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By the point it resulted in 2013 after eight seasons, Dexter’s most distinguished sufferer was unquestionably Dexter. A parody of itself, the collection was principally killing time: season after season, somebody acquired near antihero Dexter Morgan solely to die themselves, and the slate was cleaned in order that Dexter may as soon as once more surprise if he was a very good one that did dangerous issues, or a nasty one deluding himself with the fairy story of a very good life. Probably the most twisted factor about all that is most likely that now, eight years later, somebody would suppose that anybody would need extra.
Premiering over the weekend, Dexter: New Blood shouldn’t be a re-imagining nor radical departure from the Showtime drama. It’s, surprisingly, a continuation of the unique collection that pretends it’s nonetheless within the heady good previous days of yore, albeit with a change of surroundings and a brand new supporting solid that provides the collection room to repeat these acquainted beats with out the ridiculous baggage that comes with the identical solid of characters being duped again and again, yr after yr — not to mention the equally harmful baggage of getting to face any of these characters once more. As an alternative, it takes a brand new run at an previous query: Why does Dexter Morgan kill? And why is killing the factor Dexter is greatest at?
Nonetheless, most of New Blood is perfunctory. It’s a competently paced thriller that, have been it not for the callbacks — Dexter’s son Harrison, now a teen after his toddling final look; the ghost of Dexter’s sister Deborah, who died within the collection finale — would operate properly as a standalone miniseries. Dexter Morgan, a reformed serial killer, has taken a vow to not hurt any residing factor and has spent the approximate decade between Dexter and New Blood turning into a cheerful fixture within the small Upstate New York city of Iron Lake beneath the identify Jim Lindsay.
Temptation strikes Dexter when an edgy customer involves city with dangerous vibes in tow, and shortly Dexter feels compelled to kill once more. It’s at that second that New Blood turns into fascinating, not as a result of it’s notably wonderful tv (at its greatest, it’s merely advantageous) however as a result of, like within the unique collection, the present involves life in its portrayal of Dexter’s kill ritual.
Dexter’s kill room scenes are the form of factor TV exhibits hope to spin into Emmy gold. They’re primarily tiny one-act performs, the place Michael C. Corridor will get to stretch his theater chops and Dexter’s writers get to probe the morality play on the coronary heart of the present a bit extra. In these moments, Dexter Morgan comes alive, exhibiting his victims his true self after he’s uncovered theirs — usually actually, as they’re virtually all the time bare and plastic-wrapped to a desk. Often, Dexter makes use of the chance to rationalize his homicide, to argue earlier than a captive viewers that he holds the ethical excessive floor as a result of he adheres to a code, and that code entails ensuring that his targets are responsible of harming innocents, or another pernicious evil that’s higher rid from the Earth.
Even in its heyday, the type of present Dexter was at a given second was often in flux, wildly vacillating between two poles: On one finish, Dexter was a philosophical character drama about nature vs. nurture and morality. On the opposite, it was a cat-and-mouse thriller between a killer with scruples and a killer with none. When the present was at its greatest and embracing the previous philosophy, the kill room scenes confirmed Dexter as he’s, and the way he thinks of himself. However in its pulpier, and in the end worse, mode, the kill room scenes have been principally about simply desserts, there to solid Dexter as the great man and his goal because the villain that deserved it.
Picture: Seacia Pavao/SHOWTIME
To its credit score, New Blood is within the extra introspective homicide. The 2021 revival pointedly makes use of Dexter’s ever-present monologue to ask whether or not his life is beginning to take a downturn as a result of he slipped up and killed, or if it’s going to shit as a result of he abstained for thus lengthy in denial of who he — and the now-grown son he deserted within the Dexter finale — actually is.
By this prism, Dexter new and previous turns into a research of masculinity and intimacy. Chilly and dead-eyed in his day-to-day life, Dexter Morgan tries to suit right into a life that appears regular and proper to him: The place he has a very good job, a very good household, and perhaps even pals. Time and again, intimacy is tried, and rejected, in favor of the kill room, the place Dexter has energy, the place he can assert that he’s proper and his sufferer is incorrect, the place he feels most like himself. If Dexter Morgan is redeemable, he should escape the kill room he can’t cease returning to.
There’s a comparability to the Unbelievable Hulk right here. When finished proper, the character is fueled by a horrible irony: Repressed scientist Bruce Banner needs to do every thing in his energy to maintain himself from reworking into his monstrous alter ego. The viewers, nonetheless? There’s nothing they’d prefer to see extra. In its first 4 episodes, New Blood appears no less than mildly on this rigidity, rigorously organising the comfortable woodsy group that may probably go to hell ought to Jim Lindsay turn out to be Dexter Morgan as soon as extra. However we’ve already seen this occur, solely then it was eight straight years in Miami. Dexter’s issues aren’t solved by a change of surroundings, however they is likely to be with a change of perspective — one which New Blood appears essentially bored with.
Dexter Morgan doesn’t flip right into a computer-generated rage monster, however he’s making an attempt to maintain a monstrous a part of himself in test; the joys of Dexter is in witnessing his makes an attempt to channel that monster — dubbed his “Darkish Passenger” — and the results that emerge from the truth that there’s no actual solution to channel homicide into optimistic character progress. In repeating most of the acquainted beats from the earlier collection, Dexter: New Blood demonstrates the identical inertia Dexter and Dexter Morgan suffers from. Nothing has modified right here. Some monsters usually are not that sophisticated. Perhaps it’s silly that we ever thought they have been in any respect.
Dexter: New Blood airs new episodes on Sunday nights on Showtime and Showtime Anytime.
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