I was a little nervous about Dexter: Original Sin when it was first announced, and wasn’t sure if I even wanted to watch the new prequel series when it came out on Paramount+ earlier this month. I held off until last night, but enough of my readers—all of whom have terrific taste when it comes to television—had told me they were enjoying the show. I couldn’t sit on it any longer, so I set my fears aside and fired up the PlayStation 5.
I binged the first three episodes in one sitting, staying up much later than I intended. I not only found the opening hours of the new series gripping enough to hold my attention, it also reminded me of how much fun Dexter was in its earlier seasons, before things went so far downhill. If it hadn’t been so late last night, I would have watched the first episode of Dexter again just for fun.
This is more than I can say for the last Dexter spinoff. I didn’t hate Dexter: New Blood, but I didn’t love it, either. And while the ending of that show didn’t bother me as much as it did much of the community, it hasn’t sat well with me since. Original Sin does a much better job at capturing the feel and style of the original series, with a younger, more inexperienced Dexter Morgan trying to find a little meaning in life. Or, well, in death anyways. Light spoilers follow.
The show opens with an adult Dexter being rushed to the hospital after the events of New Blood. Showtime has to let us know right off the bat that he was only mostly dead at the end of that series for two reasons: First, Michael C. Hall is the narrator of New Blood, which is brilliant. More on that in a second. Second, Dexter: Resurrection is coming this summer, and you can’t have a new show with the older Dexter if he’s dead.
The basic setup here is “life flashing before your eyes” and Dexter, in the hospital, thinking back to when he was young and first getting his hands bloody. Young Dexter, a pre-med student too young to buy beer, hasn’t killed another human being yet when he first meet him. He’s a long ways away from becoming the Bay Harbor Butcher.
He still lives with his adoptive father, Harry, played here by Christian Slater, and his adoptive sister, Deb, played by Molly Brown. I’m surprised at how involved Harry is in Dexter’s earliest kills. We knew he helped train Dexter and instilled in him something resembling a moral code, to ensure that A) he only killed bad guys and B) he didn’t get caught. But Slater’s Harry is more hands-on than I was anticipating.
Curiously, we get a lot of flashbacks from Harry’s point of view, mostly involving his own tragic past and his relationship with Dexter’s mother, Doris (Jasper Lewis) who he enlists as an informant against the cartel. We know how she dies, but now we know why Harry was so keen on raising Dexter as his own. The flashbacks are all shot in grainy, green and orange hue, which is another technique the show’s creators use to make us feel like we’re watching Dexter again. Indeed, the way this entire show is filmed takes you right back to 2006.
Another technique is using Hall’s narration for all the little internal monologue bits, the little winking one-liners that Dexter never says out loud. You’re watching everything play out with a younger Dexter, but you still get the internal voice of the older, more familiar Dexter. I’m convinced that this is the cherry on top, the singular choice in the direction of this series that makes it work as well as it does. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Gibson does such a terrific job acting like Hall, capturing many of his mannerisms and vocal patterns. It’s about as close as you could hope for when it comes to casting a younger version of a character.
Molly Brown does a great job as Deb as well, though she’s not nearly tall or skinny enough (she’s skinny, but Jennifer Carpenter’s height and long limbs just really accentuated her ganglyness—she’s 5’9” to Brown’s 5’3”). Of course, playing a convincing teenage version of Deb means that she’s also incredibly annoying and abrasive.
There are times, I admit, when the cast—however talented—feels a bit like people cosplaying these characters. This is especially true when you get to Miami Metro. James Martinez does a terrific job as Angel Batista, but it’s kind of funny to see him wearing the exact same hat and outfit that his older self wears in the original series. Martinez is also 44. David Zayas, who played Batista previously, would have been 46 in the first season of Dexter. Batista should be in his early 30s in this show, not mid 40s, so when Harry asks him to show Dexter the ropes and says “you’re about the same age” I rolled my eyes. Nobody would think a young 20-year-old and a guy in his mid 40s are “about the same age” and Batista does not look like a guy in his early 30s in this show.
Alex Shimizu plays Vince Masuka and gets his character down perfectly, though he has a full head of hair and really does seem about the right age for a series set in 1991. He’s just as inappropriate and cringey this time around. And while she’s only just been introduced, Christina Milian feels like a pretty spot-on recasting for a younger Maria LaGuerta, an up-and-coming police detective who wants to shake things up at Miami Metro, much to the chagrin of her boss, Captain Spencer (a mustached Patrick Dempsey).
The addictive Dexter feedback loop is what really makes Original Sin tick. You get your “monster of the week” episodes, with Dexter’s “dark passenger” detective skills allowing him to identify the serial killers he encounters. He then investigates them to “prove” their guilt and make sure he doesn’t kill an innocent—all part of Harry’s code—and then goes in for the kill. He hasn’t perfected his methods yet, which makes his execution far clumsier than we’re accustomed to (not that Dexter was ever that good at what he did; his many mistakes were often what kept the original show so tense). Then there are the bigger mysteries at play. A home invasion killer leaving entire families dead across Miami. The kidnapped son of a judge. Possible links to the cartels. It’s all very reminiscent of Dexter’s early seasons, from the structure to the cinematography. The nostalgia is strong in this one.
I’m often very critical of prequels, which I believe are mostly unnecessary cashgrabs or vanity projects. Too often, prequels over-explain events or lack tension because we already know what happens to the characters. Every once in a blue moon, a series like Better Call Saul will come around—the exception that proves the rule—and give us something fresh and compelling enough to justify its existence. One reason that show succeeded was its introduction of fascinating new characters and storylines that we didn’t know anything about from Breaking Bad.
For Dexter: Original Sin to work, we’ll need the same thing. So far, at least, it seems to be on the right track. With 7 more episodes, it could go either way, but I’m feeling pretty upbeat. My skepticism melted into cautious optimism and has now blossomed into genuine impatience for the next episode to come out this coming Friday on Paramount+.
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