I've been a fan of Dexter and have religiously watched its prior seasons. The first four seasons were great, though it's been slacking off for the last few seasons before it wrapped up in Season 8. The series finale was a bit too melodramatic for my own taste, but perhaps it's a logical and reasonable conclusion to have Dexter Morgan rode out to the storm and have a sea burial for his beloved sister Deb, the foul-mouthed, intuitive, and neurotic detective who could not live with the fact that her only living relative was a serial killer.
That was 2013, and a lifetime ago.
Dexter is perhaps the most lovable serial killer there is. Not that he's adored because of his Dark Passenger (aka. his dark urges to kill), but his adherence to the Code set by his adopted father Harry on who he should choose to kill. As Harry's reasoning goes, if Dexter is born with the Dark Passenger, he might as well use that for vigilant killing, for a greater societal good. In the real world, there are many criminals (some of them doing evil evil things), yet they are able to get away from law and justice. Harry, himself a cop, saw it first-hand how unjust the world can be, and he knew full well that he could not do a thing to these criminals if he were to go by the book. The Code that Harry devised for Dexter, is the set of rules that guide him on how to select the victims (criminals who committed heinous crimes but got away from the law), how to go about the kill, how to cover up the killing, and Never Get Caught. So far so good. Plenty of irony abound which makes for great TV drama. Dexter was blood splatter analyst who worked with Miami Metro Police, his sister was a star detective (oftentimes with insights from Dexter), and a lot of his buddies were from Miami PD. Sooner or later though, the chicken will come home to roast. One way or the other, those around him would get ensnared in the killing world. That was of course how Dexter thought he had nailed the Trinity Killer, but sadly the Trinity Killer was one step ahead of him, murdering his then wife Rita first, leaving his son Harrison to be "born in blood" (ie. witnessing the killing of his own mother), as had happened to Dexter himself when he was little.
Long story short, Dexter is like the modern day Dark Knight (aka. Batman). Dexter likened the Dark Defender moniker which was just as well. Yes, Dexter's killing was horrendous (not only did he kill, but he also had to dismember the corpse so as to dispose of them), but at least he felt it's all justified. Audience (like me) tend to agree. That's why he's so adored.
Michael C. Hall is perfect in his role as Dexter Morgan. He's affable, likable, yet he could turn a pleasant mood on a dime into vicious feat for a kill. There's a certain darkness behind his steely stare, something menacing and scary all at once. Has it not been for the fact that audience can hear Dexter's narration and what goes on in his mind, we would probably be very scared of his stare too. Very few people can pull that off, and still somehow makes it relatable or likable. That's why he was and still is, the one and only, Dexter.
Dexter: New Blood
I was thus thrilled when I heard that there's a follow-up mini-series (ten episodes) of Dexter, with timeline jumped some years after the Season 8 anticlimactic finale.
I have to admit, I was apprehensive when news of this sequel came out. Are the producers going to just do the same-old-same-old to milk the franchise? Very few sequels, particularly after these number of years have lapsed, are able to pull it off and not ruin the audience's fond memory of the original series and its characters.
I'm duly and pleasantly surprised to see how the ten episodes have unfolded. The settings are totally different, from the very tropical and sunny Miami, to a very cold, snowy lumberjack town upstate somewhere. It's a brilliant idea to reintroduce Harrison into the life of Dexter. Arguably, Harrison has been the only tether to his Miami past-life. The young actor as Harrison performs reasonably well. Instead of Harry's "ghost" visiting Dexter like a guardian angel, Deb has now taken the place, though Deb is still as annoying as she usually is, mostly just admonishing and chastising Dexter (now under the new alias of Jim Lindsay) for screwing up everything in life. After a while, Deb the ghost is just repetitive hyperventilation, with not much new added value.
All seems reasonable and understandable, except it's unclear how Dexter could have held back his Dark Passenger in all these years. Audience are simply told to accept the fact that Dexter has managed to suppress that dark urges, but that's not entirely convincing.
That said, in Dexter's life (past or present), serial killers must be had, even in a remote lumberjack town with just 2760 residents. The big baddies come in the form of a father-and-son duo. The son was callous that had gotten people killed, but the father was the true evil who has apparently killed transients for the past 25 years. Some inklings was spent in explaining his needs to kill, but here too, the 2D depiction isn't that convincing either.
