Television thrives on pushing boundaries, but there are some lines that shouldn’t be crossed at all, especially when real-life history could make it even messier. Dexter is a show loved by many, but it also had some infamous sequences that made people squint their eyes with disgust.

Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall’s kiss on the show was one of them, and it was already controversial, but what makes it worse is that the duo was divorced just months before filming the scene. So how was this creative choice received, and how did the actors navigate such an awkward dynamic?

Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter in Dexter | 801 Productions A forced romance in Dexter that everyone criticized

There is a scene in Dexter where Jennifer Carpenter’s Debra and Michael C. Hall’s titular character locked lips. On the show, the two were portrayed to be adoptive siblings,...