Next year we hope to return to our usual 31 Nights Of Terror. This year we are going to offer you some Halloween Spotlight titles that would be a great idea to pick up for the scary season. So… we’re still your October Night Mayor and here’s a great idea for Halloween from our friends at Paramount/CBS/Showtime.
“Tonight’s the night, and it’s going to happen again and again. It has to happen …”
What is going to happen is that Dexter: The Complete Series has come to Blu-ray. I can’t think of a better cable show to make the leap onto high definition. More than any show, I think I’ve been looking forward to this release. Imagine what it would be like to visualize Dexter’s world in such wonderful detail. Imagine no longer. Dexter’s here, and he’s got something to show you. Now that the series has finally gotten a proper resolution with Dexter: New Blood, it’s time to have a complete collection on your shelf.
Man, has television come a long way in just over 50 years. There was once a pretty strict code that applied to television programs. Men and women, even when married, couldn’t be seen to have shared the same bed. Anything stronger than a “golly gee” was strictly forbidden. You couldn’t even show a woman’s belly button. And the good guys always had to win, while the bad guys got their comeuppance in the end. Alfred Hitchcock was one of the first to push those boundaries by telling mystery stories where the bad guys often appeared to get away with their evil deeds. Even Hitchcock wasn’t brazen enough to completely skirt these rules, and at the end of such immoral plays he would always add, in his spoken postscript, some terrible twist of fate that got the bad guys in the end. Those days seem long behind us now. We have mob bosses, crooked cops, and now a serial killer, not only getting away with their crimes but acting the hero, of sorts, for the show. Vic Mackey and Tony Soprano only helped pave the way. In Showtime’s groundbreaking series Dexter, Dexter Morgan is a serial killer who happens to kill other killers. The series is based on two novels by Jeff Lindsay. Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter gave birth to the character and world of Dexter Morgan.
Dexter Morgan (Hall) is a forensic lab rat for the Miami-Dade police. He really knows blood splatter. He should, because he moonlights as a killer. It seems that poor old Dex just can’t help himself. His parents were criminals, and he witnessed his mother’s brutal slashing by a chainsaw gang when he was just a young boy. He was adopted by Harry Morgan (Remar), a police officer. Harry saw the killer instinct in Dexter and taught him how to channel the urges for the sake of good. Dexter adopted Harry’s Code, which means he only kills others that he’s able to prove were killers themselves. Working for the police with his officer sister, Debra (Carpenter), Dexter is constantly just on the verge of getting caught. He has to adapt and evolve to avoid capture. Dexter’s also trying to have a relationship, mostly because he knows it helps him blend in. Buffy and Angel’s Darla, Julie Benz, plays Rita. Dexter doesn’t really feel anything, but he’s trying to act the way he sees others act in the same environment.
The first thing that makes Dexter work is its star Michael C. Hall. You might remember Hall from his days on Six Feet Under, where he played the conflicted and very gay funeral director. His deadpan style and somewhat offbeat timing make him perfect for these rather quirky characters. If you thought he was good as David Fisher, you’re simply going to love him as Dexter. It amazes me how different he looks and sounds. It was at first very difficult for me to actually identify him, he gets so completely immersed in character. You’ll find yourself rooting that Dexter doesn’t get caught, if for no other reason than you don’t want the show to end. The other actors and characters are also quite good. You’ll particularly like Erik King, who plays Doakes, the only detective in the squad who senses the evil in Dexter. He’s a great adversary for Dexter.
In the first season we’re just getting to know ol’ Dex. We learn about “the code”, and we watch him deal out his own special brand of justice. He’s confident and sure of his mission. But as that season unfolds, we see Dexter become conflicted and even worried about getting caught. He discovers a brother who he must contend with; at the same time it brings out feelings for Harry that make him question “the code”. Of course, Dexter deals with the situation without getting caught, or we couldn’t have a second season.
