Talk:Dexter (TV series)/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Aranea Mortem (talk • contribs • count) 01:04, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

Hello there, I'll be your reviewer today, inflight magazines are tucked into the seats in front of you and your mouse to click on things should be wherever you left it, please sit back, relax and enjoy the journey. Joking aside, this will be a massive review/flight, like taking a plane to New Zealand from the UK. The main reason that I haven't failed this is that, I too, desperately want this to become a good article. But (and that's a massive but (Sir Mix-a-Lot loves them), it's going to take a great amount of work. I hope you're ready for it). Escape doors are at the front and back of the plane, feel free to use them. I've made about 50+ edits to the article, so I'm pretty familiar with it.

Hello. Innocent bystander here. It would be cool if this article was made a GA, but as far as I can tell, User:Jj98 has never edited the article (and possibly never gotten an article through GA). If you want to take this article through GA, it would probably have to be as a nominator and not a reviewer. And, the article is short probably 50 well researched refs. On the other hand, please review as you like. - Peregrine Fisher (talk) 03:39, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the comment, I've now completed my massive review and have found (as suspected) that it fails in essentially every category it needs to pass, but I've done it so that the article can have a pointer as to how it can be improved and I hope to god that he makes at least some changes of this list below! Hah. Aranea Mortem ^{(talk to me)} 04:24, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

The infobox

• Get rid of some of the genres, there are 6 genres in there when there should be at most 3, generally just 2. We need some specificity. Also suspense, mystery and horror are WP:OVERLINKED.
• Remove the "Narrated by", it isn't a documentary and while some people refer to his monologues as a narration, they aren't. He's just thinking things. Also Michael C. Hall is overlinked in it anyway, he's already got a link above.
• The language is English, there are small parts of Spanish in it, but not enough to constitute a mention.
• Sara Colleton needs a link.

The lede

• What's there that needs fixing
  • Could the first sentence of the lede be written so that it isn't explaining the plot? Every TV series article I've seen starts with the typically formatted created by, first aired and that type of information not the characters, they should come later.
  • Why is the Miami Metro Police Department linked to Miami-Dade Police Department. I know the story, it's based on it, but it isn't actually it, so shouldn't have a link.
  • 2nd paragraph: the first episode, please link to Dexter (episode).
  • The 3rd paragraph needs some trimming, keep the premise short and simple and save it for later, there are more informative things to be talking about in the lede, remember that it needs to encompass the text below!
    • "that Dexter kills only morally wrong people" Rephrase. This article needs to be neutral, we can't be presumptuous, only kills murderers.
    • "interact convincingly" communicate. It's POV to say it is convincing.
    • "dissociative mental illness" Not confirmed which makes it WP:OR. In fact, reading further, rephrase this entire sentence, it's not very well written.
    • "As an adult, Dexter has largely escaped suspicion (with some exceptions) by being genial and generous and maintaining generally superficial relationships. However, his attachment to his foster (and ultimately adoptive) sister, Debra, his girlfriend (later wife), Rita, his stepchildren, Astor and Cody, and later his biological son, Harrison, have all complicated his double life and made him question his need to kill. In fact, in the first season, his relationship with Rita set in motion the slow but steady humanization of Dexter, progressing further with each season, as Dexter begins to experience a variety of emotions for the first time in decades." Remove all of it and turn it into one, maybe two, compact sentences. This is poorly written and is too detailed for the lede. We're trying to save space at the top here because we need to pack in more of other things.
  • In the first sentence of the 4th, rearrange the sentence to get rid of the bracketed (edited down to a TV-14 rating).
  • MOS for "Season 4" four, this occurs throughout the article.
  • "its season finale" Link to The Getaway (Dexter).
  • "record-breaking audience of 2.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched original series episode ever on Showtime" Reword and tone down a little.
  • Golden Globe link pls.
  • "This show is rated..." Remove that sentence or transpose it to a suitable place below.
• What's not there that needs adding
  • A brief mention of the cast. Don't go overboard and provide links to characters.
  • The content below needs a Production/Development section, so once that's been added, transpose some of it to the lede.
  • Mention Early Cuts, mention perhaps two reviews and a few notable awards that it's won/been nominated for.
  • Links. That's one thing that's not there. Make sure that when you're adding this stuff above, you add plenty. Don't overlink.

