"I went to a place to eat. It said 'breakfast at any time.' So I ordered french toast during the Renaissance". --Steven Wright ... If you are a devotee of time travel, check out this song...

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Sneak Preview Review of Dexter Season 5 - No Spoilers

I had the pleasure of seeing the first three episodes of Dexter Season 5 last night - courtesy of a Showtime screener DVD.   The season is set to premier on September 26, and let me tell you, you won't be disappointed.   The metaphysics, torment, black humor, and vivid characterization of a serial killer who preys on other serial killers is more powerful and wrenching than ever.

Here's what I can tell you:  the new season picks up right where the last season ended.  After finally dispatching the Trinity killer, Dexter comes home to find his baby Harrison sitting in a pool of Rita's blood.   She's been killed, apparently by Trinity, before Dexter got to him.   Although Dexter was a few years older than Harrison when Harry rescued Dexter from his own mother's pool of blood, the parallels between the father and son are compelling.

Dexter is shattered, and, as always, must juggle keeping his own secret from Deb and those around him, as he struggles to come to terms with what has happened to him and get back to a "normal" life if possible.  (As part of what we see of this struggle, there are also some great scenes of Dexter and Rita first meeting.)  The other cops at the precinct are as trenchant as ever, and this especially includes Quinn, Laguerta, and Batista.   As always, they not only are struggling to stay out of or dive into the vortex of the central murder case - that now being Rita - but they have commanding subsidiary stories of their own.

I was thinking, as I was watching these three episodes, just where I would be put Dexter in the pantheon of all-time great television shows.  The heart strings the show pulls, the adrenalin it gets going, the intellectual concentration it requires and rewards, put it at the very very top.


See also
Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ... Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ... 4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations

See also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ... Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review

Reviews of Season 2: Dexter's Back: A Preview and Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out of This? and The Plot Gets Tighter and Sharper and Dex, Doakes, and Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and All's ... Well

See also about Season 1: First Place to Dexter









The Plot to Save Socrates



"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
 


1 comment:

//Sub/Corpus said...

dexter is really good.
can't. wait.

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