The Real 'Dexter' Stands Up

By LillyKat
PTR Senior Staff Writer

Can we just start the entire third season of Dexter over from ...oh, let's say the third episode and cut to NOW ...?

Seriously.

The real Dexter finally showed up after about seven episodes of Barney and Friends ... er, I mean Miguel Prado's My New BFF ... er, whatever.

Last night (aptly titled "Go Your Own Way" - cue Fleetwood Mac song) was the first episode I've watched in weeks that felt like something from the previous seasons. And yet, I can't help but wonder why in the world it has taken THIS LONG to get here, or why we didn't just have enraged, can't-be-reasoned-with Miguel as Dex's nemesis all along WITHOUT the so obvious disguise of BFF-ness - especially if Miguel is in cahoots with the Tree Trimmer Killer?

Like, did I miss something, here?

Isn't this what we loved about the show from the beginning: the tit-for-tat nemesis angle? the outwit / outsmart / survival routine that allows Dex be the Dark Defender? his struggle to identify, fit in, blend and cope with all-things good and evil?

Now, we've got two episodes to cram it all in.

WTF?

We recall when another PTR Fave show (Cold Case) crammed WAY too much into the final four episodes of the fourth season. Um, yeah ... I believe we're STILL trying to clean up that mess. For this viewer, the series never recovered from that boneheaded creative blunder nor did it ever deal with all the issues that arose from it on screen.

There is such a a thing as too much, too quick.

I have no idea if Dexter is now poised to make the same mistake. They've drawn out this Miguel v. Dexter thing to the point of boredom, and it bothers me the writers are now only giving us the meaty - and far more interesting - bits at the end. And I'm not talking about stacking storylines for a season finale. No, I'm talking about eight episodes of filler nothingness that we could all have done without.

What is this ... a procedural?

Did Jimmy Smits only want to get crazy for three episodes?

I don't know. All I can say is I wish Dark Defender Dex and Psycho Miguel would've started their smackdown earlier. Perhaps it would've spared us from seeing Rita reduced to a dumb blond, Dex reduced to thinking he really can squeeze in nine holes of golf and lunch on the veranda in between blood splatters, and a show that used to be so compelling with the most complex of characters fall into ho-hum mediocrity.

And yet, I am STILL watching, I am STILL hoping, and I am STILL curious as to how this third season ends.

New episodes of Dexter air Sunday at 9 p.m. on Showtime. Check out the official Dexter Web site for the inside scoop on the series.