'Dexter: Resurrection' Is Bloody Delightful

Dexter has been in our lives for nearly two decades. It’s one of those shows like The Walking Dead, an Aaron Sorkin series, or the first four episodes of an American Horror Story season that I’m going to watch whether I like it or not. And through ten seasons (including the revival and the prequel), I’ve liked it just as often as I haven’t. The first four seasons of Dexter were good. The last four were not. The revival was good. The prequel? Not so much.

Dexter: Resurrection, the latest incarnation of the serial killer saga, tilts decisively into the “good” column. Based on the first four episodes given to critics, it might be the best season since the Trinity Killer arc, and that has everything to do with Michael C. Hall. A six-time Emmy nominee (five for Dexter), Hall has the unique ability to make this character work … when he feels like it. (Even he’s admitted that he checked out of the show’s final seasons during its original run.)

Hall reunites with original creator/showrunner Clyde Phillips in Resurrection to bring Dexter back from near death. At the end of New Blood, Dexter was shot and left for dead by his own son, Harrison (Jack Alcott), who shares his father’s compulsion to kill, but also has a conscience. Dexter didn’t die. The freezing temperatures kept him from bleeding out, he spent ten weeks in a coma, and he awakens to a visit from our old friend Angel Batista (David Zayas). There’s some hand-waving to clear him of any legal culpability in the events of New Blood — his ex-girlfriend, Chief Angela Bishop (Julia Jones, who does not appear in this series), concocts a story to absolve him as a thank-you for taking out Clancy Brown’s serial killer.

But before he was shot, Bishop did tell Batista that Dexter was the Bay Harbor Butcher, a detail that matches what his late wife, Lt. Maria LaGuerta, had claimed before Dexter killed her. Batista is determined to get to the bottom of it, but Dexter skips town before he can.

He heads to New York City to follow Harrison, who’s gotten himself into legal trouble. Despite being shot by him, Dexter still wants to maintain a connection with his son — their bond is forged in blood, after all. He’s followed to New York by his longtime ghostly companion, Harry Morgan (James Remar), who continues to guide him from beyond the grave. The old team is back!

Meanwhile, there’s a new serial killer in the city: someone murdering ride-share drivers from the backseat. The killer calls himself … the Dark Passenger. Dexter does not care for that. So he gets a job as a ride-share driver to hunt this guy down and do what he does best.

Several threads run through the sequel series: Dexter is on the run from Batista, trying to reconnect with Harrison and keep him out of trouble, and slipping back into his role as a killer of killers. And I haven’t even mentioned the roles played by Peter Dinklage, Uma Thurman, Krysten Ritter, Neil Patrick Harris, Eric Stonestreet, and David Dastmalchian, who all make surprise appearances in the fourth episode. I won’t spoil how — they’re delightful surprises — and each one injects new life and a welcome dose of dark comedy into a revitalized Resurrection. Their introductions land with jolts of excitement and that signature twisted charm that makes Dexter so goddamn fun when it’s at its best.

But again, it’s Michael C. Hall who sells it. He was the missing ingredient in the prequel series New Blood. He can deliver those wry, occasionally cheesy lines with the right smirk, and it’s genuinely satisfying to see him back in Dexter mode. There’s no more Jim Ellis. This is an older, creakier Dexter — he even complains about the toll killing takes on the body — and if not wiser, at least more reflective. It’s a true return to form for the series, and it’s a real pleasure to have him back in our lives.

‘Dexter’ returns to Paramount+ on Friday, July 11th.