“Dexter” — An Inconvenient Lie
Working the program.
The award for most brilliant narrative choice so far on Showtime’s serial killer drama Dexter goes to putting the titular character in a twelve-step program. First of all, it eliminated the one “this is ridiculous, why is it still going on” thread from last season with Doakes following Mr. Morgan to figure out “just what that guy is up to” — despite the ease at which this all seemed to wrap itself up (I ain’t complaining). More after the jump…
More importantly, not only does this twelve-step development give us a new female love interest (as Rita has kind of run out of things to do this season), but Dexter is able to mine the experience for his own emotional gain — almost a carryover from the murderous therapy his brother got him involved in last season. It’s a perfect way to frame this second season, and I hope it lasts.
Elsewhere in the action we had a car dealer who enjoyed killing off brunette’s with bad credit, and who Dexter successfully wiped from the planet, and we have an increasingly fascinating Deb working with the FBI to find the Bay Area Butcher (i.e. her brother). The Deb stuff this season works. Last season I found her uneven at best, and while I’m still not entirely convinced Jennifer Carpenter is up for the challenge, the character is certainly growing on me. I like that her gung-ho nature has been muted a bit as the endless death around her starts to eat away at her titanium facade.
What does strike me, perhaps unfortunately, is I haven’t yet gotten a sense that Dexter is in any real trouble of being caught, though that could also be due to the fact that the police force has yet to really form much of a game plan on what to do with all of these bodies. There are certainly plenty of episodes left to start turning the screws, which is a good thing. The longer the cops take to figure out how they’re going to start solving the case, the less time the writers have to worry about keeping Dexter out of their crosshairs. He can spend the rest of his free time working the program, and being completely compelling to watch.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:50 am
I really liked this episode, but I find that Lundy guy (who the AV Club really liked: http://www.avclub.com/content/tvclub/show/Dexter) just a comical smattering of hot shot cop/agent stereotypes. Sure, he’s more muted and restrained than Tommy Lee Jones, but c’mon, the guy speaks almost exclusively in cliches and stupid metaphors.
That being said, the scene with Dexter and him in the morgue was good TV.