Thoughts about Dexter: New Blood(2021)
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I plead guilty to having been a fan of the series Dexter, which ran on Showtime from 2006 to 2013. For the relative few who don't know, Dexter (played by Michael C. Hall) is a fictional serial killer, made that way by a traumatic childhood experience, but his homicidal tendencies were channeled by his foster father, a cop, into only preying on other murderers - people who had it coming, so to speak. Liking Dexter isn't a big reach for fans of superheroes, who are - whether one likes to characterize them this way or not - violent vigilantes. While some heroes draw the line at killing, we know from reading and watching their stories how many times the bad guys don't live to return in the sequel. If you're a fan of the Punisher or the Expendables, they have body counts that leave Dexter to shame.
In 2013, the producers decided to end the series after 8 seasons. This may have been something of a mercy killing. To me, the series had three great seasons, but the fourth was one that I always felt was handled badly. In each season, Dexter had a "big bad" amongst the many lesser bad guys/gals he put down. In season 4, it was Arthur Mitchell, the so-called "Trinity Killer" (played by John Lithgow). Lithgow's character was a reasonably interesting villain, but the series started to lose my interest at this point because of how incomprehensibly stupid Dexter began to act at that time. He started making careless slip-ups and foolish choices that someone as intelligent and meticulous as he had been in the past seemed extremely out of character. But I had a theory as to why.
There is a line in the film Backdraft (1991), where an imprisoned arsonist comments on a current mystery arsonist the police and fire department are looking for. He notes that the individual setting the fires always controls them - ".. whoever is doing this knows the animal well, doesn't he? He knows him real well, but he won't let him loose. He won't let him have any fun, so he does not love him." At some point the makers of Dexter seemed to lose their love for the animal they had created.
Dexter was extremely popular the first few years it aired. And this created something of a problem. Dexter copycats started to appear. (https://listverse.com/2017/11/08/10-real-life-murderers-who-were-influenced-by-dexter-morgan/) The character essentially offered a template for a person who punishes the guilty who have escaped the reach or the attention of the law, though Dexter has no super-powers or specialized training. He's a serial killer, and as we have all heard, they look just like everyone else. Imagine you created a successful TV show about someone who kills bad guys and then found out people loved your character and the idea so much they decided to try it out for themselves. It creates a moral dilemma for the creators and a public relations issue for the people who put it on the air.
And so the tone of the show changed. Dexter started out with a bit of a tone of dark humor. But it shifted to the new tone - No matter how tempting the notion of the anti-killer killer is, taking that path will result in ruin to him and everyone around him. The stories became grimmer. Successes were coupled with tragic losses. Eventually, they ended the series with Dexter losing everyone close to him, faking his death, and sentencing himself to self-imposed exile. Surely no one would want to emulate him after that.
But the fans didn't give up. They hated the ending, but still loved the character. They wanted a do-over or a revival of the show to correct that dismal ending. So, in 2021, Showtime obliged. They brought back Clyde Phillips, the series showrunner for its first 4 seasons. Fans were hopeful, since those were the years when the show was considered by most to be at its best.
Dexter: New Blood, is set 10 years after the conclusion of the original series. It has Dexter living a life as "Jim Lindsay" in the fictional small town of Iron Lake, New York. He has built a reasonably stable life for himself working in a sporting goods store and dating the local sheriff. But, of course, a few things go awry - Dexter is provoked to kill again, there are indications of someone else committing murders in Iron Lake, and his teen-aged son, Harrison (Jack Alcott) appears. And so the story commences.
The murder Dexter commits put him into opposition with the local serial killer, played reasonably well by Clancy Brown. But too much of the season is spent following around Dexter's angsty teen-aged son. It doesn't take long for Harrison to become enough of an annoyance to detract from the interesting parts of the story and to even make the character less believable. Our credulity is also strained by the fact that as soon as Dexter's sheriff girlfriend, Angela (Julia Jones) gets a few incredibly convenient clues as to his previous identity, she goes directly from acting as if she ever had any feelings for him to a dogged pursuer.
spoiler warning: I'm assuming most people will have seen the show by now, but if you haven't and don't want the ending spoiled, stop reading here.
But the part of New Blood everyone takes issue with is the ending. Dexter is about to escape town with Harrison, when Harrison turns on him for the damage to the innocents that Dexter has caused and shoots him in the chest with the rifle Dexter had given him. (Who didn't see that coming?) Dexter accepts his fate as if this is the way things always had to be, that Harrison killing him is an act of love. So, this is what they brought everyone back for - an ending that actually had some finality.
Very few people are happy with the result. (I'm among them.) There had been buzz about spinning off the series with Harrison as the protagonist, but the character is so unlikable, I don't see how that would be likely to work. They would probably have to re-cast. But I don't really perceive any public interest in the premise of spinning off the concept with anyone other than Dexter.
It seems as if Dexter was something they wanted to be done with and with the pretense of giving the fans what they wanted, they ended the character for good. If I ever miss Dexter Morgan, I can always spin up seasons 1-3. (Season 5 had some good moments, too.) But going forward, the Michael C. Hall incarnation of Dexter is almost certainly gone for good.
I had dreamt up a conclusion for the Dexter series set after season 4 that I thought would have been much more satisfying for fans, but it was never my story to tell. It seems that Dexter became the family embarassment that people wanted to sweep under the rug and now they have finally done it. Rest in peace, Dex. It was fun while it lasted.
- JC