After months and months of waiting and nervous anticipation, my favorite show currently on television returned this week: Dexter. I don’t call this show my “favorite” for nothing. From it’s series premiere straight through four seasons it has had me hooked. It’s made me laugh, cry, and shout. It’s one of those rare shows that get you very emotionally invovled in a way where watching it can turn your whole mood around. I remember that after watching the shocking season four finale I felt sad the whole day.
So it was with a great amount of impatience, that I waited to watch the season five premiere this past weekend. I don’t really know what I was expecting this episode to be, but it definitely did not disappoint. What I thought was really great, was the fact that almost every scene that they showed in all the trailers took place in this episode. The trailers were great, and really built up strong anticipation, but they implied a lot of plots that worried me. Knowing that the editing was from the premiere, really opens up the season to go anywhere.
It should’ve been no surprise to regular viewers that Dexter totally shut down the way he did. What upset me about watching his downward spiral and utter cynicism was that I could see myself doing the same thing. I mean, I’m not a serial killer and wouldn’t go brutually assault a random guy who was a jerk to me in a bathroom, but I understood his need to runaway from everything. It was sort of surreal watching Deb take over the funeral arrangements and be as she said “the strong one”. It was refreshing to have her in that role. Also refreshing, was watching Dexter be clearly protective of Harrison. Last season we didn’t really see that strong of a connection between him and his son, but now they both share having a “birth in blood”. Will this mean that Harrison will grow up to be a mini Dexter? Or is he too young for this experience to really shape his future?
Overall, I thought it was a really strong premiere episode. It hints at some really intense plots. I will be interested to watch Dexter deal with the FBI investigation. I was happy to see Harry’s “ghost” return to help Dexter, but I didn’t like the way that he seemed to encourage the murder of that man in the bathroom. The man definitely did not fit into Harry’s “code”. Maybe we’re seeing a change in Dexter’s morals because of all this trauma in his life? But that appears to be what this season is all about – change. I, for one, cannot wait to see where it takes us.