As we begin the second season, Dexter’s run-in with his brother, as well as its ultimate solution, has again taken his confidence. He’s unable to kill. He must find a way to set his life straight. Rita thinks he’s an addict and makes him go to NA meetings, where he meets Lila (Murray), who is as messed up as Dexter. While she might not be a killer, she’s obsessive and is drawn to Dexter’s dark nature. Her antics to keep Dexter are straight out of the Fatal Attraction handbook. Doakes is also getting closer to finding out what Dexter really is, and that’s going to end badly for at least one of them. Dexter’s oceanic burial ground is discovered, and now he’s on the task force to bring in the Bay Harbor Butcher. Is this finally the end of the line for Dexter? You really need to take the ride and see for yourself. I guarantee you that these dozen episodes will just fly by. Jaime Murray is the best of the newcomers, and she’s simply fascinating to watch, as she appears more self destructive than even Dexter himself. Their relationship ends in one of the most chilling scenes of the series so far. Keith Carrradine also joins the cast this season as FBI agent Lundy, who is brought in to head the Bay Harbor Butcher task force. He’s also smitten with little sis Debra, making for some very awkward moments for everybody’s favorite serial killer. The Code of Harry takes some hits this season as Dexter uncovers some secrets of both his and Harry’s past lives. The series continues to evolve and never ceases to amaze. This is the best cable series since The Sopranos.
I have to tell you, each season I wonder how they’re going to top the one before. Season three has got some serious handicaps going in. First of all, it’s hard to even think about Dexter without the great cat-and-mouse game with Erik King’s Doakes character. For two seasons the two made for some brilliant tension in the precinct. Another character that’s going to be hard to replace is Jaime Murray’s Lila character, the closest person on the show to match Dexter’s deliciously dark nature. I found the season two finale to be one of the most shocking endings to a season of television in a long time. So where do we go from here?
With every goodbye, we welcome in new characters and this season is no exception.
Jimmy Smits returns to television to play District Attorney Miguel Prado. His brother becomes an accidental victim of Dexter’s. When he catches Dexter in the act of killing his originally intended victim, and the person the cops believe killed his brother, Miguel and Dexter find that they might be very much alike. Yes, Dexter might just have a partner. Apart from the turn of character here, Smits adds a lot to the show and is every bit a good match with Hall. There’s some really fine chemistry at work here. Fans of the show pretty much know going in there are going to be complications. The result is inevitable. Also joining the cast is Desmond Harrington as Detective Quinn. He’s being investigated by internal affairs, or it might just be a lover’s quarrel gotten out of hand. Either way Debra’s going to get stuck right in the middle. Debra also gets a new boyfriend when David Ramsey joins the cast as Quinn’s and later Debra’s snitch, Anton.
The Code of Harry has now evolved into the Code of Dexter. There will be some expansion of the code and a new deeper understanding about Harry and who he was. There’s also the pending nuptials of Dexter and Rita to contend with. Angel gets a gold shield. And finally, Dexter’s going to be a daddy.
Dexter has new playmates this season. Edward James Olmos and Colin Hanks join the series as a couple of fun-loving religious freaks. Turns out they have a plan to bring about the Apocalypse, and it’s a rather bloody plan, much to Dexter’s glee. Dexter also has a new friend in killer-turned-good-guy Brother Sam, played by rapper Mos Def. It’s Dexter’s first friend who doesn’t share in his hobby.
Things change at the station house for our crew. Sister Deb has been promoted to the station command and given the rank of lieutenant. It’s really payback from the Chief to LaGuerta. She gets the job Angel expected to get. It’s a bit unrealistic, of course, but I’ve seen much worse. There’s also a new hire at the station. Billy Brown joins the cast as Chicago transplant detective Mike Anderson. There’s a rather amusing B story that has Masuka hire a number of interns in an attempt to be impressive. A few of the interns backfire, so there’s a string of them. Aimee Garcia also joins the cast as Angel’s little sister and Dexter’s nanny for Harrison. It frees Dexter up for those extracurricular activities.
Finally, I liked that there are a few really nice nods to previous seasons. It plays out like a final season, but of course it isn’t. Dexter makes a side trip to Nebraska to tie up a loose end from the Trinity killer, and his brother shows up as a “ghost” to taunt him once again.
Usually Dexter gets a playmate who learns his secret and plays along for a while. Something always goes horribly wrong, and before you know it Dexter has to put an end to the relationship as only he can. This year Dexter did indeed get his new playmate in the form of Chuck’s own Yvonne Strahovski as Hannah. This time things happen a little differently. Dexter starts out wanting to kill her and ends up falling in love. Maybe Dex has finally found someone he can relate to. Strahovski gets to show another side that we never really saw on Chuck. She’ll be back in the final season, and I expect there’ll be some chemistry fireworks yet to come.
