Catching Up- Dexter Season 3

I started catching up on Dexter because of the awards that both Michael C. Hall and John Lithgow won for season four. I thought that it had to be pretty good with all of the accolades that these two were bringing in. After just finishing up season three of the Showtime drama, I'm wondering how much better Lithgow can be than Jimmy Smits was as the special guest actor. Because after a step backward in season two, the main premise of the third season was right back on the level of the first 12 episodes because of the outstanding work of Smits.

Spoilers Below

Smits was introduced as Miguel Prado, the Assistant District Attorney for Miami. His brother was killed early on in the season (accidentally by Dexter) and he was on a warpath to bring the murderer to justice. When he is out following a lead, Miguel finds Dexter scurrying about after just doing his thing. Miguel realizes what Dexter did and it was all gravy from there.

Miguel figures out that Dexter is some sort of vigilante justice seeker, who kills the bad guys that the police and lawyers can't put away. He immediately wants in. This part of Miguel was an absolute love for me. He's a regular guy that wants to see the bad guys go down, and he's not afraid to tell Dexter that he's okay with how he deals with it. As long as the bad guys are gone. Miguel likes to have a few brews with Dex, cook some steaks, and talk about how they're cleaning up the streets. The fact that he seems so much like a real human being, in comparison to Dexter, makes him so much easier to relate to.

My feeling on Dexter at this point is that he is a hero. I've gotten much more sympathetic towards the character as we've gone on. As long as he sticks to the code of only killing those that kill the innocent, he's a hero in my book. Even when a friend that gets him like Miguel goes awry, he has to take care of business, and I was okay with that.

Miguel turned a corner for me when he went out and killed his rival lawyer because she got bad guys off the hook in court. Me and Dexter definitely saw eye to eye on this. She didn't deserve to die, and for that reason, Miguel did. Sure it was a fun ride watching the inner-destruction of Miguel as the season winded down, but that doesn't mean I enjoyed seeing Dexter finish him off.

The whole season had a real superhero movie feel to it. This new character is introduced early as a good guy and an ally. He sidles up to our favorite superhero and gets on his good side. Boom both the hero and the audience realize that this guy isn't exactly who we thought he was and is in fact the true villain of the story. The hero then has to take out his new found friend before he gets killed or worse, outed for who he really is.

Other Points

- Overall it probably wasn't as good as season one, because it didn't have two awesome stories going at once. The origin story of Dexter's childhood in the first season has been tough to live up to.

- Both Deb and LaGuerta are growing on me. Deb's dirty mouth has become kind of awesome as of late and LaGuerta's ability to bend some of the rules and soften up to her co-workers has made her more enjoyable.

- Looking forward to seeing where Lithgow fits into season four.

Catching Up- Dexter Season 1

From the ilk of The Sopranos and Sons of Anarchy, Dexter tries to get its audience to like its protagonist that does terrible things. Just as Tony Soprano and Jax Teller kill people from time to time due to there gang/mob tendencies, Dexter Morgan kills from time to time due to his inherent need to murder people in order to ease his pain. Although Dexter follows his foster fathers code of only killing those that have done major wrongs (murderers, rapists, etc.) it still is much easier to sympathize with the other two.

Don't get me wrong I still like Dexter, but there is always this little bit in the back of my mind saying, "don't like him too much, he is a serial killer!" Maybe it is just that he is a serial killer or maybe it's the way he cleans them up and wraps them up in cellophane before doing them in that makes it more difficult to continue to want good things for him.

Season one of this Showtime drama was very good. What made it especially good is what makes me think that the next few seasons won't be able to compare. Not only was there a fantastic mystery throughout the 12 episodes, but this first season also played as a origins story for our man Dexter. While he continued to help his sister Deb and the rest of the Miami Police Department find the Ice Truck Killer, he was also figuring out who his real family was and where he actually came from (helping both Dexter and the audience figure out why he turned out the way he is). Unless they figure out a story as interesting as Dexter's origin to coincide with season two's mystery, I expect it to not live up to the first season's glory.

Other Thoughts

-Dexter sounds a lot like Danny McCoy (Josh Duhamel) so that is definitely a positive.

-LOST's Jacob shows up midway through the season and totally ruined his mystical value on The Island drama.

-Dexter's ridiculously weird character makes the show interesting by itself. All of his different little quirks keep you guessing as to what he is all about.

-I'm not sure what characters on this show I really like. Maybe that's why I don't rate it as one of my favorites after 12 eps. I don't like Deb, Rita, Doakes or Laguerta so that's never a good sign.

-Biney definitely creeped me out from the beginning. What was Deb thinking?