As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
This is an incomplete review of the now defunct Showtime series Dexter, starring Michael C. Hall, who plays a serial murderer who kills serial murderers. The reason this is incomplete is being poor I could only get access to the first 6 seasons, and as I type this I first thought this was a creepy series when TL had seasons 2, 3 and 6.
In getting access to 1, 4 and 5, it is time to do a review, because as I type this my main memory of Michael C. Hall is beating up a cum dropper who was beating up a little girl of the mother he was porking. Hall did a really strong performance of selectively hitting the kid beater. That is very difficult as you have to pull the punches, but he looked like champion boxer.
In this TL and I decided to rate the series on performances of what they affected us, what we enjoyed or what we really disliked.
The seasons are listed as follows.
Season 1 Stupid Brother Rudy (Christian Camargo)
Season 2 Doakes (Eric King) and Rita (Julie Benz)
Season 3 Jimmy Smits
Season 4 John Lithgow
Season 5 Johny Lee Miller, Julia Styles, Peter Weller RoboCop
Seaons 6 Edward James Olmos and Colin Hanks
TL's listing in order of favorites to least favorite are the following, as TL watched this in order TL likes season 1 best.
1 2 4 3 5 6
LC's listings are out of order and I rate season 5 higher for a reason and will explain the reasons, as TL really disliked Julia Styles in season 5 as did I. We both agreed that Johnny Lee Walker was weak and horrid. The thing is for me, there were minor characters which really elevated this for me in CS Lee turns in a fantastic lifetime performance in a 2 minute sketch where he is explaining a murder scene that is hilarious as Willem Defoe in Boondocks Saints.
I also appreciated Peter Weller, who always makes every role he touches watchable. He is a really large presence actor even in a minor role. I also liked in Season 5 that the character of Dexter grew which was a complex mix of caring for people beyond sociopathic ways, which of course is impossible, but that is why my number 5 is ranked higher.
We both agreed that Edward James Olmos and Colin Hanks in Season 6 could only supplant Johnny Lee Miller and Julia Styles for being so horrid. I am surprised they did not kill the series.
Christian Camargo plays Dexter's brother and is very weak. Eric King is very good as a detective in season 1, season 2 he is overblown and it just takes too long. That is what I did not like in John Lithgow in the writers just took too long in the story as about 4 episodes just sit there.
I need to quantify the Jimmy Smits ranking also, because Smits is so superb and overpowering, that he just creeps everything out. He is like 1000 pound gorilla who just keeps growing, and that is why his series is ranked lower, as the writers provided absolutely nothing to counter this.
2 5 4 3 1 6
This is the list of the best evil characters and their performers.
Evil Characters
Jimmy Smits
John Lithgow
Peter Weller (minor character)
Edward James Olmos, Collin Hanks, Johnny Lee Miller, Julia Styles, Lila
The favorite characters need to be explained, because James Remar plays the dead father who speaks to Dexter as his conscience. This never works in theater, but Remar pulls it off, and he deserved Emmy's for his work as he never intruded, but always guides which is outstanding.
David Zayas plays a detective and is just the likeable good person with faults which gives the viewers something to count on.
CS Lee plays this perverted medical examiner and there is just something about him that grows on you.
Geof Pierson is a minor character, but plays the Captain, and he always weighs in so large that he dominates scenes.
CS Lee, Desmond Harrington, David Zayas, James R
Favorite characters
Harry the father - James Remar
Angel - David Zayas
Masuka - CS Lee
Captain Tom Matthews - Geof Pierson
The horrid characters on the show which are continuous are Jennifer Carpenter who plays this broken little girl detective as sister to Dexter pretty good, but there is nothing appealing about her as she whores, foul mouths and just is the out of control version of Dexter who does his work out in the open. She is the wife of Michael Hall, so it is why she is featured so much, but any number of actors would have been better as she just irritates viewers.
There are no good female leads in Dexter, and that includes Luna Lauren Valez who is the Lt. and one might as well put in Desmond Harrington is no replacement for Eric King who was so powerful.
Horrid Characters
Debra - Jennifer Carpenter
Maria - Luna Lauren Valez
Joey Quinn - Desmond Harrington
Lastly as a sort of fill in is Julie Benz who plays Dexter's wife. She is annoying and I am annoyed in how the writers had her leave the show, but she is good in the overall role, as she starts out as a beaten wife of another husband, and grows, and becomes this bitchy selfish wife, which at times is hilarious and at other times is just something you would hope Dexter would bury.
Good Characters
Rita - Julie Benz
A good series requires good casting, good actors and good writers. Dexter had pretty good casting, mediocre actors as all of Showtime's offerings are, and was held up by the good writers who walked the line in making you care about a serial murderer and in most series had you on the edge of the seat rooting that Dexter would not get caught. They did some fantastic hangers for scenes in the way real life is, in these criminals are caught and for some chance in time, they walk away as the police or family blow it.
This is a series one has to get used to, because the one thing they never reveal is the reality of how impossible it is to deal with a dead body, even with the tools. It why so many murderers get caught, because people just do not die, and then that 200 pounds of bone, meat and blood is just nasty along with excrement and urine.
Ask a hunter sometime how much fun a deer is trying to stuff it into a plastic bag, and the carcass always pokes holes in the bag, leaks, slips out of your hands and it is just too much smell, too much slip and too much exhaustion. Murderers get lazy in disposing bodies and that is why their crimes become discovered.
Someday I hope when I have food, that I will be able to complete this series in viewing it in the last two seasons as I wonder how it is closed out. It will probably be as stupid as the close of the John Lithgow season and disappoint again. It does though have high points and enough to make this an addition to the DVD collections of the rich, as it is so impossible to find good television to watch as most is like that awful Battlestar Gallactica retro, and once again starred Edward James Olmos and not something to have in the home.
Nuff Said
agtG
