"Dexter" has been on Showtime for six seasons now. That's longer than the broadcast runs for "Friday Night Lights," "The Wire," "Deadwood," "Twin Peaks," "Six Feet Under," and "Battlestar Galactica." It's been renewed for two more after this one, which will leap frog it over "The Sopranos," "Mad Men," and "The Shield." Just say that out loud: Eight. Seasons. Of. "Dexter." And if the next two are anything like the formulaic-to-a-fault one that mercifully finishes on Sunday, may God have mercy on us all. The two Big Bads (a term that means the main villain in a single season) this year, played by Colin Hanks and Edward James Olmos, have been the main problem. Why? Well, read on, as they're one of the nine worst single-season villains in TV history.
(Spoiler alert, obviously.)
The term "Big Bad" originates from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," because with every new season came a season-long villain(s). There was the Master in one, Angelus/Spike/Dru in two...going all the way until season seven with the First Evil/Caleb. My least favorite of the Big Bads is season four's "bio-mechanical demonoid" Adam (George Hertzberg), created by the Initiative to be the perfect organism. Think Frankenstein's Monster, if said Monster had been built with human, demon, and robot body parts. Sounds cool, right? Wrong. Coming off a two-season high of Angelus and the Mayor, the emotionless Adam already had a lot going against him, and the fact that he wasn't nearly half as witty or charming (actually, he wasn't charming or witty at all — kind of like Riley) as those two did him no favors. He doesn't even appear until the thirteenth episode of the season, too! Simply put, he just wasn't interesting, something creator Joss Whedon has admitted as much in recent years. (For what it's worth, Jasmine was the worst Big Bad on the "Buffy" spin-off, "Angel.")
Hm, who would have thought “Dexter” tackling religion would lead to a bad season? Not I, says no one. This year has been a train wreck, with Travis Marshall (Colin Hanks) and Professor Gellar (Edward James Olmos) in the conductor’s seat. Most viewers guessed THE TWIST within three episodes, and it took way too long for the show to bring them and Dexter together. “Dexter” is at its best when there’s a visible chess match between the main protagonist and antagonist (think Trinity in season four); but for most of the season, Dexter and Travis/Gellar (spoiler?) weren't even aware of one another. Combined with all the dumb plot twists, road trips to Nebraska, and the writers still feeling it necessary for voice-overs to explain EVERYTHING, this season is a new low for "Dexter."
Season four of “True Blood,” which finished in September, puttered along for 12 episodes, without the show providing any of the cheesy thrills and cheap, enjoyable sexiness we’ve grown accustomed to it providing. But the biggest problem with last season was its Big Bad, Marnie the Witch (Fiona Shaw, best known as Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter films). A good "True Blood" villain needs to be unhinged and dangerous; Marnie was tepid throughout her run on the show, with a cop-out conclusion to her story. You got the feeling Shaw never knew what to do with the character, and it showed. At least Russell’s coming back for season five.
When I asked Dustin and Danger their picks for the worst single-season villains, the latter responded back to me within minutes, writing, "If you decide to include Oliver [Taylor Handley] from season one of "The O.C.," feel free to mention that I think he is the king of the sh*theads and I hope he ended up dying alone at the bottom of a ravine."
And Danger's not the only one who hated that spoiled rich twerp; according to "The O.C."'s Wiki, "In the world of "The O.C." fan fiction, very little fiction is written about Oliver, even in the slash communities, where a variety of minor male characters of "The O.C." are written about frequently. The lack of fan fiction may be a standing testament to the lukewarm fan reception of Oliver as a character." It may be? It is.
Wanna piss off an “Alias” fan? Just whisper the name “Lauren Reed” in their ear, and watch them either go ballistic with rage or find the nearest corner to cry in. After an awesome second season finale, where Agent Vaughn (Michael Vartan) informs Sydney (Jennifer Garner) that she’s been missing for two years, the third season began with a thud when Lauren (Melissa George) was introduced. Die-hards immediately disliked her because she romantically separated Sydney and Vaughn, and dislike grew to hatred when it was revealed she was a Double Agent working for the Covenant. And she slept with Sark (David Sanders). And she shot the show’s most likable character, Marshall (Kevin Weisman). In fact, she was detested so much that she was killed off-screen, the ultimate insult to a main character.
It’s true, he first appeared in season one, when he attempted to rape Tyra (Adrianne Palicki), but Ugh, That Guy, as fans (or I) have dubbed him, came back to the show during its second season premiere. He did his creepy stalker, attempted-rapist thing again, and after another attempted attack on Tyra (> Lyla), Landry (Jesse Plemons) hit him in the head with a metal pipe. Thus began the only terrible plot — a MURDER plot — in the five seasons of “Friday Night Lights.” It felt melodramatic and desperate and dumb, and many fans accused NBC of meddling with the show in an attempt to increase ratings (it didn't work, either way); plus, it hovered over the entirety of season two, like an absent Big Gad. Thankfully, after the season-long cover-up by Tyra and Landry, Ugh, That Guy was never mentioned again.
