To make it clear to “Dexter” fans right off the bat, I have watched and enjoyed, to some degree, every iteration of the franchise: the original series which started in 2006, “Dexter: New Blood,” “Dexter: Original Sin,” “Someone’s in the Kitchen With Dexter.” And there was a time within those many years when I would have agreed, without hesitation, that its namesake was the best thing about it, but that is just no longer the case.
The entire premise of “Dexter: Resurrection” backs the franchise against a wall because a series like this relies on conflict, and now there’s so much less conflict to be had because it’s not like we have to worry about Dexter being killed again — that would be ridiculous.
Aside from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” a series that refreshed ratings by dangling its title character over death’s door like the dingling bell above a magic shop’s entryway — and actually did kill her . . . twice — few shows have accomplished the “look who’s back” maneuver of resurrecting a character that audiences had already come to terms with being probably/maybe actually gone — especially if that character had passed its prime back in the days when prime time television still meant something.
In 2013, viewers were pretty much on to the fact that when Scott Buck & Manny Coto scripted their finale for the original show, in which Michael C. Hall‘s Dexter took to the sea with his dead sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) to fake his own death and build a new life for himself as an Oregon lumberjack, it was less of a goodbye and more of a see ya later. But when Dexter’s teenage son Harrison (Jack Alcott) shot him in the chest and left him to bleed out in the snow in the finale of “New Blood” in 2022, many assumed that was that for ‘ol Dex. And it should have been.
Clyde Phillips, the showrunner for the first four seasons of the original “Dexter” series and the developer of “New Blood,” screwed the pooch when it came to paving the way for a smooth re-re-entry for Dexter Morgan with one addition there’s no going back from now: Harrison Morgan is a far more enjoyable character to watch.
As soon as Harrison came face to face with his long, lost dad in the “New Blood” kickoff — having tracked him down in his new hideout in Iron Lake, New York, living under the name Jim Lindsay — the fierce mystery of Harrison’s every move drew viewer’s eyes further away from Dexter. And while attempts were made to divert attention back to Dex and his fixation on teaching his son the ways of the kill, even the smallest flashes of violence from Harrison — like silencing a school bully with one hand to the throat — made clear that he possessed the level of engaging rage that drew fans to the show in the first place. The kind of rage made all the more volatile with youth, which brings with it the added bonus of years upon years of story development for a part played by an actor with time on his side and a healthy “sell by” date on the meat of his performance.
(Zach Dilgard/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME) Jack Alcott as Harrison Morgan in “Dexter: Resurrection”
“Dexter: Resurrection” flips the script (literally) with Jim — that name will be dead itself, soon enough — tracking down Harrison this time around. After, oops, shooting his dad, the younger Morgan fled to NYC, where he’s working at the Empire Hotel in the day and squatting in unoccupied rooms at night. And the quickness with which Dexter sets out to mess everything up for his son is almost as quick as the explanation of how Dex survived his would-be fatal bullet wound: something something snow. something something stopped the bleeding. something something, “Oh hey, I should probably find my son and remind him of why he wanted to kill me!”
What we have here is actually less of a Batman and Robin deal and more of a Joker and Penguin deal, and just like in Gotham, there’s always one villain who rises to the top as the scene-stealer. Quack, quack, Dexter. It ain’t you.
Harrison has made a nice life for himself in the city without any help from the dad he still believes to be dead, since he never had any valuable help from him in the first place. He has friends. A paycheck. Has put on some muscle. And while Dexter is moping around and running errands at the DMV to obtain a reissued driver’s license under his real name (RIP, Jim Lindsay) — having been legally resurrected by the ghost of crimes past, Angel Batista (David Zayas) — Harrison is putting his generational skills to good use, hacking up a rapist and setting his parts out for NYC sanitation to take care of. There’s no pre-planning and there’s no dancing around guilt by way of some forced guidelines for who he should or shouldn’t kill. There’s no “dark passenger” here. He’s the sole driver of his birthright of violence, and he’s zoomed right past the need for any side-plots from Dexter in advancing the action.
Start your day with essential news from Salon.Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course.
The entire premise of “Dexter: Resurrection” backs the franchise against a wall because a series like this relies on conflict, and now there’s so much less conflict to be had because it’s not like we have to worry about Dexter being killed again — that would be ridiculous. And there’s little to no fear of Harrison being killed because the character is just too good. So what’s the plan from here? A Batman and Robin type deal, with Dexter and Harrison reuniting to slice and dice their way through Manhattan? Well, there’s a setup for that, too, but seeing as though they botched the handoff of giving Harrison his own show, this possibility will likely be a fumble as well.
(Zach Dilgard/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME) Kadia Saraf as Detective Claudette Wallace in “Dexter: Resurrection”
The NYC of “Resurrection” is home to a bevvy of good guys and bad guys the likes of which you don’t see much in Dexter’s old stomping grounds of Florida, Oregon and Upstate New York, and the city is kept in check by a Holly Gibney-coded detective named Claudette Wallace (Kadia Saraf) who would fit in well in Gotham City.
Tasked with determining who’s responsible for a gruesome display of stumps and lumps discovered by sanitation workers in the wake of Harrison’s handy work, Detective Wallace is onto him as a suspect and her eccentric nature makes her better capable of spotting an odd duck in a crowd, because she is one.
With Batista keeping an eye on Dexter and Wallace keeping an eye on Harrison, what we have here is actually less of a Batman and Robin deal and more of a Joker and Penguin deal, and just like in Gotham, there’s always one villain who rises to the top as the scene-stealer. Quack, quack, Dexter. It ain’t you.
Aside from all of the above, having the bulk of “Resurrection” take place in NYC further works to Dexter’s disadvantage because nothing could be less dynamic in that city than a middle-aged white guy with a receding hairline walking around regarding everyone and muttering about his special code. Hello, have you ever been to a Starbucks?
Dexter has been out-creepied and, as it stands, he’s more like that funny video you’ve probably seen on TikTok with the dog being like, “I’m alive, I’m dead, I’m watching TV, I’m looking at you, f**k you,” than any sort of real threat to anything other than of being a character who’s delaying the inevitable.
Dexter Morgan has lost his main character energy. Time to make way for the new one.
