Dexter

Over the first two seasons of Showtime's brilliant, Emmy-nominated drama Dexter, the title character has struggled to obey his dead adopted father's code. Dexter (Michael C. Hall) might be a serial killer, but he was raised to kill responsibly. The revelation that his father Harry was a liar who had an affair with Dexter's biological mother forced him to reconsider that code at the end of season 2.

With season 3 of Dexter, which begins tonight at 9pm on Showtime, the show deals with Dexter shedding his father's morality and creating a new moral code of his own. Jimmy Smits joins the cast as well as Miguel Prado, an ambitious district attorney who strikes up a peculiar relationship with Dexter.

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major details about tonight's season 3 premiere.

Over the summer hiatus, Dexter got back to killing after almost being unmasked by Sgt. Doakes last season. In the season 3 premiere, Dexter targets a drug dealer, but his attempted murder goes awry and during a scuffle, he accidentally kills someone else, someone he didn't plan on killing, which is completely against his father's code.

You might not think killing someone is a big deal for a serial killer, but Dexter is thrown for a loop trying to understand this act. His only connection to his father is the code of killing, and without it, Dexter's paternal relationship is severed.

Adding to the trouble is the fact that the unsuspected murder victim was the brother of Smits' Miguel Prado, confusing Dexter, particularly when Prado attaches himself to Dexter, emotionally.

For any other show, having the lead character kill a possibly innocent brother of a district attorney would be enough for a season premiere. But in the case of Dexter, things are shaken up even more. In the final moments of the episode, Dexter's girlfriend Rita (Julie Benz) drops a bomb on him: she's pregnant.

The theme of fatherhood will be big this season on Dexter, and the producers and writers have brilliantly painted Dexter into yet another corner. Serial killers probably don't make the best fathers, and right as he's beginning to question his relationship with his own father, this revelation is bound to send Dexter into some very confusing places. With a start like this, viewers are certainly in for another wild season of Dexter.


-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of Showtime)