One thing leads to another, Harrison shows up at Dexter's doorstep after Harrison manages to track his father down. Apparently Harrison is a very capable and resourceful type of (late) teen. Ok, I can accept that. And then Harrison is revealed to have the same kind of dark thoughts, just as Dexter's Dark Passenger had once haunted him. Eventually Dexter let Harrison in on his own demons, and how his own father (Harry) had thought him the Code to channel those killing urges to do some good for the society. Fast forward a few episodes, Dexter/Harrison have dispensed of the biggest baddie (the monster serial killer). It's rather unsatisfying since this big baddie seems to exist only to provide an intellectual excuse for a bonding exercise for Dexter/Harrison.
But, just as it was in the original series in which Dexter's killings were like a vortex that sucks in everyone he loves into his blackhole, Dexter's sheriff girlfriend, Angela (apparently just as capable and astute as Deb the detective) has figured out not only who Dexter really was, but that he was the real Bay Harbor Butcher (the serial killer in his past-life who killed hundreds of "victims" and dumped their chopped-up body parts into the Gulf, though of course audience don't see those as "victims"). I truly wish that there is more to be said about Angel Batiste (Dexter's colleague at Miami PD) who was another good man and was one that Dexter considers to be a friend. No matter. As Angela closes in, Dexter planned to run off with his son, so that he can pass down his tradecraft to his son. But life is not meant to be.
Dexter's undoing, is Harrison. Dexter killed Logan, one of Angela's deputies who was also Harrison's high school wrestling coach, and Logan was a good guy. Dexter regretted the killing though Dexter had not meant to kill him when Login struggled to retain Dexter in custody. For this, Harrison laid everything on Dexter. In Harrison's reasoning (as unreasonable as it usually is for teenagers' reasoning), his dark thoughts was a result of abandonment by Dexter when he was little...but is it really? Harrison thrashed Dexter's Code from Harry as bullshit, just as Deb once did...but that is simply not true. Without Harry's Code, Dexter would likely be a true monster that kills just for the thrill of it. Harry's Code has given Dexter a certain moral compass (for lack of a better word). Why is it so hard for Harrison (and Deb) to see?
Sadly Harrison is never as great as his father Dexter ever has been. All that Harrison tried to do - or rather, to pretend - is to "be normal, like everybody else." But as Dexter had shown us all these years, that Dark Passenger will never go away. Maybe we would give Harrison a pass, for being unreasonable, as most teenagers do, in blaming all their frustrations and problems in their very small world, to someone else, particularly their parents.
And so, Harrison did. He blamed Dexter for all the wrongs, and dark thoughts that he has had. Along that line of thinking, the only way to free himself from these dark thoughts, Dexter must die. What a bullshit line of thinking, and a lazy justification for some complex psychology. Unfortunately, this is episode 10 already, and no one has time for any more psycho-therapy.
We have come to the end of the road, Dexter gave in. This is one adorable trait of Dexter, in that he has always been brave enough to own up to his shortcomings. Dexter has always blamed himself for his inability to feel or truly understand others' feelings. When Harrison blamed him for killing Logan, Dexter fully accepted it as his own fault that a good man like Logan had died along the way. Once Dexter gave in, there's no longer any argument when Harrison blamed his father for everything that has gone wrong in his life. All those whom Dexter considered "good people," particularly those he holds dearly, flash before his eyes. Then, Dexter guided his son in his loving fatherly way, one last time, on how to use the rifle ("unlock the safety" and "aim [here]", pointing to his chest), and Dexter let his son end his life.
One could argue that it's a poetic ending to Dexter since life-on-the-run isn't really much of a life at all. Ultimately it's a good thing that the series has not tried to glorify a serial killer - even one as adorable as Dexter - and there is always a price to pay. It's a sad, but fitting, end to Dexter's life.
The thing that saddens me most, is that Dexter the character is truly gone. There is no more sequel. The producers, and Michael C. Hall, have done great service, to provide a fitting end to Dexter. Perhaps that's the closure that audience has been left wanting all these years, and it's finally delivered.
This mini-series sequel is well-made. All the materials and timeline fit. Dexter has aged as any normal human beings would after all these years, though his agility and physicality remains. The storyline and plots are decent, perhaps with the exception of the serial killer baddie which was rather weak.
With Dexter's gone, Harrison is driving off on his own. Unlike Dexter, Harrison is really just lying to himself, thinking that he'll be "normal" again, now that his serial-killer father is dead for good. But he's too cowardly to admit - or maybe he's still too young to understand it - that the Dark Passenger will never go away. Sooner or later, it'll nibble at him, but he'll no longer have a father like Dexter to truly understand (what those dark thoughts are) and guide him, a loving father who loves him unconditionally even if he's unseen, thousands of miles away, and will not judge Harrison for what he truly is, much as Harry did to Dexter. That said, I'm not really interested in how Harrison might turn out. To me, Dexter is still the No.1.
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