Cast and crew

• Cast
  • "Detective" Don't capitalize the "d" on these please, any later cases should also be removed.
  • "Detective Debra Morgan, and James Remar" Get rid of the and.
  • Harry Morgan, María LaGuerta, Angel Batista, Vince Masuka, James Doakes, Joey Quinn and Arthur Mitchell, Lumen Pierce all need links to articles which really shouldn't exist (except for Lumen, that article's pretty good).
  • Every 10 cases of season 1, 2, 3, 4 needs to be changed to one, two, three, four.
  • Dexter Morgan doesn't even get a mention. :(
  • Links are needed to the seasons.
  • "Sergeant Angel Juan Marcos Batista" Don't be ridiculous heh, Angel Batista.
  • "in seasons 1–4" rephrase, from season one to four.
  • Links should also be made to the characters that don't have articles but sections in List of Dexter characters, such as Astor and Cody, Frank Lundy, Miguel Prado, the Ice Truck Killer, Paul Bennett (mention his full name in this article), Tony Tucci, Camilla Figg (full name needed), Tom Matthews, Lila Tournay, Ellen Wolf, Anton Briggs, Christine Hill (name isn't even mentioned), Cira Manzon
  • David Ramsey needs a link (I created that article! Woohoo, ^{#dispiritedly goes back to being serious#}).
  • "Dexter's girlfriend turned wife" as Dexter's girlfriend and later wife, Rita... Also, please name her as Rita Bennett, that's what she's better known as.
  • "Erik King portrayed the troubled" Remove the troubled.
  • "Special FBI agent" Just FBI agent will do.
  • ADA needs to be turned into assistant district attorney.
  • Could we have a little consistency here? Mention the generaly main characters first, then the season-long roles, such as the Ice Truck Killer, Lila Tournay, Miguel Prado, Trinity Killer, Lumen Pierce... so on... and then mention a few minor characters that are notable enough to be mentioned.
  • FBI Special Agent Frank Lundy. He's already been mentioned, just shorten to Lundy.
  • Does Tony Tucci really need to be in here?
  • "was close friends" Remove close.
  • "a beautiful but unhinged" Remove "beautiful but".
  • Why is British linked? I presume people know who we are.
  • Malcolm-Jamal Warner does NOT need to be mentioned. The test: I hardly even remember his character, and I'm a massive fan. Same goes for John Marshall Jones. Additively, their characters don't even get a mention.
  • "Miguel's arch-nemesis" Wow, dramatic, remove it altogether. It isn't true.
  • "David Ramsey, who plays" played. He's gone now.
  • "returned in Season 4, romantically involved with Debra" That's not grammatically correct.
  • "hispanic" Capital.
  • "after the tragedy that culminated the previous season." Tell us what happened, Wikipedia doesn't care about spoilers and we're proud of it (I am anyway, who's with me!?)
  • Rephrase anything else you feel should or shouldn't be there and all that I've missed. You should probably mention less of the seasons and bring in a few characters that are missing.
    • The following might need a mention: List of Dexter characters#Gail Brandon, List of Dexter characters#Jorge Orozco, List of Dexter characters#Jordan Chase and List of Dexter characters#Stan Liddy.
  • All things such as Detective, Sergeant, Captain need to be lower cased.
  • Rename the section to Cast and characters
• Crew
  • Just looking at it, the section needs to be expanded. Greatly. Two or three 4-sentenced paragraphs would be nice, but don't fret if you can't get there.
  • Again, season 4 = season four.
  • 24 needs a link.
  • Clyde Phillips is linked twice in the same paragraph here.
  • Mention some of the frequent directors: Michael Cuesta, Robert Lieberman, Tony Goldwyn, Steve Shill, Marcos Siega, Keith Gordon, Ernest Dickerson and some of the important episodes that they've directed. Then mention writers. Provide references if you can (make sure they're reliable). The first episode needs a mention of its director/writer, 1x12, 2x01, 2x05, 2x12, 3x01, 4x12, mainly those.

