Thanks to a Showtime free ...
Question: Thanks to a Showtime free preview weekend from my satellite provider, I was finally able to catch an episode of
Dexter, the Season 2 opener. All I can say is: Really? I get the strength of the lead performance, and, being a former
Buffy-ite, loved seeing
Julie Benz doing something new. But I found the whole thing very inconsistent. The sets looked so fake and tacky, and some of the acting (Debra, Vince and especially Sgt. Doakes) seemed very amateur at times. All of this distracted from what I can see were some great story beats. Pulling up out of the sea crevasse to reveal the dozens and dozens of Dexter's dumping bags was pretty cool. I guess I'm surprised the series as a whole is getting as much acclaim given some of these production miscues. I felt the same way about
Bionic Woman, which had the opposite problem: It looked great but felt awfully hollow. I thought most of the lead performances, especially
Michelle Ryan's, felt more than a tad off. But
Dexter gets the overall better rep. What's up with that?
Answer: My advice: Get your hands on the Season 1 DVD of
Dexter — rent or Netflix it, whatever — and then we'll talk. Look,
Dexter isn't perfect. What show is? (Although I'll admit I never paid much attention to its set design. Is it really so distracting? Can't imagine.) My biggest problem with the second season is an unnecessary and unsatisfying subplot involving the new lieutenant and her neurotic jealousy over her boyfriend, which is resolved in a particularly ridiculous twist. As for Doakes, I see that character (and
Erik King's performance) as part of the show's garishly heightened sensibility: a cartoonish antagonist, to be sure, but as seen from Dexter's feverish point of view, I can live with that. (I keep wondering if Doakes is ever going to meet the bizarre fate that played out in the second
Dexter novel.) And I don't mind Dexter's sister Deb being played as so tightly wound. The show gives plenty of context for that, even before her trauma at the end of the first season. But appreciating
Dexter means recognizing that the character of Dexter, and
Michael C. Hall's amazing performance, is the franchise here. He's unlike anyone you've ever seen on TV before, which is something you can't say, obviously, about
Bionic Woman. The show is undeniably twisted, and bringing
Keith Carradine aboard as the FBI "rock star" looking into the discovery of Dexter's watery stash of bodies adds a new level of intrigue. Having burned through the first four episodes of this season, I'm now having the curious pleasure of reading the latest
Dexter novel (
Dexter in the Dark) whenever I get a spare minute, of which there are not many in the first weeks of a TV season. It's a blast, and it's on such a distinctly different story track from the TV series that I recommend the reading experience just as highly, if not more, than the TV adaptation. The way Jeff Lindsay sustains Dexter's witty internal voice is a marvel to behold.
