Early in his executive session at press tour, Showtime president David Nevins noted that the channel had signed “Dexter” showrunner Scott Buck to an overall deal to secure his services after the show ends. Later, when asked whether plans are still going forward for a “Dexter” spinoff, Nevins said, “Of course. We announced a deal with Scott Buck today. Draw your own conclusions.”
Now, we have no way of knowing how this season of “Dexter” will end, nor which characters will be left standing and in what positions. But where some current dramas have obvious, even abundant, spinoff candidates (Vince Gilligan wants to make a Saul Goodman show after “Breaking Bad” ends, and I could imagine a bunch of different “Boardwalk Empire” characters at the center of their own show), “Dexter’ really doesn’t have any. The only surviving characters a great number of fans care deeply about are Dexter and Deb, and I know a lot of fans don’t particularly like Deb. The supporting characters have always been there to give Michael C. Hall a break in his workload, and neither Buck nor his showrunning predecessors has been able to make any of them especially interesting. (Other than Masuka as occasional comic relief.)
Will people want to watch Batista struggle to run his bar? Quinn became a weight loss coach? Masuka bond with his newfound daughter? A prequel about LaGuerta’s early career and romance with Doakes? And even if you like Deb, most of what’s interesting about her is the relationship she has with her brother.
So unless the “Dexter” spinoff is also about Dexter (maybe he wanders from town to town like a serial killing version of David Banner or Richard Kimble), or else is the idea Hall joked about at Comic-Con, with an adult Harrison being coached by a ghostly version of Dexter, how is this going to work? The show has introduced other interesting characters from time to time like Frank Lundy or the Trinity Killer, but most of them are dead.
Hit me up: what’s your dream “Dexter” spin-off idea?