Showtime
Aerial Telly‘s close personal friend and confidante Michael C Hall made a big impact with the first season of Dexter, the show that gave the thumbs-up to serial killers who killed the bad. The Ice Truck Killer turned out to be Dexter’s long lost brother performing the killings as a remote bonding ritual with his sibling. Unfortunately for Miami, Ice Truck’s kills lacked the social commentary of Dexter’s, the maniac killing whoever was available – that really wouldn’t do. So, Dexter killed his brother. The previous occasion they spent time together was as infants locked in a blood soaked room for days with the mutilated corpse of their murdered mother. These family get-togethers are always stressful.
"The previous occasion they spent time together was as infants locked in a blood soaked room for days with the mutilated corpse of their murdered mother. These family get-togethers are always stressful."
Season two opens with Dexter unable to kill after having dispatched his brother and Deb unable to live alone having been almost butchered by his brother. Sergeant Doakes is continuing his stalking of Dexter following his correct instinct that there is something very wrong with the boy. Rita finally pieces together Dexter’s strange behaviour and confronts the cuddly killer asking him "are you using drugs?". "Yes, I have an addiction" Dexter truthfully answers though he prudently leaves out the 18 odd bodies he dumped in Bay Harbour. At Rita’s insistence he enters a Narcotics Anonymous programme where his sponsor is the lovely Lila played by Hustle’s Jaime Murray – best known for winning Aerial Telly’s coveted TV Pie Of The Year award. She plays an intense posh English artist with a dark side (well, of course she does) and is looking and acting as pie as she’s ever been.
"Secondary characters are acquiring layers – quite literally in case of Deb who is having the living shit fucked out of her by a guy she met at the gym."
She sees the darkness within Dexter and doesn’t look away – if he’s not fucking her by the end of this season then he really is a sick piece of shit. What’s impressive about the season so far is that the secondary characters are being developed and acquiring layers – quite literally in case of Deb who is having the living shit fucked out of her by a guy she met at the gym who clearly has a thing for bony fucks. Also in the line for dick is LaGuerta who gets her job back from Pascal by fucking the living shit out of her husband, sending the poor girl insane and sending the husband back once she’s back behind the desk. That was cooooold-blooded…
The only real blemish on Dexter’s landscape is the discovery of his underground tomb for his victims. The newspapers dub him the Bay Harbour Butcher and soon all his colleagues are trying hard as hell to find him. While Dexter worries about going to the gas chamber the revelation that his victims were all scrotes sees him getting support for the public. Result!
"It doesn’t look like it’s going to be an easy ride for our hero. But he’ll come through like the well-meaning mass-murderer he is."
Dexter continues to be a source of darkly witty compelling television in its second season. For all the talk of moral ambiguity, only a total sap would not want Dexter to get away with his killings and watching the house-trained sociopath as he goes about his work and domestic duties is a lot of fun. The pie index has risen significantly with the introduction of Jaime Murray and with Rita’s suspicious mother staying with the couple it doesn’t look like it’s going to be an easy ride for our hero. But he’ll come through like the well-meaning mass-murderer he is. Believe that.
The best thing about it: Jaime Murray
The worst thing about it: Unnecessary shots of sweaty bony Deb boning
The verdict on Dexter Season Two: STILL rocking its khakis with a cuff and a crease.
Marks out of 10: 8