Okay I blew threw all 8 seasons of Dexter. When I initially watched, I binged seasons 1-4 then I caught seasons 5-8 live, meaning I had to watch one per week. Dexter is definitely a show that is better when you can watch multiple episodes at a time. Having 6 days in between to analyze how inferior seasons 5-8 were made it less enjoyable. This time binging them all pretty quickly I was able to enjoy it more.
Seasons 7 and 8 were pretty good, minus the god awful last episode. Season 6 could have been great and I thought Season 5 sucked. Except for Season 8, 5-7 didn't really have Dexter on the run or the threat of being caught. Villains were lackluster. And worst of all, Dexter made a bunch of idiotic decisions that were very out of character. Seasons 5 and 6 were completely standalone stories without much impact on the overall story. The religion was forced in Season 6, the twist was kind of obvious.
All time great show but like GoT the ending keeps it from being one of the best.