How many of you guys watched Dexter last season? Tell me what you thought! I LOOOOOVE Michael C. Hall ever since Six Feet Under. So I was really excited to see him in another cable drama.

He’ll charm fellow officers with a doughnut, wile away a Sunday with his girlfriend Rita, or chop up a victim and package their body parts in plastic bags. Hiding beneath the mundane exterior and contrived façade of Dexter, a charming blood spatter expert for the Miami Police Department, is an obsession with meting his own twisted brand of justice: stalking and murdering the guilty.

Few mainstream television shows can claim the critical acclaim that Showtime’s Dexter received in its standout first season. That’s because Dexter is anything but mainstream. Based on Jeff Lindsay’s Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter’s eponymous title character, at first glance, seems to fall into so many of TV’s current norms: a forensics expert, working with police to catch bad guys. Viewers have become accustomed to seeing gore-filled crime scenes, and look forward to seeing the perpetrator locked away in 60 minutes. Only with Dexter, our hero is often himself the perpetrator. Dexter is a serial killer.

Dexter isn’t our typical serial killer; as a blood spatter specialist for the Miami Police Department, he spends his days helping the police (including his foster-sister, Deb) put clues together to track killers and put them in jail. By night, he picks up where the police leave off: he stalks, catches and kills murderers who, for whatever reason, have escaped the system. He knows them so well because he is one, a trait seemingly brought on by a traumatic experience from his childhood. After finding young Dexter at a crime scene, Deb’s cop father, Harry, took him in. He quickly discovered Dexter’s penchant for torture, and his lack of “normal” feelings. Rather than turn his foster son over to a therapist, or the authorities, the two developed the “Code of Harry” rules that Dexter would live by to address his urges to kill and use them for good.

But Dexter, now on hiatus between its first season as a critical darling and highly anticipated second season, is so much more than an intelligent character study. Michael C. Hall’s portrayal of the title character, with all of his quirks, disdain, and self-restraint always sitting right at the surface of his half-smirking eyes, is flawless. He owns it in such a way that, like he previous character on Six Feet Under, you can think of no other actor embodying Dexter in all of his hideous glory. The success of Dexter very much rests on Hall’s shoulders, but the real achievement of the show is its ability to mix him into the pulpy, dark and often ridiculous world of Miami crime and punishment.

Hall is undoubtedly the show’s driving force, but what keeps viewers tuning in to see his real-world (often awkward, more often awkwardly funny) interactions with his meek, damaged girlfriend Rita. the brash, buff, and openly suspicious Sergeant Doakes, and his foul-mouthed foster sister (“If I had feelings, I’d feel something for Deb,” he says).

Deb wants desperately to be close to Dexter, her only surviving relative and confidant. Aware of the fact that he has a traumatic past, she excuses his inability to ever truly trust her while fighting the latent jealousy she feels about his close relationship with their father. Dexter makes up for his lack of emotion with professional support, guiding Deb through crime scenes with a real insider’s view. Their relationship is as fascinating as it is funny; some of the most ridiculous dialogue occurs when Deb is on screen, as the writer’s exploit the dichotomy between her tough talk and lack of confidence.

These relationships and mundane details are the real brilliance of Dexter. In the midst of murder, gore and body parts (the first season revolves around the chase for a serial killer who leaves bloodless victims), Dexter manages to use the popularity of the crime procedural, dark comedy and quirky characters to build a world where Dexter can, in fact exist. And that world looks oddly enough like the one that we live in ourselves.

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Dexter premieres this Sunday at 9PM ET/PT, followed by Brotherhood at 10PM ET/PT!

Can’t wait? You can watch the can watch the first episode before it premieres!

Here’s the link

Password: Killer Shows

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 2:17 pm and is filed under Showtime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.