Monday 1 October 2012

Dexter - a minireview - from DVDs of Series 1-6

(Rated 6/5 )

Hi RR viewers,

Sorry for my silence over the last few weeks. I have been even more restricted than usual, and in part Dexter was responsible - though he was more a help - and bizarre to say comfort - than a restriction and thankfully he didn't wrap me in cling-film! Then again I haven't taken up serial killing so he'd have no reason to.

I have adored this series ever since I finally gave it a chance at least a year after season 1 was gifted to me - more on that in a bit - but never reviewed it. I am reluctant to review in detail though as there are so many edge-of-your-seat surprises that to give any away would be to spoil it somewhat. It really is a HAVE-TO-SEE and all people I know who have, have become addicted. I now get the new season DVDs ASAP and then have a queue of pals who borrow him after Dexter and his colleagues have entertained me :)

The very basic premise - Dexter Morgan is a blood spatter analyst for the Homicide Department of Miami Metro Police. And on the side he happens to be a serial killer. So how on earth is it that anyone likes the character and/or has any empathy for him?! Why has he become such a massive hit on both sides of the Atlantic and round the world? I absolutely did not want to get involved in watching this show. In a maybe slightly daft way I felt like I might be supporting the cause of serial killers by doing so. I also feared I'd be disgusted, revolted, have nightmares or just simply find it unpleasant. In fact I couldn't understand why anyone might remotely and felt concerned about the person who had gifted it to me, even though I love her very much! ;) Several times she told me I'd find the psychology interesting. Oh yeah really?! Do I really want to know why someone becomes a serial killer?! However interested in psychology I may be?! Well even that is to put it far too simplistically. Dexter is a serial killer but his psychology is far, far more interesting than even that would imply. Yes he has a pretty major trauma to 'make him' go that way. But what is far more interesting is the arc of his character through the series. Can he turn from psychopath to human? And how can each series challenge him in new ways? Each time I think it can't possibly. And each time it does. The ante is continually upped if you like, in a way highly unusual for an ongoing series. Once you get even a little attached to him you cannot leave! You are dying to know what will happen next in his psychological and external life journey.

Michael C. Hall - of Six Feet Under fame - plays Dexter. And my goodness how impressively he does so. So believable! Sometimes voice-overs can sound lame and annoying, but personally I love Dexter voice-overs - they give us such important insight into his internal life - absolutely necessary - it's a bit hard for us to find out about him in confidences to other characters - how can he genuinely confide in real, healthy humans?! Or even highly loveable unhealthy ones?! The show is littered with supremely interesting and, to varying degrees and varieties, flawed characters. My favourite of whom is Debra Morgan - Dexter's sister - played excellently by Jennifer Carpenter - shown with Dexter below. She is tough yet vulnerable, sensitive yet needy and self-centred, totally beautiful and yet with very ugly language! And her relationship with Dexter is of great interest - even though for so much of the time it's packed with incongruence on both sides. There is a character to please everyone in the show: Lauren Velez as ambitious yet gorgeous power-house Lt. Maria LaGuerta, David Zayas as very cuddly Sgt Angel Batista and C.S. Lee as sex-obsessed yet starved Vince Masuka - I am highlighting character traits but there is so much more to each of them - these are not just 3D but 4D characters, and I am naming just a few.

The main antagonist serial killers include Trinity (John Lithgow); so named as he kills in 3s: woman in a bathtub, mother falling to her death and man bludgeoned with a hammer and The Ice-Truck Killer who bleeds his victims out before cutting them into pieces, which he leaves for the police to discover. Nice!

Let the avenging angel onto your TV screen - you won't be disappointed!

Dexter – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2012



Twitter: @RestrictReview

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