A Serial Killer Show That Somehow Makes You Worry About the Serial Killer
Nerdy Up North
The setup
Dexter Morgan works as a blood spatter analyst for Miami Metro Police while secretly living a second life as a serial killer who targets murderers he believes escaped justice. His carefully controlled routine becomes harder to maintain as family, relationships and increasingly dangerous enemies get too close.
Dexter should be a hard character to spend this much time with. He kills people, cuts them up and dumps them in the sea. The show gets around that by putting us inside his head, giving him rules and then slowly showing how much of the emotionless monster he claims to be might actually be an act.
Michael C. Hall is incredible in the role. The narration could have become annoying very quickly, but it gives the show its personality. Dexter can be standing in the middle of a completely normal conversation while his internal voice is saying something absolutely horrifying, and Hall makes both versions feel like the same person.
The Miami setting helps as well. Everything is bright, hot and colourful, which is a nice contrast to how dark the story gets. The supporting cast gives Dexter a believable normal life to hide inside, especially Deb, Batista and Rita.
For me, the Trinity Killer storyline is where the show hits its peak. John Lithgow is terrifying because Arthur Mitchell initially looks like proof that Dexter could somehow have a family and still keep his darker side under control. The more Dexter learns, the worse that idea becomes.
The biggest problem with Dexter is consistency. Its best seasons are brilliant, but once you have watched Dexter nearly get caught enough times, the show has to work harder and harder to reset the board. Some later stories do not have the same tension, and the original ending left a lot of people wondering how a show this good managed to finish there.
Even with the weaker stretches, I would still recommend it easily. At its best, Dexter is tense, funny, nasty and completely carried by one of the best lead performances in television.
Positives
Michael C. Hall is outstanding, the internal narration gives the show a unique voice, Miami is a great setting and the Trinity Killer season is television at its best.
Negatives
The quality becomes uneven in later seasons, some storylines repeat familiar ideas and the original finale is nowhere near the standard of the show's strongest years.
Verdict
Dexter has rough patches, but its best seasons are good enough that I can forgive a lot. Michael C. Hall makes a character who should be impossible to like completely fascinating.
