By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Dexter And how I Met Your Mother are two completely different shows that have something unfortunate in common: each has a series finale so bad that it retroactively ruins what came before, making it difficult for fans to revisit even the greatest episodes. DexterThe ending was so bad that I hesitated to watch the surprisingly decent follow-up series. New blood. But once I did and explored Dexter: Original Sin (the prequel is making its way through the ratings), I decided it was the perfect time to watch the original Dexter show his bloody magic at work on Netflix.
What you need to know about Dexter
If you’ve never watched Dexter before, you should know its wild premise (taken directly from Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter novels) before adding it to your Netflix queue. Our main character is a forensic scientist for the Miami Police Department who has a surprising secret: he is a serial killer who has been motivated by the violent impulses of his “Black Passenger” ever since he saw his mother brutally murdered. He was raised by a cop who trained his adopted son to kill only bad people, and Dexter must now lead a double life as a mild-mannered blood spatter analyst and ruthless murderer.
Dexter (unlike many shows on Netflix) has a great cast, including Michael C. Hall (otherwise better known for Six Feet Under) who won a Golden Globe for her powerful performance. Other great cast members include Julie Benz (of Buffy And Angel fame) as Dexter and Jennifer Carpenter’s love interest (horror fans will know her from Quarantine And The Exorcism of Emily Rose) like his potty sister. And without getting into spoilers, subsequent seasons bring in some big guest stars, including Jimmy Smits, Edward James OlmosJohn Lithgow and many others.
If the casting of Dexter doesn’t tempt you to open your Netflix account, you might be interested in how many awards and nominations this show about an eccentric killer has received. The show was nominated for an impressive 24 Primetime Emmy Awards and won two, just as it was nominated for 10 Golden Globe Awards and won two statues. As for Hall, he personally won one of those Golden Globes as well as the Satellite, Saturn and Screen Actor’s Guild awards for his sublime performance as Dexter.
For the most part, Dexter impressed critics and fans long before it arrived on Netflix. On Rotten Tomatoesthe series has a critical rating of 71 percent, and audiences gave it (via the Popcornmeter) 81 percent. This shows that even though the series had a legendarily terrible ending, most who watched it felt that it was more than the sum of its parts and that its creativity and intelligent execution during most of its eight seasons prevailed over the series, stumbling quite epically. the finish line at the end.
The right time to return
More, New blood really did its best to redeem the bizarre ending of the original series, and Original sin turned out to be a clever prequel that adds some juicy context to the early adventures of our titular killer. Collectively, these two follow-up shows have done what I once thought impossible: kept me interested in the original show despite its wildly flawed finale. And now that Dexter is on Netflix, I enjoyed revisiting one of premium cable’s boldest and bloodiest creations.
Will you find Dexter as rewarding when you watch it (or rewatch) on Netflixor is this a series you prefer to throw into the Gulf Stream? You won’t know until you press play. And if you’re like me, you can expect an opening title sequence (which won a Creative Arts Emmy, no less) that Never It makes me want to skip the intro.