The guest star power doesn’t end with the Hannah character. Ray Stevenson from Rome and Thor joins the season’s cast as Isaak Sirko. Isaak is out for revenge on Dexter because of one of the pieces of trash Dex dumped into the Atlantic. Stevenson looks and acts quite different from any role you’ve seen him in before. He’s a European mob leader with a little style and sophistication who also has a rather important secret himself. This is Dexter’s best nemesis ever, and the moments between the actors/characters are all golden. I’d have watched the season just for those interactions.
Of course most of the season is focused on the change in Dexter and Deb’s relationship. At first Dexter tries to continue to cover up who he really is, but we all know that just isn’t going to work this time. It’s the best work from show star Jennifer Carpenter. I usually saw her as the potty-mouthed diversion to the real story. Now she gets into the meat of the thing, and by the end of the season she’ll find herself in a situation you likely won’t see coming. The season allows this interplay to develop and change throughout so that we never fall into a comfortable zone. Deb’s feelings are going to change several times before the season’s over, and it’s the first time that I ever really regarded the character as essential to the storytelling.
It’s been six months since last we visited with Dexter (Hall) and his pals. Deb (Carpenter) had just shot and killed Lt. LaGuerta (Velez), and the blame went to another killer. It was LaGuerta or Dexter, and she made her choice. Now she’s suffering some post-traumatic consequences for her actions. She’s left the force, and no one has heard from her in weeks. She’s hanging out with lowlifes doing drugs and playing undercover cop as a private investigator with Jacob Elway, played by Sean Patrick Flanery. Dexter is trying to track her down and possibly save her life from a hitman. Needless to say, it’s going to be a long road for the siblings.
Enter Dr. Evelyn Vogel, played by Charlotte Rampling. She’s been called in to help catch this season’s serial killer guest star, The Brain Surgeon. He cuts open his victim’s heads and uses a melon baller to scoop out a section. We soon discover that Vogel has more than a passing interest in the killer. He’s been leaving those missing brain pieces on her doorstep. She seeks Dexter’s help and has a few surprises for him. She knew Harry, and she knows what he is. Turns out she helped create Harry’s Code. Now he needs to find The Brain Surgeon before he takes out Vogel. Along the way she convinces Dexter to take on a “student”. Much of the season has Dexter going from being disappointed enough to kill the kid to proud enough of him to help him out.
The most promising part of the season comes when Hannah (Strahovski) arrives back in Miami and into Dexter’s life once again. Her entrance never quite lives up to the expectations. Hannah is a bit needy suddenly, and she has absolutely lost that killer edge that made her such a compelling character and perfect match for Dexter. Still, the writers try to put them together with ongoing hopes of a perfect family that anyone who’s seen an episode previously knows is never going to happen. I love Yvonne Strahovski, have since her days on Chuck, but she’s not quite the powerful character she once was. Can’t blame the actress. This is all in the writing. What’s ironic is they changed the dynamic of their relationship to build a forced chemistry when there already was such powerful chemistry before. It’s gone this season.
Unfortunately, this has been a season for disappointment for fans. It’s gotten a lot of negative buzz. Some of it isn’t earned. A lot of it is. The season dangles characters and storylines that never get paid off. Vince Masuka (Lee) gets the most encouraging character development arc he could have. A hot chick who’s looking for him turns out to be his daughter. The writers dangle potential payoff here and end up taking the arc nowhere but a few good scenes that don’t ultimately move the story along.
The idea of an apprentice for Dexter isn’t exactly new. He’s had hopeful partners in the past, but this had the potential to be a game-changer for Dexter and the series. It was the first time he really had a complete student to work with and not just a mess he happens to relate to. For a while they play this out perfectly with Dexter’s emotions running back and forth. But the arc is eventually used as nothing more than a throwaway. It’s a perfect example that this show wasn’t finished. This particular arc should have carried over at least until another season. The end appears forced on us, and I can’t quite figure out why. The ratings were good, and I hadn’t heard Hall complaining about moving on. Never before was an ending forced upon us so unnecessarily.
The Vogel character was another place where potential was never fully developed. What we get here is, in fact, the cream of the season, but it needed to play out longer. There were questions I wanted answered. They seemed to hint that Vogel might have had more to do with Harry’s suicide than we know, but it was never explored. The most unrealistic part is that Dexter never even thought about the connection. True or not, our Dexter absolutely would have explored that idea to some degree.
