A Political Hypothesis about Why Dexter Original Sin Was Unrenewed

I've been a devoted fan of Dexter since it debuted on Showtime in 2006.  My very first review of a TV show on this blog in December 2006 was a rave review of the first season of Dexter 20 years ago on Showtime.  The review is entitled First Place to Dexter.

I've reviewed in this blog every episode of every season of Dexter since then.  And of course I reviewed every episode of Dexter: Original Sin last summer.  I was sad when the original run of Dexter ended in 2013, thrilled when Dexter returned in New Blood in 2021, disappointed when Dexter Morgan apparently died at the end of that one season in 2022, delighted with the prequel Original Sin, glad that it was renewed earlier this year, and I think Dexter: Resurrection this year was masterful.

So you can imagine how stunned I was about the announcement that the renewal of Original Sin for a second season had been reversed, the prequel series cancelled, this past August.  As Alisha Grauso pointed out in her Screen Rant article four days ago, Original Sin "immediately became Showtime's most-watched premiere ever, with 2.1 million viewers".  She then says its about-face cancellation by Paramount four months after Original Sin had been renewed "was seemingly a casualty of the Skydance-Paramount merger," and goes on to explain that after the merger, Paramount reviewed all of its programming (ok, that makes sense) and she further suggests Paramount may have to decided to revoke its renewal because prequels are narratively difficult and even when successful often satisfy their viewing audience with just a single season.  And that makes no sense to me at all.  Even if that characteristic of prequels is true, there was no way Paramount would not go for a second season of Original Sin, given how successful -- immediately becoming "Showtime's most-watched premiere ever" -- Original Sin on Showtime was.

My wife, also an avid fan of Dexter on television, didn't get a chance to watch Original Sin until this past week.  I was half-watching it with her and enjoying it immensely.  And I starting wondering, again, why had  Paramount reversed itself?  Why cancel at a time when the Dexter franchise was taking the screen by the storm? Yes, that decision was indeed a result of the Skydance merger.  And what else had happened with Paramount and CBS after that merger?  Well, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert had been unceremoniously cancelled (effective May 2026) after Skydance got in the driver's seat.   And why was that?  The billionaire who owns and runs Skydance is a big Trump supporter, and Colbert's sarcastic comedy has been at its sharpest when it came to Trump.

But Dexter: Original Sin had no political comedy, right?  Ok, but maybe one of its lead actors, or writers, or directors, had spoken out against Trump and the march towards fascism in America he's engendering and leading.  I did a search on Christian Slater (who brilliantly plays Dexter's father Harry in Original Sin) and Trump.  And bingo!  Back in 2018, Slater called Trump an "asshole".  Breitbart, a right-wing publication, was so upset about that, they devoted a whole article about it.   Surely Trump, who keeps track of every insult, real and imagined, was bearing one of his myriad continuing grudges, and desire for revenge, against Christian Slater.

Of course, I have no proof of this.  But I wanted to put this hypothesis out there.  Was Christian Slater and thereby Original Sin another victim of Trump's rampage against free expression, abetted by the billionaires who support him, in this case, a billionaire whose company now in effect owns Paramount, and thereby has easy control over its programming?  Maybe, given the damage Trump has already done to the arts and culture in this country, I'm being too quick to see him as the villain behind Paramount's illogical reversal on its renewal of Dexter: Original Sin.  But the other explanations just don't add up, given Original Sin's enormous success, and I really can't think of a more convincing explanation of why it was cancelled after it had been renewed.

See also: Dexter: Resurrection 1.1-1.2: The Imposter ... 1.3: Killers and Prey ... 1.4: The Nefarious Club ... 1.5: Father and Son and the Watch ... 1.6: What's Half of Gemini? ... 1.7: Batista and Dexter in the Car ... 1.8: The Enemies: An Evaluation ... 1.9: And Then There Were Two ... Season 1 Finale: First Place in the TV Age of Sequels

And see also Dexter: Original Sin 1.1: Activation of the Code ... 1.2-1.3: "The Finger Is Missing" ... 1.4: The Role of Luck in Dexter's Profession and Life ... 1.5: Revelations and Relations ... 1.6: On the Strong, Non-Serial-Killer Parts of the Show ... 1.7: First Big Shocker ... 1.8: Dexter's Discovery ... 1.9: Brian's Story ... Season 1 Finale: Satisfying

