Pilot: Dexter

My friend has been pushing me very hard to get into Dexter. At first the reason I didn't was just because I had things to do. It looked interesting but I just didn't have time to get invested in another show like Dexter.

And then it came onto Netflix the first time. And I said, alright, no more excuses, I gotta check out Dexter.

That was about a year and a half ago. It didn't really stick. It didn't really make that much of an impression on me so I stopped watching. I also had an excuse because it was taken off Netflix for a while.

But now its back on.

Since then I have tried again, got to about the second episode and just couldn't keep going.

Well now its back on Netflix, I have a lot of free time, so I thought I'd try it again...

And I get the same feeling.

Now to be fair, a lot of shows aren't at their prime on the premiere. The Doctor Who series premiere, while I've come to really like it was incredibly boring the first time I watched it. It took me multiple times to keep going to the next episode.

The main reason I opened up Dexter again was my review of American Psycho. I mentioned Dexter and kind of did a comparison between the two given what I know about Dexter and given what I know about Patrick Bateman.

So if you haven't guess, Dexter is about a serial killer who works in the day time as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Police department. I guess the thing that sets Dexter apart is that he only kills people who have committed crimes and works as somewhat of a vigilante in that sense, using his urge to kill for "good" as he was taught by his father who happened to be a cop himself.

He has a sister (played by Jennifer Carpenter) who is a cop with the police department. In the first episode she's an officer working with Vice but she really wants to move from vice to homicide.

Overall for Dexter, I just have an ehhh feeling. Watching the pilot again I realize that that the show is actually written pretty well. Its a creative concept and I might understand why people are really into it. Me however, I'm just not.

Its confusing because there are a lot of elements of the show that I really do enjoy. I love a good murder mystery, I like crime shows. But why not Dexter?

Well let's look at the pilot.

The main focus is on Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter analyst who by day analyzes blood at crime scenes for the Miami Police department and by night is a serial killer/vigilante, killing criminals who slip through the justice system's fingers.

Like I said before, his sister is a cop who is really itching to become a homicide detective. She's working on a case involving a serial killer who drains the blood from his victims. Dexter also gets involved and has a sense of jealousy.

This starts a storyline for a rivalry between Dexter and this unnamed serial killer. This seems interesting enough, pitting one serial killer up against another. Dexter actually sees some of the creepy actions of the serial killer as a personal invitation.

He actually says, I could see this more as "Hey wanna play? And yes, yes I do want to play"

The other part about the pilot that is a little bit interesting is his relationship with a victim of abuse. The relationship works for him because he doesn't really see the need for sex due to his look on life and how he's wired as a person. This is developed a little bit more in flashbacks and that continues to be a motiff in later episodes.

So I'll give credit where credit is due, the pilot really does set up for a good series and an interesting concept. Though it may not be your run of this mill story of a serial killer; the kind you would see on criminal minds, it takes elements from that and almost takes it from the serial killers point of view.

So why was the pilot ehhh for me?

For me, its the main character. Dexter to me is boring.

Everything comes from his point of view description and he narrates things as they come along. He makes it clear to the viewer that he doesn't feel emotions, so every real emotion we see is fake. He's had his entire life to learn how to mimic emotions but he still has those moments where he's not quite socially there.

But overall, Michael C. Hall's performance is just bland. You can see that Dexter has antisocial personality disorder and really doesn't care for human emotions. Now that's a hard character for an audience to get behind in the first place. If you're going to do that, you have to make Dexter an interesting character... to me, he's not.

If you read my American Psycho review, you'll remember that while I wasn't the huge fan of the movie, I did enjoy Patrick Bateman. While he felt no real human emotions, he portrayed them in a really funny way.

It was exaggerated but it was funny. The style of American Psycho is very different from Dexter and I kind of like it better.

Now for the character of Dexter, the personality of Patrick Bateman would not make sense but even though Dexter says he's had his entire life to perfect human emotions, I wish there was a little bit more of a personality as opposed to just a mimic of generic emotions.

The only other complaint I have of the pilot (and other episodes I have seen) is just the pace of the entire show. Its just slow. This is forgivable because its a drama. Just a warning.

So overall, Dexter is just kind of ehh for me. I recognize the merits the show has and I understand why people might enjoy it. To me however, I find it a little dull and slow.

But it did open up for this meme when Justin Bieber was arrested so...

That's good....

So are you a big fan of Dexter, have you seen it? What do you think? Let me know.

I'll leave you with this. No matter what complaints I have with the show, it did produce this... so that's good.