TV Reviews: Dexter

The biggest hit Showtime has ever had, Dexter, is now in its 6th season and, now more than ever, the gray hairs are beginning to show. I’ve seen the first five episodes (almost half of the show’s twelve episode season) and I think they’ve managed to make the impossible happen: a show about a merciless serial killer dull.

Most would argue that season 5–with its sometimes ridiculous plots where Julia Stiles, yes, stiff-as-a-board Julia Stiles got in touch with her inner vigilante–took a nose dive in quality from season 4 and I wouldn’t argue. To me and countless others, season 4 (with its shocking death of Frank Lundy, its terrific Trinity storyline, John Lithgow’s towering performance as the decades long serial killer, and Rita’s timely demise before she could annoy us another day) was hands down the best season of Dexter. After a weak season 3 where Jimmy Smits was the sole highlight, it was a return to form that reminded many of us why we fell in love with the show in season 1. Ahhh, season 1, remember when things didn’t always work out so neatly for the closeted serial killer/CSI and somebody (Doakes) in his police precinct actually thought there was something off about Dexter Morgan?

Well, this season we’re back to familiar territory, too familiar, as the show once again reveals its three core weaknesses: 1. It has never developed a strong supporting cast. Sorry, but Quinn and the too-saintly Angel smoking a joint doesn’t count as character building. 2. The show’s over reliance on obviousness. Such as Dexter’s relentless voiceovers to put us in his head and the extremely annoying ghost of his father (the suffocatingly grim James Remar) that feels a little hacky six seasons in. Another example would be all of Dexter’s bad puns about being a killer, which breaks the cardinal rule of “No bad puns in voiceover…ever.” Yes dude, we get it, you’re a killer…we know this about you because it is practically the only thing about you which brings us to…3. Dexter is interesting the way a shark is interesting (it is a ruthless killing machine) but does that really make it a great, fascinating character to build a long running show around? Plus, I’ve always been a little uncomfortable with how many people think Dexter is a “good guy” because he kills other killers (at least two of whom have turned out to be innocent) instead of a mentally damaged psychopath anti-hero. Unlike Breaking Bad or The Sopranos, Dexter makes the same mistake as 24 where it showcases an anti-hero we’re never supposed to believe is anything less than heroic. The show seems designed to stir our puritan joy in watching a man dish out “pure justice” (in that way it’s even more unsettling than anything we’re actually watching) and so I’m a little surprised it took the show six seasons to get to religion, the main theme of this season.

And that really takes the fun out of things. One of the chief joys of any Dexter season is the “big bad guy” played by a Jimmy Smits or John Lithgow but this season we get two big bad guys in Edward James Olmos and Colin Hanks and neither of them are the slightest bit of fun. See, they’re moralistic killers–which Dexter himself, and too often the show around him, believes he is–which makes them grim avengers, not much different than Dexter himself, or, even worse, his father who never met a stern lesson he didn’t like giving his son. So we sit and watch Dexter as he goes through the motions of killing people (at this point he’s killed hundreds) and the show never makes more than a weak effort at saying it’s wrong and we watch him–always–get away with it in situations we’re never sure he won’t, and the show just keeps on chugging.

Supporting Scene Stealer: There really aren’t any. As I said before, the show’s supporting cast has never been properly built up to where any character has more than two or three defining traits and most of the subplots involving them are dull as dirt. Who are you going to single out here? Quinn? Angel? Maria? The horny Asian sidekick? Baby Harrison? Dexter’s father’s ultra-stoic ghost? Dexter’s voice overs? I could do this all day and the show should pay attention to that and finally change it. When the show killed Trinity, it lost something important: a supporting character we actually enjoyed watching.