And see also Dexter: New Blood 1.1: Back with a Vengeance ... Dexter: New Blood 1.2: Dark Tendencies ... Dexter: New Blood 1.3: Fathers and Sons ... Dexter: New Blood 1.4: Harrison and Kurt ... Dexter New Blood: 1.5: No Satisfaction for Serial Killers ... Dexter: New Blood 1.6: Breaks and Arm Breaks ... Dexter: New Blood: 1.7: Dexter vs. Kurt ...Dexter: New Blood 1.8: The Hug in the Car ... Dexter: New Blood 1.9 One Down, One To Go ... Dexter: New Blood Finale: Superb, and I Didn't Like It All

And see also Dexter Season 8 Premiere: Mercury in Retrograde, Dexter Incandescent ... Dexter 8.2: The Gift ... Dexter 8.3: The Question and the Confession ... Dexter 8.4: The "Lab Rat" and Harry's Daughter ... Dexter 8.5: Just Like Family ... Dexter 8.6: The Protege ... Dexter 8.7: Two Different Codes? ... Dexter 8.8: "A Great Future" ... Dexter 8.9: The Psycho Son ... Dexter 8.10: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ... Dexter 8.11: "Not the Old Dexter" ... Dexter Series Finale: Solitude, Style, and a Modicum of Hope

And see also Dexter Season 7.1-3: Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 7.4: The Lesson in Speltzer's Smoke ... Dexter 7.5: Terminator Isaac ... Dexter 7.6: "Breaking and Entering" ... Dexter 7.7: Shakespearean Serial Killer Story ... Dexter 7.8: Love and Its Demands ... Dexter 7.9: Two Memorable Scenes and the Ascension of Isaac ... Dexter 7.11: The "Accident" ... Dexter Season 7 Finale: The Surviving Triangle

And see also Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals? ... Dexter 6.5 and 6.6: Decisive Sam ... Dexter 6.7: The State of Nebraska ... Dexter 6.8: Is Gellar Really Real? .... Dexter 6.9: And Geller Is ... ... Dexter's Take on Videogames in 6.10 ...Dexter and Debra:  Dexter 6.11 ... Dexter Season 6 Finale: Through the Eyes of a Different Love

And see also Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience ...Dexter 5.8 and Lumen ... Dexter 5.9: He's Getting Healthier ... Dexter 5.10: Monsters -Worse and Better ... Dexter 5.11: Sneak Preview with Spoilers  ... Dexter Season 5 Finale: Behind the Curtain

And 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

And 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 Firing of Jimmy Kimmel: The Latest Step on the Road to Fascism

The firing of Jimmy Kimmel by ABC -- which is exactly what his "suspension" is -- is the latest step in the road to fascism being paved by the current President of the United States and his allies.  It began with the hounding out of their jobs of  FBI and other people who lawfully investigated Trump's instigation of the January 2021 attack on the Capitol, the pressure on universities to end DEI and other policies distasteful to MAGA Americans and their theorists, and of course the firing of another late-night host, Stephen Colbert, by another cowardly media operation, CBS.  (William Paley must still be turning over in his grave.)

In the case of Kimmel, rumblings were being made about the FCC doing something about him.  I've thought the FCC was blatantly unconstitutional as soon as I was old enough to think.  It violated the First Amendment's clear proscription on the government "abridging the freedom of speech or of the press" -- what else would any honest person say a late-night comedian, ridiculing Trump and his policies, was doing?  The only crime in that would be how easy it was to make those jokes, because the threat to our democratic way of life was so obviously no joke indeed.

FDR, certainly one of our greatest Presidents, jeopardized our democracy when he signed the Communications Act of 1934 into law.  So did Felix Frankfurter in the 1943 Supreme Court decision "NBC v the US," which he wrote, which ratified the FCC's power to regulate broadcasting.  Ironically, that was in the middle of our war with Nazi Germany which FDR was so instrumental in winning, not to mention that Frankfurter was a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920.

