DEXTER: NEW BLOOD - EPISODE 1 & 2 SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

DEXTER: NEW BLOOD – EPISODE 1 “COLD SNAP” & EPISODE 2 “STORM OF FUCK” – A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

The problem I find with any tv show that isn’t called “THE WIRE” is that a protracted series of contrivances centred around the same town or city breaks any suspension of disbelief after a few seasons. In the case of DEXTER, it was round about the start of Season 4 where I first started to think “just how many fucking serial killers can Miami really have at any one time?”. Mercifully, season 4 of DEXTER ended up being such an overwhelmingly taut and well executed experience that these illusion-shattering ruminations on “psychotics per square mile” didn’t really enter my head too much. But by the time Season 5 rolled around, I had a hard time buying into a real-world setting where the standard of living in the given area was somewhere between “pretty rough” and “we have an abundance of maniacs”.

This is part of the reason why DEXTER: NEW BLOOD is, so far, the best the show has been since JOHN LITHGOW’s Trinity Killer finally wound up on our anti-hero’s table back in 2010 and also ably demonstrates how this is exactly what the show needed before it chose to take the road toward psychotic motivational speakers, religious extremists, and Dokes flashbacks.

To catch you up, it’s been almost a whole decade since that bullshit which passed as a series finale for DEXTER first aired, and therefore almost a whole decade since we saw Dexter’s new life as a lumberjack in some undisclosed, snowy climb, which was a world away from the blazing Florida sun and his life as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami police.

Dexter, now known as Jim Lindsay, is working as an assistant in a hunting & bait store in the sleepy town of Iron Lake. He wiles away the majority of his off-hours alone with only the mental image of his dead sister for company, tending to his goats and his chickens, choppin’ wood, and sprinting through the woods in pursuit of a white deer we’re not sure if he wants to kill or simply admire. His public life, however, is thriving. He’s well known and well liked around town, he’s in a new relationship (with the town’s chief of police, no less), and he hasn’t killed anyone for almost 10 years! Good going, Dexter! Still following the code after all these years. Sadly, or perhaps fortuitously, the arrival of rich asshole Matt Caldwell to the town is going to give him a serious case of itchy stabbin’ finger, as is the appearance of a hooded figure he suspects is watching him at every turn…

MICHAEL C HALL and JENNIFER CARPENTER, as the series’ only returning “familiar” faces, look to not have aged a god damned day. This is great in the case of CARPENTER, as her character’s youth and vibrancy (and caustic tongue) are perfectly preserved in the mind of her brother. But in one of the more bizarre nit-picks I’ve ever had about literally anything, HALL looking so damn fresh is kinda reality breaking to an extent. Still, this barely-even-worth-noting gripe aside, both returning stars slip back into their respective roles like they’ve never been away. It is only the image of Deborah who varies slightly from how we are used to seeing her, as she appears in Dexter’s mind as part poison-tongued seductress and part psychologically abusive bully - - a far cry from how we remember the supportive and sage presence of Harry. Not helping to sell the idea of the passage of time in any way is Dexter’s new squeeze, Sheriff Angela Bishop, played by the borderline age-inappropriate JULIA JONES whose character also has a teenage daughter played by JOHNNY SEQUOYAH. But who the fuck am I to judge what people get up to with their time, huh?

Bringing the series back to our screens after an extended absence is CLYDE PHILLIPS, who previously wrote for DEXTER’s original run (while it was still a good show, mind), and who is joined by another familiar name from the show’s previous incarnation, director MARCOS SIEGA. That NEW BLOOD has some veterans at the helm inexorably helps the show settle into a groove a lot quicker than had it been handled by some hack Hollywood chuds, and that overall sense of feeling like DEXTER is absolutely present and correct as a result. The downside to this is that, just as with the original run, some reveals are blown a little too quickly without adequate time to build any tension, and multiple plot threads are introduced in all too short a space of time which you know are going to kinda bottle neck towards the end of the season, therefore breaking that suspension of disbelief we were talking about before. But what is DEXTER without an overwhelming amount of plot developments for our anti-hero to conquer?

Still, as mentioned earlier, DEXTER: NEW BLOOD is precisely what the show needed in order to stay fresh and interesting. That it looks, feels, and sounds like DEXTER is testament not only to the technical aspects of the show, but to the writing which is as coal-black and macabre as I remember it being when it was at its best.

DEXTER: NEW BLOOD is available on SHOWTIME in the U.S. on Sunday evening’s at 9:00pm and on U.K. screens the following Monday via SKY ATLANTIC.