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| by Cochaman Peef with additional writing by Bridget Petrella | ||
| Showtime's ‘Dexter: Season 2’— Tightrope Performances. | ||
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Despite a number of short-term
unwarranted arrests for a virtual plethora of misdemeanors,
which, for some odd reason, remain "classified", Cochaman Peef
has continued to let his beloved hemp play a substantial role in
his ever-waning life. Whether he’s smoking from a hand-blown
glass pipe while studying Eastern religion and Woody Harrelson
philosophy, or just smoking Jamaican sticks and watching Kung-Fu
with David Carradine on DVD [he claims to know Carradine
personally, a fact we've yet to convincingly dispute]. |
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Twisted
as he may be, Dexter remains a character that viewers will find
truly captivating, alluring and possibly sympathetic— and all of these
are primarily because of Michael C. Hall's engaging performance. The man
who gave us the perfect portrait of a gay funeral director in HBO's Six
Feet Under has not only recreated himself; he has bestowed upon us the
urgency and fear that only a true Robert DeNiro pupil could appreciate.
While season two has yet to equal season one in terms of overall
suspense, the stakes have risen dramatically for Dexter just as he is
trying so very desperately yet so illogically to be "normal".
Subsequently the emergent of the Dark Defender from within adds another
layer on the complex character that is the 'new' Dexter, one that even
disregards the 'Code'— as highlighted when Dexter threatens Lila so
tastefully. Emotionally he is at his weakest point with him struggling
to juggle his secret life with his false one. Despite the lack of clear
villain this season, judging by the quality of episode one through
eight, Dexter season two so far is undeniably brilliant TV. Dexter is a
show that works beyond all the expected ways it could be anticipated to
work. The first season involved Dexter Morgan (again, Michael C. Hall,
as a serial killer who works forensics on the Miami Police Department.
His targets are criminals and people who use the normal parameters of
the law to their own ends instead of justice. In an unfair world, Dexter
acts as an equalizer.
When
we last saw Dexter, he had found and dispatched the infamous Ice
Truck Killer, and was being trailed by his co-worker, Sergeant Doakes
(Erik King), because he rightly suspected that Dexter is a lot more
sinister than his agreeable surface persona may appear. Being as he has
a tail twenty-four-seven, he can’t indulge in his murderous obsessions.
His goofy mistakes towards that end wind up in Rita sending him to rehab
because she thinks he’s a drug addict. It is there that he meets Lila
(Jaime Murray), an attractive English former meth addict. She
understands dark need like no one Dexter has ever met before, and this
turns his world upside down. Not helping matters is that someone’s found
Dexter’s dumping grounds for all of his victims, and Miami is terrified
by the “Bay Harbor Butcher.” The FBI sends in a special agent named
Lundy (Academy Award-winner Keith Carradine, who we don’t see enough of
nowadays), who’s almost as smart as Dexter is. Part of the joy of the
show is that star Michael C. Hall seems to perform Dexter as a cerebral
man who visibly portrays a noose tightening around his neck. Even when
he is silent and still you can hear him groaning when they get too
close, and sighing with relief when he catches a break. It’s a
spell-binding, tightrope performance.
This
season seems to have a far more "varied" pace to it than the
hallowed first season. Many people (myself included) preferred the first
season because the Dexter writing staff wanted to create something
perpetually unique the first time out, as opposed to introducing yet
another Big Bad of the week for Dexter to find. But season two seems
less predisposed towards standalone episodes and plotlines that peter
out and don’t really take us anywhere. Let's face the facts, most
network television shows seem to waste an abundance of time, even on the
shortened cable schedules like the one Dexter has... but I don’t
personally believe I’d be able to find anything that I could excise
successfully from season two. It all seems to either further propel the
significance of the exceptional plot or further the character dimensions
and layers, which is something you can’t find on television for the most
part. Another thing that the writing staff has made into a statement
unto itself— is that each writer has an almost creepy command of both
the almost charismatically vampiric narration of Dexter himself, and the
"just the facts" deadpan police officer banter of everyone else. With
this cast of especially "synchronized" actors and the superbly-pitched
tone of the writers, nothing sounds inauthentic. Combined with the Miami
locations (as opposed to somewhere cheaper doubling for Miami, that home
of sweaty Southern film noir), we have a show that literally feels
real... down to its very complex core. 
CBS
Home Entertainment
Television Shows
http://www.sho.com/site/dexter/home.do