Official Movies Trailer: Dexter: The First Season [Blu-ray]

Dexter: The First Season [Blu-ray] Review

4.7 stars

This show is excellent mainly due to the tight bond Hall makes with this character. I'm not crazy about any of the acting here except Hall's, but he's flawless throughout, bringing a subtlety that few actors on the big or small screens ever master to this degree.

Nearly every episode is well-written, paced, and directed; the season arc is a good one and plays out nicely, no need for spoilers here!

It does get a little gory at times, but the series is about a serial killer, after all. I have some very queasy thoughts about why a series this twisted is so popular, but I guess it's just another Clint-type revenge drama where psychopathic violence is justified by (a vaguely) moral imperative; we do need our foreign policy to start somewhere.

Hall is even better here than in Six Feet Under, where he was superb. He carries Dexter effortlessly on his shoulders, but one can feel the amount of work and care he's put into this role. It's as impressive as Gandolfini's Tony Soprano, and that's saying a lot. As us isual for most of the best cable dramas, the first season seems to be the best, so savor this one if watching it for the first time.

Miami hasn't looked this good and this bad since Michael Mann was in town.

Dexter: The First Season [Blu-ray] Overview

Genre: Television: Series
Rating: NR
Release Date: 6-JAN-2009
Media Type: Blu-Ray

Dexter: The First Season [Blu-ray] Specifications

An interesting and original idea that's very skillfully executed, Showtime's Dexter is never less than watchable, often quite compelling, and sometimes thoroughly riveting. As the 12 episodes from the show's first season (packaged here in a four disc set) reveal, it's also the epitome of "high concept," a kind of Silence of the Lambs for the C.S.I. generation. Creator-executive producer James Manos Jr.'s title character, one Dexter Morgan (played by Michael C. Hall of Six Feet Under renown), works for the Miami Police Department as an blood spatter analyst, visiting crime scenes and helping figure out what happened. He has an avocation, too: during his off hours, he tracks down some very, very bad people who for various reasons have eluded the proper authorities. Seems his adoptive father, a cop himself, taught the kid how to channel his dark side in a "positive" direction; and so, having captured these evildoers (including a child molester-murderer and a recidivist drunk driver with a trail of bodies in his wake), Dex dispatches them with clinical precision, thus making him a serial killer who snuffs serial killers. But there's more--much more, as it turns out. By his own description, Dexter is "a monster," an empty shell who fakes all human interactions and admits to no real feelings for anything or anyone, including his foster sister (Jennifer Carter) and his nominal girlfriend (Julie Benz), a former crack addict and battered spouse who's as uninterested in sex as he is. There's an explanation for Dexter's weirdness, of course, one so deep and traumatic that even he isn't aware of it. It's gradually revealed over the course of the season as he and the cops (who include Erik King, Lauren Velez, and David Zayas, all first-rate) track down the so-called "Ice Truck Killer," a fellow monster whose grisly m.o. both fascinates and taunts our hero, leading to a genuinely shocking and squirm-inducing finale. Dexter can be a bit arch, with an ironic, too-hip-for-the-room tone that get a little old. Still, it's a safe bet that anyone who views this first season will be salivating for the second. Extras include audio commentary on two episodes, a featurette about real-life blood spatter analysis, and a variety of DVD-ROM items. --Sam Graham

Beyond Dexter