‘Dexter’: A partner in crime?

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Michael C. Hall is such a good actor that his good looks sometimes are easy to look past, but in the most recent episode of ‘Dexter,’ his character was downright sexy. What made Dexter so appealing? That he was being bad.

So OK, in real life, there’s nothing attractive about a guy making the woman who is pregnant with his child cry. However, Dexter plays Mr. Nice Guy so much with his girlfriend Rita (Julie Benz) and her kids that it was refreshing to hear him tell her ‘no’ so abruptly when she asked him to go house-hunting with her. Dexter was smarting from the concept of having to give up his murderous bachelor pad, but something else was going on to make him behave so coldly, and I liked it. It was even fun to see him setting up his kill room on a cruise ship and talking a wee bit psychotically to his murder victim: ‘I want to thank you for reminding me to take moments for oneself.’

Of course, Dexter shouldn’t have told Rita that he was going fishing when she asked him to look after the kids, even if it was more fun to watch than if he’d made up a lie about going to work. No matter how friendly he is with Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits), it was a bad idea to go off to kill someone right after seeing the assistant D.A., even if the cruise ship murder was a professional courtesy.

‘Dexter’ thus took a rather comic-book-legend turn on tonight’s episode. While he had previously talked about having such ‘trust’ in Dexter and being like him, Prado all but indicated that he knew Dexter was a serial-killer’s serial-killer, and approved. So he’s like Robin and Commissioner Gordon in one to Dexter’s Batman, which will prove to make their relationship more interesting.

While I think the Miami Police Department scenes could use a little more criminal realism (like ‘The Wire’ or even ‘Law & Order’) a bit more melodrama, as long as it involves Dexter, may prove to be a lot of fun. This will especially be the case as (which I imagine will happen) Miguel’s brother Ramon (Jason Manuel Olazabal) gets pulled into the situation. But as long as Dexter drops the Mr. Nice Guy act once in a while, I’m all his, no matter what happens.

-- Claire Zulkey