‘Dexter’: All 8 Seasons, Ranked From Worst to Best
[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for all eight seasons of Dexter.]
It’s almost time for another round of serial killer hunting when Dexter: Resurrection brings Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) back into our screen lives once again. The Paramount+ with Showtime series is expected to debut sometime this summer, picking up immediately after the events of Dexter: New Blood, the first sequel series that aired in 2021 and reunited Dexter with his now-grown son, Harrison (Jack Alcott).
Resurrection will, as the title indicates, raise Dexter from the certain death he seemingly faced in the finale of New Blood — executive producer Clyde Phillips teased to TV Insider, “In the beginning of Resurrection, the doctor says to Dexter, Michael Hall, ‘Had you been shot in the summertime, you’d be dead, but you were shot in zero degree weather, and we ripped you open, and we’re able to get you’ minutes before [you] died,’ and you … see the police SUV is speeding as fast as it can. And it’s a race against time to save a life, and he did it.”
Before Dexter: Resurrection arrives to show us what’s next after that, we wanted to take a look back at the Showtime drama’s original eight-season run and rank the individual seasons, from worst to best.
8. Dexter Season 8
The final season of Dexter is riddled with a few too many conveniences, including the very series ending. This is the season when Dexter finds out he has a metaphorical mom in Dr. Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling), a woman who claims to have invented the code with Harry but has never ever been mentioned before. Vogel needs his protection against the Brain Surgeon a.k.a. Oliver Saxon (Darri Ingolfsson) and also asks Dexter to become a father figure to her other patient with killer urges, Zach Hamilton (Adam Carrington). Soon, Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski) comes back into the picture again, and Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) finds herself positively surrounded by serial killers, all while she struggles to learn to live again after what she’s done to protect Dexter. (Her turnabout from hating him for what he’s caused her to do to loving him enough to protect a house full of killers isn’t earned well in the season, either.) Perhaps the biggest sin of the season — yes, even worse than that final shot — is the way Angel Batista (David Zayas) simply discards all the evidence against Dexter, even after Maria LaGuerta (Lauren Vélez) was murdered for it. Huh?!
7. Dexter Season 6
This season is one season-long religious parable. Not only does Dexter encounter a former killer who’s found the light in Brother Sam (Mos Def), but the main serial murderer of the season is the Doomsday Killer a.k.a. Travis Marshall (Colin Hanks), who is slaughtering people in hopes of making the apocalypse happen — although he pulls a Fight Club and blames the murders on his former mentor, whom he also killed. The overt symbolism doesn’t stop there, either. Soon, we see Harry being replaced as Dexter’s ghost angel by his devilish dead brother, who urges him to give in to his worst impulses. The season concludes with Debra finally, finally finding out what’s been under her nose all this time as she walks in on Dexter in the act, but it’s not enough to save the very ham-handed season from being one of the weaker ones in the series.
6. Dexter Season 5
The season picks up after the events of Season 4’s finale. Dexter grapples with the damage he’s done by leaving the Trinity Killer alive to study him for tips on how to pull off a double life. The result is, ironically, that Rita (Julie Benz) has been murdered in her bathtub, and his stepkids are moving out, too. That leaves Dexter to raise Harrison — who has now waded in a pool of his mother’s spilled blood just like he did — all by himself. That strong subplot of Dexter facing some very real consequences becomes secondary, though, when he meets Lumen (Julia Stiles), a would-be victim of Jordan Chase (Jonny Lee Miller) and his Barrel Girl Gang. Dexter takes Lumen under his wing and teaches her how to kill, and he finds a true feeling of partnership with her in the process (even if the power dynamic is anything but equal between them). Meanwhile, Debra grapples with consequences of her own as the Santa Muerte gang proves to be more vicious than she expected, and her boyfriend Joseph Quinn (Desmond Harrington) has his eye on Dexter. Things take a sharp turn downward at the very end as Dexter’s plot armor becomes a little too thick.
5. Dexter Season 3
Just as he’s starting to question the value of the code, Dexter gets his first true sidekick when he meets Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits), a district attorney who’s harboring a dark passenger of his own and is increasingly resistant to following those rules. The two grow closer as the season goes on, for better and for worse, and Dexter soon learns that serial killers don’t really make great friends! It’s not the first — and certainly not the last — time he works with one of his kind, but the concept of another character mirroring Dexter and Dexter not liking what he sees is novel at this point in the series. Plus, the season has the Skinner a.k.a. George King (Jason Borrego), a gnarly murderer who gives Debra and Miami Metro a devil of a time with his truly disgusting kills. All of it proves to be quite a stark contrast with the very bland baby mama drama Dexter faces with Rita as they get pregnant and engaged.
4. Dexter Season 7
Whereas Dexter has spent most of the series on his own trying to hide his true nature from others, things take a major turn in this season as Debra becomes aware of her brother’s true nature and decides to help protect him from her own department, implicating herself in the process. It’s a labor of love — and not just the sisterly kind — for her, but that’s even further complicated by the arrival of Hannah, a woman who has some skeletons in her closet, too, and intrigues Dexter in ways no one else ever has. All of this is backdropped by threats from the Ukrainian mafia as Maria LaGuerta finally starts to see Dexter for who — or what — he is.
3. Dexter Season 2
This season puts Dexter on the proverbial ropes, as Sergeant James Doakes (Erik King) makes his suspicions about him very well known. Here’s a man whose only real crime is seeing Dexter for what he is and being unafraid to say as much to everyone who’ll listen, but the threat he poses to Dex becomes a major test of the code — especially as news of the Bay Harbor Butcher is drawing others ever nearer to finding him. Making matters worse, the walls start closing in on him at home, too. He has to pretend he’s an addict to stave off Rita’s suspicions about his behavior, which includes engaging in an affair with the obsessive Lila (Jaime Murray), whose empathy for his, erm, condition is something new for Dexter at this point in the story. The season’s strength lies in what it does to the captive viewer, making us root for the villain to prevail over someone who is inarguably innocent.
2. Dexter Season 4
Three words justify this season’s very high placement on this list: The Trinity Killer. At this point in the show’s linear run, it needs a shakeup to avoid becoming monotonous, and wow does it get one in Season 4. This season introduces the Trinity Killer a.k.a. Arthur Mitchell (John Lithgow in the show’s only Emmy-winning acting turn) and, by the end of it, Dexter’s life is turned completely upside-down after a series of surprisingly unpredictable events. Things also get deservedly deeper for Deb as she grapples with being shot and watching her lover and mentor Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine) die right in front of her, and Dexter himself is inches from growing his heart grinch-style before everything goes wrong. If not for the fridging factor of the finale killing off Rita out of nowhere, this might be the best of the best.
1. Dexter Season 1
There’s a reason Dexter became such a television phenomenon as soon as it hit the air: The series starts out with a bang (and a stab, and a slice, and every other type of violent act). Season 1 not only introduces audiences to the vigilante with his dark passenger and a moral code to kill only people who deserve it, but the series opener also brings forth the Ice Truck Killer a.k.a. Brian Moser (Christian Camargo). This serial slaughterer hits too close to home, literally, and reveals the truth of Dexter’s bloody backstory one chopped-up body part at a time. Soon, Dexter is forced to choose between giving in to his bloodlust birthright and the family he’s only ever pretended to love. Even upon rewatch, the first season stands out for its rock-solid story structure and compelling character development — with the oh-so-creative kills in play as a big bonus.
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