Eight years after delivering one of the worst final television seasons of all time, Dexter returns for a second go ‘round. Hiding out in small-town Oregon under the guise of mild-mannered store assistant Jim Lindsay (geddit), the retired-and-assumed-dead Dexter Morgan (Michael C Hall) is a serial killer in recovery, having not killed anyone since the finale of the show’s original run.
Temptation comes in the form of a gang of out-of-towners, looking to kick off hunting season with assault rifles, overly obnoxious partying, and itchy trigger fingers. When a routine background check uncovers a series of red flags on the worst of the gang, Dexter’s dark passenger begins to awaken from its long slumber. For how much longer can Dexter Morgan resist his murderous urges? Who is the mysterious figure stalking his woodland home? What happened to the iconic opening credits sequence? And is any of this enough to help audiences forgive and forget how horrendously Dexter ended the first time around?
The first episode of New Blood is a tentative but promising return for the serial killer. Dexter returns with a chilly new setting, a muted colour palette, and a more sombre tone. A lot has changed since the television landscape of 2006 – 2013 –unrestrained by the need to make Dexter ‘likeable’ could allow the character to flourish, should New Blood choose to take that path. As Dexter begins to pick up old habits, he certainly seems to have returned darker and nastier than before.
Dexter Morgan is not the only one sinking back into bad habits. This is only the first episode, but already it shows signs of being derailed by Dexter’s dumb decisions, doomed to repeat old mistakes. Ties to the show’s past – Jennifer Carpenter as poor dead Deb, the emergence of a son Harrison – serve only to remind how pathetically it ended the first time around. It’s hard to reconcile the show’s newfound (or at least renewed) competence with what Dexter had become by seasons five through eight. The clunky dialogue doesn’t help matters much, either.
Regardless, this is a welcome return from one of television’s most iconic characters. A chance for redemption – not necessarily for Dexter, but certainly for Dexter.
