Dexter Season 1 Episode 6

Last week's episode of Dexter was good. This week's isn't. Don't you really bloody hate it when that happens? It's just rude!

I knew I'd spoken too soon. I should have known that the moment I let my guard down and started to like this programme, it'd screw me over. Which is pretty much what happened this week.

Okay, last week I kind of skipped over the details of Dexter's Victim(s) Of The Week, because it seemed like the least important part of the story. This week, it turns out, it wasn't: the episode kicks off with Dexter being called to a crime scene - and it's his own crime scene. You can immediately tell it's a different director this week, because there's way too much zoom going on. There's also too much Steadicam.

I mean, there's always too much Steadicam work in Dexter, because apparently they think it's stylish or something, but really, is a static shot once in a while really too much to ask? I blame Lost. That's where all this nonsense started, and I had a good rage about that back when Lost season 1 first aired, to the point of writing a blog offering to buy the creators a tripod if that's what it took. Probably for the best they didn't take me up on that, though.

Anyyyyway. Despite the fact that we've been told Dexter always takes great care over his kills, this time he evidently fucked up, since not only has one of the bodies been retrieved, but there was also a witness: a small, scared Cuban boy locked in a car boot. And even as Dexter is desperately trying to cover his tracks - even to the point of planting and destroying evidence - Deb is working against him by actually showing some initiative for once and coming up with a criminal profile that exactly matches Dexter. Uh oh...

There are things in this episode I love, and things I hate. The things I love are as follows: "No more doughnuts for Masuka", along with other voice-overed asides that include actually funny jokes that Dexter couldn't say out loud; the interaction between Deb, Doakes, and his family; the smiley face on one of Dexter's blood samples; the final reveal of the artist's impression of the killer.

Unfortunately, the list of things I hated is much, much longer, to whit: the dream sequence, which is total nonsense; the over-abundance of flashbacks pointing to the fact that there's something weird about Deb - they actually lean really hard on the maybe-Deb-is-the-killer angle, which is patently nonsense; the Patrick Bateman alias Dexter uses to access drugs, as if that would ever possibly go unnoticed, and the way that Dexter even bloody well comments on how clever and invisible he thinks he's being; the fact that Rita's ex is on his way back, way too early in the game, and the way I will put cash money on the fact that even though they mentioned a restraining order this week, he will show up at some point later and no-one will point out that he is not legally allowed to be there, CASH MONEY ON IT; the way they're trying to make Laguerta sympathetic, again, even though it would work much better if she was the bitch you love to hate; that the entire Miami police force seems to take solving cases so personally that they'll ignore evidence if it means that their own pet theory becomes the accepted one.

And there's too much zoom. Ugh.

As a matter of interest, is anyone actually buying into the maybe-Dexter's-the-killer theory? The series actually thrusts that in your face a lot less often than the book does, which I like, except that I think maybe it's been lost entirely, which I don't like. What do you reckon? Anyone know who the killer is, yet? Apparently it's different from in the book, so it should be a nice surprise...

Originally published at Den of Geek.