There are some fictional characters that take on a life of their own. As readers the fans flock to their adventures, waiting for the next book to be released with anticipation. If those books become films or series the same thing happens with fans always wanting more. Sadly all good things come to an end. Or do they?
The character of Dexter Morgan and the series DEXTER based on the books of Jeff Lindsay was hugely successful even if it aired on Showtime and not over the air television. Morgan was a forensics expert who specialized in blood pattern analysis for the Miami Police Department. On the side he was a serial killer who specialized in killing other serial killers, a moral compass given to him by his late father. The show aired from 2006 through 2013 and ended with Dexter sending his infant son off to live with his love interest and sailing into a hurricane with the intent to kill himself. Follow up footage at the end showed he survived.
So here we are in 2022, and time has passed. Ten years in the world of Dexter (a returning Michael C. Hall). He has relocated to the town of Iron Lake, New York in the uppermost part of the state. He’s assumed a new identity as Jim Lindsay, working in a sporting goods store and dating the town chief of police Angela Bishop (Julia Jones). This is a small community where everyone knows one another and says hello while passing on the street.
But there is something beneath the surface of every town. In the case of Iron Lake there are a number of girls, runaways, who have gone missing for the past 25 years beginning with Angela’s best friend Iris. Only kids then it still haunts her and she blames herself for not being there to help her.
Two converging storylines follow. One is the arrival of Dexter’s son Harrison (Jack Alcott), now a teenager filled with questions. His step mother passed away several years before and he’s been in and out of the foster care system. He wants to know why his father abandoned him years before, not knowing that he did so with the hope that he wouldn’t be influenced by Dexter’s desire to kill.
The other story involved a man named Matt Caldwell (Steve M. Robertson), a spoiled arrogant young rich man who feels he can do what he wants when he wants. Matt is the son of local legend Kurt Caldwell (Clancy Brown), the owner of the local truck stop and trucking line who supports numerous things about town financially.
Dexter has been tracking a white deer in the local woods. When he finally gets close to the deer it is shot and killed by Matt using a rifle far too powerful for hunting and nearly killing Dexter. In retaliation Dexter knocks him out, takes him back to his place and releases his old tendencies, noting that this is a worthless human being and killing him.
After he finishes up with him is when Harrison arrives. They talk and he moves in with Dexter. Throughout all of this Dexter sees hallucinations of his dead sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) taking over the role of conscience from his late father from the previous series. The two of them go back and forth about just how much to tell Harrison.
In addition to all of this, the search for Matt, learning about his son and traveling through the maze of lies he must make to stay alive there is another serial killer on the loose in Iron Lake, the same one who killed the missing girls. As the search for Matt moves forward the possibility of finding the killer’s hunting ground exist as well. And that killer will do everything possible to protect its hunting ground.
Just like the original series this one keeps you on your toes, guessing the big whodunit question while at the same time wondering how Dexter will protect not just himself but his new budding family. Everything about this series is spectacular from the acting to the way it is shot to the story itself. Hall has immersed himself in the character so well that he doesn’t miss a beat even after years from being the main character.
Gruesome at times, plenty of language (this was on Showtime after all) and with a twisted sense of humor here and there, this was an entertaining series that was fun to watch and I will most likely revisit along with the original. If you haven’t seen the original, read about it and then dive in with this one. It is well done.
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