Dexter: Resurrection fans were shocked to see a familiar name in the credits of the latest episodes. The Dexter franchise has had a lot of ups and downs. The first four seasons of Dexter are tremendous and the peak of the franchise, but after that, things got rocky. Showrunner Clyde Phillips left the show and the direction of the show was all over the place. Season 5 was led by Chip Johannessen who was then succeeded by Scott Buck, who had served as a writer on the show since Season 2. Unfortunately, this is when things really took a turn for the worse and the show suffered from some of its worst seasons.
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It all built up to the controversial and infamous series finale for Dexter which ended with the character faking his death and entering a self-imposed exile. Scott Buck took a lot of the heat for this as the showrunner, something he was inexperienced with at the time. Buck has noted in interviews that Showtime asked him not to kill Dexter as they wanted to leave the door open for a return one day, which he also felt meant he couldn’t put Dexter in prison as it was too definitive. So, Buck punished Dexter by isolating him from everyone, including the audience.
It was extremely controversial and led to the finale being placed on a lot of lists for worst TV show endings of all-time. Ironically, a few years later, Showtime asked Buck to write a new Dexter sequel series which would’ve seen him as an EMT, delicately holding peoples’ lives in his hands. However, the show didn’t move forward as Michael C. Hall didn’t feel like it was the right direction and was still burnt out from Dexter. Buck’s career would lead him to working on a couple of Marvel TV shows in subsequent years. He eventually became the showrunner for Iron Fist and Marvel’s extremely ill-fated series, Inhumans. Both of those shows were panned with the latter being a total disappointment. Inhumans was the last show that Buck was credited on back in 2017, which led some to believe he may have been blacklisted or couldn’t get work after three big back to back misses.
Dexter Season 8 Showrunner Returns to Write Dexter: Resurrection Episode
With all of that said, Dexter fans were shocked to see Scott Buck is credited as the sole writer on Dexter: Resurrection Episode 2, titled ‘Camera Shy’, and a creative consultant for the series. Buck’s return has made some fans apprehensive given his leadership over some of the worst seasons of the show, but he’s not in charge this time. Clyde Phillips is back as the showrunner after helming both Dexter: New Blood and Dexter: Original Sin as well.
Buck is actually a very useful asset and probably shouldn’t be cause for concern. Not only is he not the showrunner, but his roots with the franchise exist within the best seasons of the original show. Buck wrote the penultimate episode of Season 4 where the Trinity Killer finally discovers who Dexter Morgan really is, forcing Dexter to have to make some quick and somewhat reckless decisions. He also wrote the Season 3 finale and a handful of other pivotal episodes in the first half of the series.
All in all, Buck does know Dexter. He is someone who helped shape this character and gave him some of his most iconic moments. If anything, having another person who was there at the beginning and working with the other writers should only strengthen the new series. Dexter: Resurrection is off to a great start and Episode 2 was another strong episode that gets our beloved serial killer back into his groove.
With all of that said, the future of Dexter looks bright. It was recently confirmed that the creative team behind Dexter: Resurrection pitched three seasons of the show to Michael C. Hall and are open to doing more if the stars align. There are years of Dexter to come and after the extremely positive reception to Dexter’s return, it’s likely going to be a fun ride.
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