Dexter - "Our Father"

Although its not one my top tier shows, I do enjoy Dexter and find it pretty fascinating. Last season, especially, had a really great idea (making season's "big bad" Dexter was a pretty great twist) although like many people I felt let down by the finale, which excused Dexter from having to make a big choice in a rather unsatisfying way. Nonetheless, I was quite looking forward to this show, if only because I'm hungry some kind of season-long mystery show and Heroes just isn't doing it for me this year. However, while "Our Father" was a solid episode, I felt let down by a couple of things.

This season started with Dexter having gotten his groove back. After last season's struggles he finds himself resuming his role as Miami's vigilante serial killer, while finally having everything together with Rita. Unfortunately, things take a turn south when Dexter goes to kill his new mark and accidentally winds up stabbing a different man. Things get even more complicated when that man turns out to be the squeaky clean brother of Miami's DA, Jimmy Smits. Now that Dexter has killed an innocent man, what does that mean for his moral code? Its an interesting question that episode rightly puts at the center. It was somewhat disappointing, and not at all surprising, that the victim didn't turn out to be as clean as everyone thought. It seems like whenever this show starts to flirt with truly pushing the envelope, it backs off at the last second. I think if Dexter's going to continue to develop and grow, it would be interesting to see him have to make some truly dark choices (this is after all a show about a serial killer).

Meanwhile, the stories in the department seem to be off to a good start. I really enjoy Deb, Angel, and Masuka, and it was good to see all of them back and continuing to grow. Meanwhile, Doakes was always a little one note, so I don't really find myself missing him. As for the new guy, I'm reserving judgment until I see more. I think the whole IA angle is something that a lot of police shows don't really explore and it could be interesting in the right hands. Of course, it could also turn out to be really tedious.

But perhaps the most interesting development came at the very end, with the revelation that Rita is pregnant. The idea of Dexter dealing with really-for-real fatherhood is simultaneously frightening and interesting, and I think that could be a cool place to take him.

So, what were my big problems with this episode? Well, first of all, it seems to have forgotten the end of last season, where Dexter cast aside Harry and his code. It was a bold move, but one that seems to have completely disappeared from this season. Did they just forget? Am I remembering wrong? The other problem is more serious and that is that I'm not sure where this season is going. After the first episodes of seasons 1 and 2 we knew who the big threats were (be it the Ice Truck Killer or Dexter himself). This time I'm not sure if the murder we saw is big enough to hang a season on. And Freebo seems more like a killer from a two-part episode of CSI than a season-long villain. Is there going to be a serialized mystery? Or is the show switching to a more procedural format?

All in all, however, those are more big picture issues that may resolve themselves in the next couple of episodes. For now, this season is off to a promising start. Even if I'm not as immediately grabbed as I was by past season premieres, I'm definitely still interested to see more.

B