I started teaching at universities in the 1970s, and the danger of the FCC has always been a part of my courses about the media and their impact.  My main point has always been: imagine the FCC under the control of a President bent on willfully superseding our democracy and its protections from dictatorship (see, for example, my 2005 Media Ecology conference Keynote address transcript and video The Flouting of the First Amendment).  I take no satisfaction and indeed am saddened and deeply concerned to see this patent threat to our democracy so vividly realized by this President and the many people who support him.

Note added September 24, 2025:  Last night: Jimmy Kimmel's sage, hilarious opening monologue

 

To the fascist enablers that prevented this show from being aired in 20% of its markets, I hope you go out of business soon; to fascist enabler Paramount/CBS: reverse your decision to end The Late Show w/ Stephen Colbert]; to everyone: I'll be recording a conversation w/ Frank LoBuono about this in a few hours for his Being Frank podcast

Stephen Colbert in His CBS Debut Reminiscent of Dick Cavett and Jack Paar

I don't usually review late-night talk shows - actually, never have - but there's a first time for everything, and I thought Stephen Colbert's debut on CBS Late Show last night was a good time to begin.

In a phrase, I thought Colbert, divested of his incisive and hilarious conservative caricature from his previous show, was just as brilliant last night, and as funny and politically relevant in his own persona (assuming that's what we saw last night).

The interview with Jeb Bush was probably the highlight of the hour.   Colbert peppered Jeb with hard-hitting questions, and managed to be funny at the same time.  The last late-night host who had this kind of intellectual gravitas wrapped in a smile was Dick Cavett, and before him, Jack Paar.

It's not that everyone from Carson through Letterman and even Fallon right now weren't and aren't sharp as tacks intellectually.  It's just that Colbert last night mixed it with a perfect lightness, a quickness, that we haven't seen on late-night television for a while.

It was a good session for Jeb, too, who seemed a little nervous at first, but came back with a series of good and good-humored responses.   It will be interesting to see if this gives him a lift in the polls, and how he compares with Donald Trump, who will be on Colbert's show later this week.

There was also a winning meta quality weaved into the show, with George Clooney and Colbert talking about and showing clips from a non-existent movie, and Colbert having two interactions with Jimmy Fallon.    That would have been unimaginable in Cavett's or Paar's time - and, for that matter, in Carson's or even Letterman's (unless I missed it in Letterman) - but Colbert, if this first show is an indication, represents a nice step forward in late-night television, even as he reclaims an intellectual terrain not seen since the 1960s.

Mad Men Wins Emmy for Best Series! And a Great Night for Democracy on the Emmy Show!

AMC's Mad Men won the Emmy for Best Dramatic Television Series tonight - a first for a basic cable television show, and more proof that the New Golden Age of Television is flying high. Matthew Weiner also won for best writer for Mad Men, and it was great to see the show's cast up there on stage as the end of the telecast. As fine as they are on the show and its early 60s ambiance, they really shine in their 2008 clothes and faces.

FX's Damages, another superb basic cable drama show, also came through with Glenn Close as best actress and Zeljko Ivanek as best supporting actor (his performance was unforgettable - one of the best in the history of television). I missed Showtime's Dexter not getting any awards. From what I've seen of the new third season, to debut next week, its time will come.

Tonight's Emmy show was also a great evening for democracy and freedom of expression. Tom Smothers received a special award, and spoke eloquently of freedom of speech. HBO's Recount, about the 2000 theft of an election, won two Emmys. And even though John Adams the real President was no friend at all of the First Amendment, it felt good to see HBO's mini-series about him win five well deserved awards - not to mention that it let Laura Linney, who won a best actress Emmy for her portrayal of Abigail Adams, get in a good supportive line about "community organizers". (Stephen Colbert also had an excellent riff in his routine with John Stewart about liking McCain-esque shriveled prunes.)

And speaking of the freedom to be downright hilarious, I've never seen Don Rickles more funny than up on the stage, introducing and later receiving an Emmy, tonight.

Yes, I think we live an age in which television exceeds motion pictures and novels in providing the best dramatic entertainment. I said a few years ago that, far from being an idiot box, only idiots don't watch television. That's more true today than ever.