We didn’t know Sophia (Madison Lintz) was a villain until the mid-season finale, but it all makes sense now: I can easily pin the blame for seven terrible episodes of "The Walking Dead" on her. NOTHING HAPPENED, because of her. The half-season can be described as such: Carl gets shot, Sophia gets lost, Rick & Co. find a barn, Carl gets better, Sophia remains lost, Sophia’s a zombie. That’s it. Nothing else of so-called importance happened, unless Lori making Glenn buy a pregnancy test or T-Dog doing T-Dog stuff was significant to you. Even the Zombie Sophia was fu*king dumb — why wouldn’t Otis have mentioned to the group that two days before they arrived, he found a girl who matches the description of the person they’re looking for? GAH. I really hate this show. And Shane. And Sophia. But especially Shane. But especially Zombie Sophia.
I appreciate James Cromwell trying to go from America’s Grandpa to “24” Bad Guy, and maybe it would have been interesting if season six hadn’t been so awful, but holy smokes: was season six awful. It was a convoluted mess of confusing plots and double-crossing characters, with too many “I’ve seen this before, but better” moments. Crowell played Jack Bauer’s dad, Phillip, and we’re never given a truly solid reason for why he wanted to kill Jack and his grandson. And man oh man, he did not have a fun time:
On the floor of the set I saw this two-star general and asked him what he was doing there, and explained that he had come to talk to them about the presentation of torture, which I thought was eminently reasonable and necessary. And their reaction was flip, to my way of thinking. And to me they missed a great opportunity, which they could have done in the last season, to rectify what they had done — where he becomes disillusioned with this and makes every effort to change his techniques. It could’ve been a great contribution, but they didn’t have the imagination for that. (Metro)
No one was happy.
Honestly, I don't even want to talk about the ninth and final season of "The X-Files" — it's the Squeeze of TV seasons. There's no reason the show should have continued when Fox Mulder left, because with all due respect to the T-1000, you were no Mulder, Robert Patrick. (Monica Reyes was even worse; Mitch Pileggi, though, he's OK by me.) All fans wanted in the final season was to finally get some answers about Truth, but instead, even more questions were raised, mostly about the Super-Soldiers. The worst part, though, was that the S.S. (ohhh...) KILLED the Lone Gunmen, the best characters on the show by then. Let's just pretend none of that ever happened, Armin Tamzarian-style.
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Disagree on 24, the rest are acceptable. And there was no season 9 of X-Files. Nope. Didn’t happen. *stick fingers in ear*
I thought I watched a lot of TV, but the only one of these I saw was Season 2 of FNL.
Ugh I hate you Colin Hanks.
Honorable Mention: Every season of Charmed.
What? I’m the only one that watched Charmed? Disregard.
Blargh, Super Soldiers.
And if we’re counting Sophia as a villain, how about Ana Lucia? Everything she touched turned to shit.
I don’t like Shane, but I REALLY hate the blond girl on ‘The Walking Dead”. “Wah, I want my gun.” “Wah, I shot that guy” “Wah, I have the same disgusted look on my face during everything, even while I was rubbing Shane’s junk.” “Wah, No ne takes me seriously”.
Her, Shannon & Kate from “LOST” and Betty Francis-Draper (whatever she is) can all fall into a fire pit.
Yo fuck Oliver. Seriously.
@ John G Yes, the blonde is an all time annoying shitty character. She sucks, that’s all there is to it. Maybe if the writers didn’t suck so bad they could give her character some depth but, they can’t and won’t. Can’t wait till she’s finally killed off.
I really like Jason Patrick, but I think it really is best to pretend those final seasons of the X-Files never happened.
@Patty Eh, she killed Shannon, so I can’t hate on her too much.
I’m with DG Oliver is the worst. Good list. Didn’t even think of Sophia as “the villain” but it works.
But, Josh, killing Shannon made Sayid sad.
I always saw The Initiative as the big bad of Buffy season 4, with Adam as just a consequence of their actions. And Dexter being almost comically sloppy with his stalking/murdering this season is bothering me more than the lame big bad.
John Lithgow was an awesome “Dexter” villain.
But his multiple nude scenes from that season make me want to put him on the list…
Patty, Patty, Patty, let’s just agree-to-disagree and say that it was total BS that Sayid was with Shannon in the final episode, not Nadia. Lost is pissing me off all over again.
Josh, I had forgot all about that Sayid/Shannon/Nadia thing. Sweet mother, that was total horseshit.
this season’s dexter villians aren’t even the worst in its history. that title easily goes to jimmy smits from season 3. with this season, at least colin hanks looks like a serial killer. like really, i think colin hanks kills people. seriously, check his backyard for disturbed earth.
Oh, I agree about Nadia. I just despise Ana Lucia.
How can you complain about the number of seasons Dexter has had and happily write about True Blood’s fifth season?
True Blood’s main villain of all seasons except 1 should be up there.
And Vince’s dad was a total FNL dickhead.
