Monday, September 28, 2009
Uncategorized 'Dexter:' Season 4, Episode 1
Posted by Curt Holman @Curt_Holman on Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 4:07 PM
One of the most interesting things about Showtime’s “Dexter” is how the serial killer drama has humanized the “monster.” Dexter Morgan has always been an unrepentant mass murderer, never hesitating to slay killers that meet the demands of his personal “code.” Part of the lingering fascination of Michael C. Hall’s performance is difference between Dexter’s ruthless true self and his placid, cheerful-to-a-fault public face.
It may be more noticeable if you’ve watched previous three seasons in a couple of months, rather than years since the show’s 2006 debut, but Dexter’s emotional palette keeps expanding. Initially he dated Rita (Julie Benz) because, as the ex-wife of abusive drug user and a single mother of two, she seemed too “damaged” to put many demands on him. For Dexter, a girlfriend was simply a beard, part of his masquerade of normalcy. At first…
Over the years, he’s become more deeply attached to Rita, her step-kids and his sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter). Season 4 opens to find Dexter ensconced in suburbia as a husband, homeowner and father to a newborn baby, Harrison -- clearly named after his late father, Harry (James Remar). The new season will put to test just how monstrous Dexter remains. Will his sociopathic compulsions consume his middle-class ideal? Or will he split time as family man and murderous crusader, making the show sort of like “Desperate Housewives” with the occasional fetishistic execution, dismemberment and body dump?
Season 4’s first episode, “Living the Dream,” has great fun with the disruptions wreaked by having a newborn infant. The teaser riffed on the recurring “Tonight’s the night” driving scenes, once Dexter’s signature as urban predator. Perhaps the episode’s highlight parodied the opening credits, with once-menacing images rendered humorous through sleep-deprived klutziness. When Dexter sang Harrison a lullaby version of “America the Beautiful” while looking at grisly crime scene photos, the symbolism wasn’t exactly subtle. Still, it summed up the show’s ethos of bloody violence going hand-in-hand with the American dream.
Harrison’s habits badly diminish Dexter’s skills as both a Miami police blood spatter analyst and his moonlighting gig as a murderer. The wife and kids put a serious crimp in his avenging style, forcing him to squeeze in his slayings and rush the arrangement and set-up of his kill rooms: setting up an execution in the boxing ring of an abandoned gym may have set up the wrestling-with-demons idea a little too neatly, but it made for some cool shots.
Dexter sounded clearly envious when he considered another murderer’s meticulous bathroom crime scene: “Obviously, he doesn’t have kids.” Although the young dead woman looked almost like a suicide victim, FBI Agent Lundy (the second season’s super-cool Keith Carradine) shows up to identify the M.O. as the work of the Trinity Killer, a near-mythic serial killer roaming the country for 30 years. Lundy’s arrival seems suspiciously early – how did he get to Miami so soon after the discovery of the body? – but he’s probably not the bad guy. After all, we see Jon Lithgow doing it.
Lithgow’s debut on “Dexter” accompanies a very, very disturbing murder scene. The bathtub killing unnerves not just for its brutality -- although it’s plenty bloody -- but for the depraved intimacy of its nudity and “spooning.” You’ll want to scour the image from your memory. You’ll also dearly hope that Lithgow will wear, you know, clothes on the remaining episodes. One can assume that much of “Dexter’s” upcoming episodes will keep Lithgow on a parallel track with Dexter and the detectives, so it’ll probably be awhile before we get much cat-and-mouse action. The squad room subplots also look to be slow-burners.
By the end of the episode, Dexter’s double life and family demands prove nearly fatal when he spectacularly rolls the minivan after dozing at the wheel. (Drowsy-driving Dexter?) The ending sets up one of those must-keep-watching cliffhangers and emphasizes Dexter’s need to be careful in his new life, especially since he doesn’t want to abandon his son through death or imprisonment. As he remarks, “I’m killing for two now.”
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