Dexter Rating – Easy

It has become a for showrunners. The term implies: Do not outstay your narrative welcome. Do not prioritize shock over character. And for the love of god, do not make your meticulous serial killer a lumberjack.

| Show | Peak Season | Decline Start | Finale Infamy | Dexter Rating (Subjective) | |------|-------------|---------------|----------------|----------------------------| | | S4 (Trinity) | S5 | Lumberjack | 10/10 (The benchmark) | | Game of Thrones | S4 (The Lion and the Rose) | S7 (teleporting, plot armor) | "Dany kind of forgot" | 9.5/10 | | House of Cards (US) | S2 (Knock on the door) | S5 (Post-Spacey) | Claire looks at camera | 7/10 | | Weeds | S3 (Agrestic fire) | S4 (Moving to Ren Mar) | Subprime mortgage joke | 8/10 | | Heroes | S1 ("Save the cheerleader") | S2 (Writer's strike) | Vol. 4: Fugitives | 9/10 | dexter rating

Then came the finale. Dexter kills an innocent coach (breaking his code), his son Harrison shoots him, and Dexter dies bleeding out in the snow. He is buried in an unmarked grave next to his victims. It has become a for showrunners

Or, more simply:

To have a high Dexter Rating is to be a cautionary tale. To have a low one is to be a legend. And for fans of television, the Dexter Rating serves one crucial purpose: it reminds us that —and that sometimes, the only way to win is to quit while you’re ahead, before you find yourself alone in a cabin, growing a beard, wondering where it all went wrong. And for the love of god, do not

More bluntly, the "Dexter Rating" is a measure of

Where lower final season quality produces a higher (worse) DR.