spoilers within
Dexter Morgan, the lovable serial killer, never seems to get a break. Even though he is getting married, having a baby, and finding new friends-he still has to deal with that pesky mass murder aspect of his personality. Well, we all have problems.
Season 2 of Dexter was nearly perfect, with a neat little wrap up at the end that tied all the loose ends in Dexter’s busy life. So when Mr Prado shows up and turns into Dexter’s buddy, there seemed to be only one way that this relationship would end. But the third season of Dexter did a good job of postponing that finial conflict and there was one real shocker moment that I really didn’t see coming.
The last three episodes of Dexter season three were very good. In the finial episode Dexter confronts his own death and, as usual, has not strong emetions about it. One of few odd moments accures here, when Dexter kills the Skinner and then flees the scene. Is this just force of habit for Dexter? Or did Dex just want to make sure he made it to the church in time?
Dexter is a great show because it is not just about Dexter hunting down and killing bad guys. In Season 3 of Showtime’s Dexter all the people around Dexter grow and change a bit as well. Michael C Hall is brilliant as usual as Dexter tried his hand at being a friend. Julie Benz remains a bit pensive and shy as the bride to be Rita. There are hints that Rita knows there is more to Dexter than meets the eye, but she doesn’t want to really know what.
Dexter’s sister Debra is as fouled mouthed and bad tempted as ever, and Jennifer Carpenter does a good job of looking outraged at just about everything that happens to her. Debra doesn’t change much, as she continues to show her poor taste in men, though maybe it is not as bad as choice as say, a serial killer.
Lauren Vélez’s Lt. Maria LaGuerta still has the worst luck when it comes to her friends, as they all seem to end up dead and two of them were pegged as serial killers, though only LaGuerta and Dexter know the truth about Prado. Jimmy Smits’ Miguel Prado is a great villian hiding in plain sight as a good guy. He is an old love of Lt LaGuetra and Dexter’s new BFF. Prado turns out to be a villian, though at first it seems he might be that friend Dexter has never had. Dexter’s father warns him, but Dexter wants to believe that Prado is like him-a killer with a concious.
David Zayas’s Angelo Batista and C. S. Lee’s Vince Masuka both grow this season and try to stretch beyond that smaller roles as tough guy and comic sidekick. A number of smaller characters show up this season, Debra’s mysterious new partner who may or may not have caused the death of another cop. The CI that Debra falls in love with who turns out not to be a CI after all. Prado’s family who become interconnected with Dexter’s family.
Dexter is still a bloody and violent show, but it is odd how quickly you adapt to the idea of a nice guy who just happens to be a murderer. He has a code. Harry’s Code is his guiding light and it the one difference between Dexter and all the other killers we met. So far it has been enough.
You analysis of the show is poor. Dexter ran from the skinner because he never wants to be in the limelight, and being the last person the skinner tried to kill before he was killed would put the light on him. Look at Anton, he was quickly a Skinner victim and labeled as such. Dexter needs to keep as low of a profile as possible.
Also, Harry’s Code is no longer his guiding force. Though he still abides by a lot of the same basic rules (they are common sense rules that everyone murdering shoudl follow), he is making and following his own rules since his father’s fall from grace. This includes the befriending of Prado, the marriage to Rita, and the more spontaneous acts he does throughout the third season.
Dexter is a killing machine. For a lot of people, it’s hard to imagine that EVERYTHING normal he does is an act. Everything. If you want to get over that mindset, I suggest reading the books. Though the first season is the only one modelled after a book (and not completely, either), they give a great insight into what Dexter really is. The show does a great job, but the book just makes him shockingly evil.
Well, the real Dexter may be pure evil, but the Dexter on Showtime is still mostly a nice guy.
Like all characters he has to change a bit with each season and he seems to me to be moving farther and farther from the pure evil of a cold blooded killer.
The scene with him making a run for it is still odd-as there should have at least been a voice over saying I can never be in the limelight.
The third season was not as good as the first and the second, but it was still pretty good. I like Dexter having center stage and his wrath of God drive being the main focus of the show.
All this development of minor characters is fun, but I think it weakens the main point of the story. Dexter shouldn’t be a soap opera, it should be a slasher film.