This is one of the most blatant cash grabs in TV history. But I love it.
Dexter: Resurrection ★★★★
This review contains spoilers for Dexter and Dexter: New Blood.
The finale of long-running series Dexter is widely regarded as one of the worst ever put to air. After a hurried and lacklustre eighth season, our favourite serial killer dumps his sister’s body at sea and speeds into the eye of a hurricane … only to immediately re-emerge as a bearded lumberjack staring down the lens right before the credits roll.
Fans and critics derided it as a terrible end and a betrayal of the character. And we all welcomed the attempt to send him off properly with 2021 sequel Dexter: New Blood. That slick 10-episode series ended with Dexter (Michael C. Hall) shot dead, at his request, by his long-abandoned son Harrison (Jack Alcott). A fitting end for a man forever torn between family and self-interest, who we’ve watched cleverly evade capture for the better part of a decade. Or so we thought.
Michael C. Hall reprises his role as serial killer Dexter Morgan in Dexter: Resurrection. Credit: Paramount+
As we learnt in the opening of subsequent 2024 prequel Dexter: Original Sin – oh my god, it’s endless, isn’t it? – our main character implausibly survived his shooting and now lives on in Dexter: Resurrection. Did we need another helping? Absolutely not. But it seems no one could leave all that cash on the cling-film-wrapped table.
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That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s paid attention to the self-cannibalisation of culture over the past decade, with creators and production companies scavenging whatever scraps of successful IP they have from the pre-streaming era to resurrect something bankable. But what did come as a surprise was how much I loved it … Am I the problem?
While Resurrection (at least the first four episodes available for review) doesn’t hit the highs of the original series, in the hands of original showrunner Clyde Phillips it does recapture the magic of what made it great. Our man is properly on the hunt again, driven by “the urge” and a desire to protect what’s left of his family. And the tension is ratcheted up two-fold, with Harrison now under investigation by the NYPD for a subsequent crime and Dexter still trying to shake one of Miami’s finest.
David Zayas returns as Angel Batista, fedora and all.Credit: Paramount+
Angel Batista (David Zayas) returns, alongside cameos from many other original cast – pure fan service ranging from genuinely exhilarating to completely cringe. Thankfully, there are also famous new faces to keep things fresh, and stylistic flourishes to distinguish it from what came before. Now in New York, with Dexter having no time for his long, unnerving morning routine documented in the iconic intro, each episode begins with a rapid-fire post-title sequence of key moments. Like Breaking Bad, but on cocaine.
Hall is up to his old tricks as Dexter in Dexter: Resurrection.
Resurrection picks up shortly after the events of New Blood, with Dexter waking from a coma and fleeing to the city to help Harrison and escape Batista. Once there, he stumbles across a mysterious league of killers convened by billionaire “venture capitalist” Leon Prater (Peter Dinklage). That group includes new characters played by Neil Patrick Harris and Krysten Ritter, and is policed by Leon’s icy head of security (Uma Thurman, going full Kill Bill).
There’s no shortage of potential antagonists in that crew, and one strong love interest, but we’ll have to wait and see if this promising return can conjure a Big Bad on par with the Ice Truck Killer or Trinity – and if the connection Dexter has with Harrison can substitute for what he had with his sister (the kid did shoot him, after all).
Uma Thurman and Peter Dinklage in Dexter: Resurrection.Credit: Paramount+
Phillips is confident he’ll have time to figure it out, recently telling Vanity Fair, “We’ve got the strongest franchise in Showtime’s history, and we plan to do this for years.”
Against all my convictions about the need for original content, I’ll be watching. But god help them sticking the landing.
Dexter: Resurrection premieres with two episodes on July 11, then drops weekly on Paramount+.
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