The best development comes to the character of Angel Batista, played brilliantly by David Zayas. He’s taken over the squad since Deb left, and he gets to play a wide variety of situations and emotions here. He’s dealing with his sister dating Joey Quinn (Harrington), which unfortunately leads to another thread left dangling. He has to pick a sergeant, and it’s between Quinn and another woman who is more qualified. Once the choice is made, however, the woman seems to disappear from the series. He’s dealing with being a leader and seeing Deb’s life going terribly wrong. There’s a lot of untapped potential here. There’s talk of a spinoff. I hope he’s a strong part of any that come.
We don’t know why he left Washington, but we do know he’s learned to keep his “dark passenger” quiet and hasn’t killed in a decade. That all changes when a spoiled rich kid named Matt Caldwell (Robertson) enters the gun shop and his life. He’s an entitled little bugger who expects that rules don’t apply to him. He quickly gets on Dexter’s wrong side, but that’s not necessarily dangerous, because Dexter isn’t like other serial killers. He has a code bestowed upon him by his police officer father, and it doesn’t allow for killing just because someone gets on your nerves. But Dexter discovers that Matt was the cause of some deaths due to a DUI accident that he got someone else to cover for. Now Matt’s put himself in Dexter’s sights, and when Matt carelessly kills a protected white deer, it’s just the opening he was waiting for. Before the first episode ends, Dexter has fallen off the wagon, and we just so happened to be there for the relapse.
The search for Matt turns up nothing. Dexter meets Kurt Caldwell, played wonderfully by Clancy Brown. He muddies the water a bit when he claims his son is fine and has been in communication with him. Dexter doesn’t understand why Kurt’s not telling the truth, but all of that comes in time. Until then Dexter has to deal with a part of his past catching up to him when he finds a stranger in his cabin who turns out to be his son Harrison, played by Jack Alcott. At first he denies his identity but eventually succumbs to his feelings and brings his son into his life. If you’ve gotten caught up, you know that father and son have a few things in common. Both watched their mothers brutally killed as near-infants, and both sat in that blood until they were discovered. It doesn’t take long before Dexter starts to suspect that Harrison has his “dark passenger”. Could this lead to a father and son serial killer team? I’m not going to give that away, but the conflict causes Dexter to struggle even as his own old habits start to return.
If you remember the series, you recall that each season put Dexter in contact with another important killer. Those relationships ran the spectrum from friendly to nasty, but they all ended badly. This bonus season of Dexter is no different there. Clancy Brown’s Kurt is a killer as well, and we learn this very early, so no spoiler here. He also might know Dexter killed his son. These bad guys seem to recognize each other. That puts them in conflict, with Harrison used as a pawn in the middle of the two killers.
The series also gives us a few other returns from the series. My least favorite is the return of Jennifer Carpenter as Dexter’s sister Deb. Of course, she was killed in the final season of the show, but she takes over James Remar’s spot in Dexter’s life. Remar played Dexter’s deceased father Harry, who appeared to him from time to time as a vision that he could interact with. Deb is that “ghost” this time. I truly miss Remar, but I never really liked Carpenter, and she continues to be one of the most annoying actors in television history. In the extras one of the producers remarked that everyone loved Deb. Sorry. Not quite everyone. It is what it is and perhaps most fans will like that particular return. David Zayas was one of the best actors in the original series, and he gets a limited return as Detective Batista. Also look for a cameo by John Lithgow in a flashback to his Trinity Killer activities.
You’re going to get the major stuff you’ve tuned in for. Hall is still brilliant in the role, and I rather enjoyed the added features of being a father and in a serious relationship that could fall apart at any moment. The snowy mountains of Iron Lake are a wonderful contrast to the sunny climes of Miami that dominated the original series. It adds a nice cold and dark element to the mix that keeps this from becoming just another season of the show. Jack Alcott does a great job as his son, and there’s both a bit of a physical resemblance as well as in his mannerisms. Without revealing the ending, I think there is potential for the Harrison character to take over the reins and carry the franchise forward. I think I even have someone in mind for his “ghost” guide. There are no plans to return to the franchise any time soon.
All of the extras from each of the nine releases are found here. I’m not fond of these overlapping huge boxes. Honestly, I never keep my discs in these things, because I haven’t opened one yet where some discs didn’t fall out, and they keep falling out. Easily scratched. There are 28 discs in all.
You have to kind of look at this as the series ending you didn’t get the first time around. There is potential to continue, and one never really knows. I won’t tell you how it ends, because there are some deep surprises to come. “Surprising but inevitable.”