Plot

• Series outset
  • Needs to be trimmed a little and copyedit is desperately needed. I've jotted down a few things below, but you should verify the rest for yourself.
  • Put everything in this into the past tense. It even happened in the past in-universe!
  • Doris Morgan needs a link to her list of chars entry.
  • "After discovering that young Dexter has been killing a multitude of neighborhood pets for several years, Harry tells Dexter that he believes the need to kill "got into" him at too young of an age, and that he believes Dexter's need to kill will only grow." Needs rewording.
  • Every case of The Code is capitalized, please don't. Remove all of them (there are quite a few and I even think that its usage should be cut down some).
  • "Most importantly, Dexter must..." Not for us to say that it is most important, it's one of them.
  • "Flashbacks throughout the series show" We're in-universe with this section, we should keep it that way, don't mention episodes, flashbacks or any such thing. Stick to the premise and don't deviate. Also the sentence with this in needs ce.
  • Dark Passenger is also capitalized, don't do so.
  • "Like many serial killers" remove that. We don't want to generalize serial killers, they are all different.
  • The third paragraph is alright tbh, but for the first sentence and "This suits Dexter" which needs rewording. Check if you can spot anything that is disjointed at all.
  • "He is fond of (and good with)" Remove.
  • It's looking quite bare, needs some more blue, anything that hasn't formerly been linked should be.
• Early Cuts
  • For a start this doesn't belong in the Plot section, it isn't in-universe like plots should be and is out of place.
  • "Dexter: Early Cuts," Why is there a comma? It's the start of a sentence!
  • "web series," Remove comma. From here forth, check the grammar of this section (I think in general this article needs massive grammar improvs)
  • "Michael C. Hall reprises his role as the voice of Dexter." Reprised.
  • KTV Media International, is there a link for that?
  • Link Kyle Baker and Ty Templeton.
  • "for creating distinctive illustrations" What does that mean?
  • "The webisodes are animated with 2.5D style, where flat 2D illustrations are brought to life in 3D space." Needs a reference please.
  • Link 2.5D (visual perception).
  • "producer/writer" producer and writer please
  • Link Lauren Gussis.
  • "nominated for a Webby" Link Webby Award and write award otherwise it sounds informal.
  • Season 1 = season one
  • Name the three victims please. And then the season 2 victims also need naming.
  • This section (as always) needs expanding, more information should be available: here and here.
  • Add {{imdb|title|1595870|''Dexter: Early Cuts''}} to the external links section.

Title sequence

• " i.e" such as is far better.
• "the oranges he juices are blood oranges" Could you include that information somewhere else and not have it bracketed?
• Digital Kitchen. Link it.
• It's only 6 sentences; add more: here, here, here, here, plus whatever else you can find. Also incorporate more information from the ref that's already in the article: this one.
• Please reference the Emmy award sentence, should be easy, just go to the Emmy site.

Development

• Nothing wrong with this, except, oh wait, there isn't one!!!! Desperately needs production/development. Take Dexter (episode) for some references and information/content about its fruition (I added most of it there and I know that it traces it back all the way to the start of the show's roots). Get a casting section done (plenty of it in Dexter (episode)) and the promotion of the show, all of it needs in! Otherwise this just can't be some of the best of Wikipedia's content with it missing.
• Once you've written it up (I might make a few notes about it once done), incorporate the Title sequence into this section.
• Things you need to mention.
  • That it was adapted from the books and how it drifted away from them in series two.
  • Casting, the process by which the actor's were recruited.
  • Maybe you should put Dexter: Early Cuts section in here? That'd probably be best.
  • Nice paragraph on the filming of the show.
  • Rita's death should be mentioned, check The Getaway (Dexter), you should go to individual articles and retrieve the information from them, but don't just copy-paste, it needs to be separate from the episodes.
• Ask me if you want any help.

