If you haven’t watched “Dexter” yet, what are you doing? Dexter has eight seasons, a prequel and two sequel series that spans over 20 years.
If you don’t know the premise, Dexter Morgan (played by Michaell C. Hall), the title of the show and the main character, is a blood splatter analyst by day, murder by night. But, Dexter only kills other murderers.
Not only is Dexter smart, but the screenwriters are too. “Dexter” does a great job of creating suspense by placing him in a situations that have you saying “how is he going to get out of it?!” Any screenwriter knows, suspense is hard to create, but much more satisfying than a cheap scare.
Spoiler alert! However, the show has established that Dexter always gets away, almost always.
I started watching last year when the original eight seasons were out, so I knew Dexter had to survive, but I was still on the edge of my seat in each tricky situation he was in.
Seasons one to eight take place in early 2000s Miami, Florida with a host of trope-y crime fighting characters. There’s Dexter’s spit-fire sister Debora or Deb (played by Jennifer Carpenter), Detective Angel Batista (played by David Zayas) and Dexter’s least favorite co-worker Sargent James Doakes (played by Erik King) just to name a few.
From time to time, Dexter brings in donuts to Miami Metro–adding to the police tropes–however, this good deed is part of his father’s “code.”
Dexter’s father, Harry Morgan (played by James Remar), noticed Dexter’s serial killer impulses from an early age and developed a set of rules or “code,” as it’s referred to in the show, to follow to help him survive in society.
The code is Dexter has to have proof that people are killers before committing his own crime and to not get caught.
Harry’s character also serves as a tool for exposition, as Harry passed and talks to Dexter as a ghost-like shining, protective father figure.
The crime scenes start out tame, but get significantly gory and complex as the show progresses, adding serial killers to the plot (including Dexter’s own long lost brother).
“Dexter: New Blood” is the first sequel season that was released and takes place in 2021.
Dexter isn’t in the big city of Miami anymore. Instead, he lives in Iron Lake, New York under the name Jeff Lindsay. Why? You’ll have to watch to find out.
In between the two sequels the Dexter team released a prequel, “Dexter: Original Sin,” which traces Dexter’s early career. While the plot is interesting and the dialogue funny, it’s not as good as the grown-up Dexter seasons.
The concept is unique and I’d like to give kudos to the casting director, because the younger characters are exactly what I expected from watching and being invested in multiple seasons with the adult characters.
The most recent sequel, “Dexter: Resurrection,” is just as good as the rest!
So, what are you waiting for?! “Dexter” is the perfect crime show to binge this fall.