead they got rid of his sister, his son, and his lover, and left it open for a Dexter movie which will look a bit like X-Men 1.

Dempsey

iMuse wrote: »

I suppose it is no worse than the actual ending anyway




Source

thats the way I saw it going too but then I saw season 5

FlyingIrishMan

syklops wrote: »

I dont think that is much better to be honest. Its not a million miles from the explanation of Lost which was Jack waking up on an airplane and going "Oh. It was all a dream...". Telling the viewer that what they have watched for the last 8 years was random firing of neurons in the seconds before death is a smack in the face to the audience. Thats a smack in my face.

Not sure if you're serious, but that wasn't the ending of Lost.
Everything that happened in Lost was real, not a dream.

Dempsey

FlyingIrishMan wrote: »

Not sure if you're serious, but that wasn't the ending of Lost.
Everything that happened in Lost was real, not a dream.

the ending of lost was crap. everything that happened was a waste of time

syklops

FlyingIrishMan wrote: »

Not sure if you're serious, but that wasn't the ending of Lost.
Everything that happened in Lost was real, not a dream.

I was waiting for a lost nerd to post here. I can't remember who, it might have been Conan O'Brien did a "How lost should have ended" and he suggested the "It was all a dream", which would have been more satisfying than the turd they left us with.

I'm not getting into lost here. I've had arguments with people on boards who were satisfied with the ending and were satisfied that all the questions of the island were answered. I wasn't satisfied.

Sofiztikated

I didn't watch Lost at the time, but did watch it recently, marathon sessioning it.

While I found the ending a little weak, it wasn't awful. But if I had to wait to watch it, I could see how it would be disappointing.

I found the ending (of Dexter) to be one of the better episodes this season, but still a country mile from what it once was. At least he didn't wash up on the shore of Argentina!

gnfnrhead

syklops wrote: »

I was waiting for a lost nerd to post here. I can't remember who, it might have been Conan O'Brien did a "How lost should have ended" and he suggested the "It was all a dream", which would have been more satisfying than the turd they left us with.

I'm not getting into lost here. I've had arguments with people on boards who were satisfied with the ending and were satisfied that all the questions of the island were answered. I wasn't satisfied.

The Lost ending was a let down. It wasnt a bad ending, it was actually pretty good, we just expected a lot more from it. Dexter was just bad. No two ways about it.

syklops

Sofiztikated wrote: »

I didn't watch Lost at the time, but did watch it recently, marathon sessioning it.

While I found the ending a little weak, it wasn't awful. But if I had to wait to watch it, I could see how it would be disappointing.

I found the ending (of Dexter) to be one of the better episodes this season, but still a country mile from what it once was. At least he didn't wash up on the shore of Argentina!

I watched Lost over six years, reading books with titles like "The secrets of Lost" and hanging out in forums looking for answers in the subtle hints week by week many of which lead nowhere. So you can understand my disappointment. I've watched Dexter over 8 eight years. I wasn't as invested, but I had great respect for the series. Many time I was like WTF?:eek:. Recently, I've been more like WTF!:rolleyes:

Kirby

syklops wrote: »

I dont think that is much better to be honest. Its not a million miles from the explanation of Lost which was Jack waking up on an airplane and going "Oh. It was all a dream...".

This was absolutely NOT the ending of Lost. How you can call yourself a fan of the show and actually think that is mind boggling.

The ending of lost was poor. Infact the last 3 seasons were poor enough. I wasn't a big fan of the ending myself but you are so far off the mark here it's incredible. It wasn't a dream, everything on the island happened.

And neither myself nor flyingirishman are nerds for pointing it out. You are merely incorrect.

GorillaRising

Whatever the ending of Lost was or wasn't it was f*cking rubbish after 6 seasons.

People talk about fans having expectations, but who gives us those in the first place? Certainly the writer's contribute and over six seasons of Lost and 8 of Dexter fans (rightly so) had a certain level of expectation.

They didn't deliver. Simple as.

Anyway. I'm putting Dexter to sleep! I may rewatch the first few seasons (and season 4 of course!) and forget the last one ever happened.

snausages

For all LOST's shortcomings at least the final season felt like a final season, unsatisfying as it was.

Psychedelic

Funny that people are still bashing the ending of Lost especially when they don't even understand it.

I can see how people felt the Lost finale was a let-down, a bit wishy-washy maybe, but it did make sense, nearly all the questions & plot threads were answered and resolved, and the characters all got a good enough ending to their arcs.

But it is nothing like the Dexter finale which was horrendous, it was 0/10 stuff, absolutely pathetic from every point of view and did not make sense at all.

Dempsey

Psychedelic wrote: »

Funny that people are still bashing the ending of Lost especially when they don't even understand it.

I can see how people felt the Lost finale was a let-down, a bit wishy-washy maybe, but it did make sense, nearly all the questions & plot threads were answered and resolved, and the characters all got a good enough ending to their arcs.

But it is nothing like the Dexter finale which was horrendous, it was 0/10 stuff, absolutely pathetic from every point of view and did not make sense at all.

Ah yes, the critics of Lost's ending just didnt understand it! :rolleyes:

I understood the ending to Lost, it was just shíte for reasons well explained on the Lost forum.

splashthecash

Psychedelic wrote: »

Funny that people are still bashing the ending of Lost especially when they don't even understand it.

I can see how people felt the Lost finale was a let-down, a bit wishy-washy maybe, but it did make sense, nearly all the questions & plot threads were answered and resolved, and the characters all got a good enough ending to their arcs.

But it is nothing like the Dexter finale which was horrendous, it was 0/10 stuff, absolutely pathetic from every point of view and did not make sense at all.

I know this isn't a Lost thread, but are you serious?
http://www.geekscape.net/the-top-ten-questions-lost-never-answered

ScumLord

Dexter should have been caught and locked up. Enough people had enough information to piece it all together.

What certainly shouldn't have happened is that he's psychopathy shouldn't have just went away and him ending up cured of his condition to live out a righteous life as a lumberjack.

Psychedelic

Dempsey wrote: »

Ah yes, the critics of Lost's ending just didnt understand it! :rolleyes:

I understood the ending to Lost, it was just shíte for reasons well explained on the Lost forum.

Well some here and on the Lost forum have shown they obviously didn't understand. For those, like you, who thought it was crap, fair enough, but it was nowhere near as bad as Dexter.

splashthecash wrote: »

I know this isn't a Lost thread, but are you serious?
http://www.geekscape.net/the-top-ten-questions-lost-never-answered

Ten questions that were answered but not to the satisfaction of some.... I actually agree with some of that though, but again my point was that Lost's ending was just a let-down, whereas Dexter's ending was a total disaster.

syklops

I regret mentioning Lost now.