OMG Marnie is Aunt Petunia!?? No wonder why I hated her so much. That bitch.
Also, Edward James Olmos aka Jennifer lopez’s dad aka crater face will ALWAYS haunt my dreams.
Adam was bad but what about Warren, Jonathon, and Andrew – The Trio – in Buffy, season 6, maybe?
Two seasons and a Chritmas Special is cheating (only 13 episodes in total though, kind of; equivalent to a US season) but Maggie from Extras had to be the most villainous character ever to be treated sympathetically by a show’s creator. This baffled the shit out of me. To quote Aerial Telly, “She is an appalling friend – a vile, poisonous cretin who undermines Andy at every turn. Not once does somebody call him fat and ugly without her nodding in agreement. Not once does she miss an opportunity to imply he has no talent or is shit with women. Too cowardly or talentless to pursue her own dreams, she spends her time mocking and undermining his. A weaselly shitbag who nearly ruined Andy’s big sitcom break by running her mouth to the gay script writer she nonetheless spends her time leeching off his success, getting extras roles she is not entitled to, eating dinner at swanky restaurants she never pays for and meeting stars she would never have met were it not for the friend she routinely abuses…. Maggie is not only passive aggressive, disloyal and undermining she is also an industrial strength whinger.” I hated that bitch.
Crap. I had completely forgotten about Oliver until this article. Now his punchable weasel face won’t get out of my head – thanks a lot, Josh. I still curse those writers for not letting him pull the trigger. That would’ve been the only redeemable end for that storyline.
^ Christmas
“Thus began the only terrible plot — a MURDER plot — in the five seasons of “Friday Night Lights.””
I love FNL, but come on there were some other terrible plots (albeit, none as bad Landry: The Rape Slayer)
– Matt banging the latin nurse
– Vince’s dad (the scene where he beats the drug dealer was like a shitty fanfic written after watching The Wire)
– Mrs. Coach’s “How do I reach these kidz?” East Dillon tenure
– Santiago getting abducted by aliens and no one mentioning it again
Season 3 of Dexter was completely ruined by Jimmy Smits. There has only been 3 legitimately good seasons of this show. 1,2,4 (mainly because of John Lithgow)….all the others have sucked balls.
He didn’t tell them about Sophia becasue he didn’t know about her. He was said in the same episode that it was Otis, the guy who Shane killed, that normally brought the walkers to the barn.
The only way Walking Dead can save this season is if Shane and the blonde split from the group and go walker hunting. Maybe take T-Dog with them so Shane can sacrifice him to the walkers if they get stuck.
Then the rest can settle down on the farm with the new baby and the occasional roaming walker swarm to fight.
Also, Colin Hanks sucks. But the writers on Dexter are the worst villains of all.
*spoiler alert if you haven’t read the books*
The first season of Dexter did three things differently than the books. They kept LaGuerta alive, they killed Brian (Ice Truck Killer) and they kept Debra in the dark about Dexter. At the time I thought they were interesting decisions and it would be fun to see where they take it.
After 6 season it’s not fun any more. LaGuerta is the worst character on the show, Brian only comes back as a lame “dark passenger” for one episode when he could be a re-occurring character/villain every few seasons and worst of all we have season after season of Debra almost finding out/catching Dexter, which has now turned into step-incest dreams.
Arrrggghh! Fuck you, Dexter writers!
@Charlie Br0nze
The trio were hilarious. And the Big Bad was really evil Willow, who was actually a pretty decent one.
It’s too bad the retarded and series killing “THE CARVER” story arc lasted from mid-season 2 to the end of 3 on “Nip/Tuck” since everyone figured that out in about 3 seconds.
Related: if you’re going to watch a show created by Ryan Murphy, just stop watching it after the second season.
Wait, this isn’t a Dustin article?
Wasn’t Squeeze the name of the first Tooms episode in the X-Files? Which was amazing? Bad choice of flubs there.
i was under the impression that Sophia was moving about, as they found some signs of her moving around a bit. then i got the picture that she went to sleep for the night in the barn and found a herd of zombies being kept by an old fool.
The worst thing about last season of True Blood wasn’t Marnie, it was the cheesy music being played during Sookie/Eric’s sex scenes.
I liked this season of Dexter. Although some parts were kind of cheesy, I appreciated the religious aspect of it. If anything, season 2 should have been under fire like this. Lila was completely unnecessary and completely ridiculous.. I know people will say that she needed to be the “angel on dexter’s shoulder” or something along those lines. But the show was not getting as much back lash as this… I just think the bar was raised when John Lithgow was the villain and obviously this is very hard to live up to. Colin Hanks did a very fine job and people are being way too hard on him. The cheese factor was pretty high, but I think this season hit pretty hard.
Ok Imma mention Lex as Zod on Smallville damn they are THAT cheap they can’t afford a different actor?!! Just stupid and the whole Lillith/Meg/green eyed demon/Satan plotline on Supernatural is just o-l-d either make something spectacular happen or end it already.