Reception

• Critical reception
  • Expand. Expand. Expand. This bit's easy, there are thousands of articles on individual reaction to episodes, take the major ones and put in referenced statements about critics' reactions to them, take the seasons and do the same. S1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 need Metacritic results with refs, this is where you can knock up the refs by about 20+ and give this a bit more reliability.
  • "The initial response to Dexter was positive" has been positive.
  • season 1 = season one
  • The Metacritic 2 and 3 are unreferenced, so, as above, fill them in.
  • "(quirky detective, hero with dense workmates, convenient plot contrivances)" If you're quoting, put quote marks, if that's not a quote remove it.
  • The second paragraph is all awards which has its own section below (which is entirely unreferenced, but I'll get to that). Remove it, replace it with the content in the awards and nominations section. The other stuff needs to be gotten rid of anyway.
  • Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. Link and needs a ref. All of that text, one reference. The awards are an easy way of getting another 20+ refs in the article, just go to the featured list that the Dexter articles has on it here and fish out some refs and info. Make sure you format the refs correctly.
  • The following need appropriate links: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama, Screen Actors Guild Award, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Golden Globe for Best Supporting Performance by an Actor in a Television Series.
  • "Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama" in a rather than In A.
• Popular reception
  • Rename this to "Ratings" because that's what it is.
  • Expand out, check List of Dexter episodes and transpose some of the refs and information, should be able to get 2 5-line paragraphs, instead of one 4-liner.
  • This needs information on the first episode's performance in the ratings, the first season finale's and all other important episodes.
  • "by a slightly smaller number of people" By fewer people.
• Awards and nominations
  • I'm not even going to go into this. Just look at it. What a mess. No references, poorly stuctured. Remove it and start over again, as I've said above, take content from the list of awards and add it here. A good 3 paragraphs can be had, but 2 will suffice.
• Criticism
  • Rename this section to Controversies because it isn't its criticism at all.
  • "President" No capital.
  • "preempt" pre-empt. As a side note: That's the first fully well written section I've found in the article, I don't know why you nominated this, but I'll bare with it to the bitter end and really try to get this to GA, but I'll fail it if I have to.
  • Real-life murder 1: Is it really an ongoing murder charge? Or is it over now? Try to find recent news.
  • Horror-romance is linked and it shouldn't be.
  • "Crown prosecutors... are prosecuting him"... really? Never saw that coming. Reword.
  • "newsmagazine" news-magazine.
  • This is all in present tense when it happened a couple of years ago. Past tense please.
  • "Conley is now serving life imprisonment without the possibility of parole." ref that.
  • "On February 3, 2010 outside Oslo, Norway" needs to be : On February 3 2010, outside Oslo, Norway," Punctuation is essential.
  • "27 year old" 27-year-old
  • "television series Dexter" Dexter needs italics.
  • "tv series" TV series.
  • "21 year old" 21-year-old.
  • "her stepfather (49)" aged 49 would be better
  • In real life 5, Michael van Eck is repeated too much, just use his last name.
  • "the television series "Dexter"" Italics.
  • " facebook" Facebook.
  • Actually now, taking a closer look at real lives 3, 4, 5 and 6 I want you to remove all of them, they are not confirmed by reliable sources and are probably hoaxes.

Other media

• DVD/Blu-ray releases
  • The second season media needs a reference.
  • Season 1 = season one.
• Video game
  • This section is entirely without references when a good few are to be found.
  • 8.0/10 - 8 out of 10 is better. Word it out.
  • Michael C. Hall is overlinked.
• Alternate reality game
  • This section has only got one reference, needs more to support the content.
  • "Dexter Game On" Needs italics.
  • "The characters and companies are controlled by real people, adding an extra realism and ability for intelligent conversation. Keeping with the realism most alternative reality games have, Showtime does not put their name or advertisements on most sites and pages created for the game...." What in hell is that? Unreferenced, dubious, remove it.
• Soundtrack
  • This section is completely unreferenced. Why am I not surprised?
  • TV series - television series
  • Milan Records Give it a link.
  • season 1 = season one
  • " reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann's pivotal "black and white", strings-only score for Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho" Is that just completely WP:OR? Remove everything about Bernard Herrmann unless a ref can be found.
  • "Music Coordinator" music coordinator, no caps.
• Merchandise
  • "EMCE Toys has planned the release" They have. Past tense please.
  • Reads quite a bit like trivia to me and needs a bit of expanding if you don't want it just to sound like a list of miscellaneous info.

More things

• Ref 1 is dead.
• Ref 7 is unreliable, user-submitted site.
• Ref 9 is incorrectly formatted with Nov. instead of November.
• Ref 31 is unreliable.
• Ref 33 is unreliable.
• Refs 37 thru' 47 all need removal as they are a site made by a person from home and are probably (read: definitely) inaccurate.
• Ref 56 doesn't exist.
• Why does this not have more images? Plenty are available, of actors, crew members and more.
• Get rid of the slate.com external link.

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose): (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):

   Nope, grammar, MoS, layout, word choice are all awful. Readability is practically zero and just so many MoS fails all over the place.

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (references): (citations to reliable sources): (OR):

   Massive chunks of original research, unreferenced claims and others without reliable sources. Not up to scratch in that area.

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): (focused):

   Lacking any Development section at all, with loads of areas missing, such as awards, casting, and other with just meagre info.

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

   It isn't really, but with my suggested changes, it would become a pass on this.

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

   Quite a few malicious IP edits, but no outright edit wars.

6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): (appropriate use with suitable captions):

   Not enough images and the one image it has doesn't have a caption.

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

   I am not impressed and have no idea why this was nominated. Do these edits and it's half way there. Maybe. I'm holding because I want some changes to be made of this massive list I've just spent hours compiling and don't want my work to go to waste. If you can do all of it, I'll be suitably impressed and give this GA status. Thanks for your time,

Aranea Mortem ^{(talk to me)} 04:24, 8 September 2011 (UTC)