My 20-minute interview last Fall with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) at Light On Light Through

and The Flouting of the First Amendment

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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

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

Emmy Analects and Predictions

Just bopping in here with a few observations and predictions about tonight's Prime Time Emmy Awards ...

The very first Emmy, given back in 1949, was given to a ventriloquist - there has to be some significance in that.

Al Gore's up for an award for his Current TV cable and internet venture. Would be great if he announced he was running for President, but I predict he won't (make the announcement tonight, that is).

The Sopranos is deservedly nominated in a huge number of categories. The only real question, then, is in which category or categories it will lose. I'm predicting Michael Imperioli will not win Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for playing Christopher Moltisanti (though he did a superb job). The winner will be: Masi Oka for playing Hiro Nakamura on Heroes!

Ugly Betty will win for Best Comedy Series, but Mary-Louise Parker will win for playing Nancy Botwin on Weeds.

And last prediction for this morning: look for Colbert to win Outstanding Music, Variety, or Comedy series...

See you later tonight ...

The Barely Political Revolution

Actually, the title is misleading - I couldn't resist the play on words - but the political revolution being fomented by the delightful BarelyPolitical.com Obama girl videos is far more than barely, even though that's good, too. But I think the revolution is major - and the fun of the videos makes it all the more so.

Here's why:

1. The satire in addition to being falling-down funny is sharp, biting, even Swiftian (not Swiftboatian - Swiftian). In the Obama Girl vs. Giuliani Girl vid released on Monday (formally titled Debate 08), for example, the Giuliani Girl tells us she wants to be "number four". She pushes a perp up against the wall (he's littering), as she extols Giuliani's crackdown on crime. And Obama Girl tells her - "Giuliani girl just stop your fussin', at least Obama didn't marry his cousin". Those are deep-slicing political cuts. (See the video with my initial commentary here.)

2. But Giuliani's people should be thrilled about this - as of course should Obama's. We all know how disinterested anyone under 30 - maybe under 20, who cares, you've heard this story - is in our elections. The Obama Girl BarelyPolitical.com videos are appealing to precisely this group (though I love them, too). But which is more likely to get people more active and sensitive politically? Some boring public service ad that lectures you, or a juicy Obama girl video?

3. The great work at BarelyPolitical.com also amounts to a very significant revolution in media presentation. Up until very recently, the only real political skit satire could be found on Saturday Night Live, Mad TV, occasionally Jon Stewart and Colbert (who are really something a little different - pseudo-news commentators), and the rare movie. But consider this evolution:

Last year, SNL hit big with its "Dick in a Box". Actually, it was inanely muted on its television showing to "Special Treat in a Box," but went huge on YouTube under its original name. Ben Relles and the Obama Girl team came back with an answer video(Leah Kauffman co-wrote and sang, before she did the same for "Crush on Obama") -"My Box in a Box". That was released straight to YouTube and viral video. And now we have "Crush on Obama" (Amber Lee Ettinger is the actress) ... "Debate 08" (or Obama Girl vs. Giuliani Girl - with Amber Lee continuing her part as Obama Girl) ... and Hillary Clinton and The Sopranos (also hilarious, produced by Hillary's campaign) in the middle.

I'd call that a profound sea change - or, as the Chinese say, a change of sky. More evidence that the cutting edge of our population is looking less at television and more at YouTube.

It was only in retrospect that political and media analysts realized how that dopey little "I Like Ike" cartoon - the first political commercial with a jingle on the then-new medium of television - helped Eisenhower win the Presidency so handily in 1952. He was a popular general, and would no doubt have won anyway, but that cartoon on television made it a shoo-in.

There's little doubt that the Obama Girl videos will help Obama, by getting more people under 90 to the polls.

There's no doubt at all that what BarelyPolitical.com is doing will change the nature of political campaigns forever - and for the better.

See also Obama Girl Applauded in My Class at Fordham This Afternoon (with photo)

BarelyPolitical.com Goes Meta!

Ben Relles - Obama Girl Producer - Talked To My Class at Fordham Tonight

and First YouTube/CNN Presidential Debate

and Obama Girl in Old and New Media

and Obama Girl vs. Giuliani Girl

and Harry Potter and Obama

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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