'Dexter' recap: What a night!

A lot happened on Sunday night’s episode, but the one thing that stuck with me was a desire to implore the writers of “Dexter” to please give Deb Morgan a break already.  I was half laughing, half groaning when she asked Quinn to tell her if it was going to end badly. Memo to Deb: IT’S GOING TO END BADLY!  Although it’ll be exciting, no doubt, to see how Quinn’s vendetta against Dexter will play out in regard to his relationship with Deb, I wish the show would figure out a way to give her a love life that doesn’t go horribly awry.  Even if it means she becomes a nun, it’s time to give her a break. 

Otherwise, Sunday night’s episode is about Dexter trying to keep his life neatly compartmentalized: This part of him is a father, this is a blood-spatter expert, this is a murderer.  To celebrate a return to old times, Dexter decides to take down Lance Robinson, who kills men he meets online for casual encounters.  “Tonight’s the night,” he says as he goes, while we also see Lumen preparing for her own kill.  Dexter’s hopes for a tidy evening are disrupted when Lumen calls him as he’s wrapping Lance in plastic.  She begs for Dexter's help: She has tracked down one of the men she thinks raped and tortured her but has botched the murder. 

Dexter meets Lumen at her murder scene, where she initially blames him for not doing it for her.  She discerns that he works for the police department as they track her bleeding, escaped victim through the marina, bickering along the way like a big brother and wayward little sister.  Lumen reveals that she never actually saw her attackers’ faces or heard their names, but she knows, based on a smell, that he’s the guy.  I’ve been trying to figure out exactly how Dexter sees Lumen (I was worried that they might kiss at the end of the episode and was relieved when they didn’t), but I love this scene, the way Dexter seems so peeved and incredulous when Lumen curses him out. 

While Deb and Angel are doing a stakeout on a club to try to get the Fuentes brothers, they get a call about a potential homicide at the marina, which of course just happens to be the potential homicide that Dex and Lumen are engaged in.  Then Lumen and Dexter find their man, and a ridiculous bloody screaming match ensues (again, so much for neat and compartmentalized) in which Dan the Dentist claims he’s never seen Lumen in his life.  Dexter takes a call from Sonya to hear Harrison say bye-bye (or “die-die”), and when he returns, Lumen has her stiletto against Dan’s throat. While Dexter yells at Lumen for being nuts, Dan crawls off and is conveniently heard on the cellphone telling his cronies that Lumen’s alive -- so she has had her man all along. “They’re gonna find you,” Dan promises Lumen, and then Dexter finally dispatches him.  Lumen seems almost happy, but they need to clean up, because Deb and Masuka are on the trail.

Bloody genius! HBO picks up new series from 'Dexter' writer

Former "Dexter" showrunner Clyde Phillips is back and ready to get more blood on his hands. After winning a bidding war among cable networks, HBO has confirmed that it's picking up a new crime drama from Phillips and Lionsgate TV.

Based on the Israeli series "The Naked Truth," the show takes place in a major East Coast precinct, where police officers are investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl from a prominant family. The story will explore how this high-profile case effects the victim's family as well as the city's political infrastructure.

"It's about the cops encountering people on the worst day of the citizens' life," Phillips told Deadline, which broke the story Tuesday morning. "It's a bit of an exploration of the middle class and the challenges we all face; it's a heartbreaking story about a family in a time of crisis and how everyone deals with it."

Phillips also compared the series to "ER" in that it will be set mostly indoors, focusing on character and dialogue more than action. "I can't wait to write those powerful and challenging scenes," he told Deadline. "It's all just character, character, character."

To check out what Phillips is working with, watch a trailer for the original "Naked Truth" below.

 

— Melissa Maerz

Photo: Clyde Phillips, creator of "Dexter" and an upcoming adaptation of the crime drama "The Naked Truth." Credit: Vincent Kessler / Reuters.

'Dexter' recap: Accomplices

This week’s “Dexter” had a very clever opening, as the screen was saturated with blood red, then yellow, then green -- like the show’s introduction, the possibly-ominous image pulled away to reveal something innocent: in this case, a parachute being raised and lowered over a group of infants at a Mommy and Me class.  Then things turn dark(ish) again quickly, as Dexter suspects Harrison of inflicting a little scratch on one of the other babies, of being like him. Together they “flee the scene of the crime.” 

This episode left me wondering how Lumen relates to Dexter. Often when a major character appears in the show, it somehow reflects some element of him, like how he originally was attracted to Arthur Mitchell for being able to pull off a “normal” life. In tonight’s episode Dexter tried, repeatedly, to convince Lumen not to kill the people she claims raped and abused her, to go home and start a normal life. When they meet at cafe, she tears up sugar packets and dumps the remains on the table. After she leaves, Dexter reaches over and tastes the sugar. Does that mean something?

Trying to beat her to her first victim, Dexter heads to Boyd’s house to see if he can find evidence of any accomplices, but he sees that someone’s already been there: it’s Lumen, of course, and when Dexter checks out her hotel room, thanks to her wall-o’-obsession, he sees she’s determined to track these men down. Harry warns Dexter that Lumen’s not stable, and that she’ll bring him down.

Still tracking the beheading murders, Deb follows a lead on a possible identifying tattoo on a suspect, so Masuka, who of course wears leopard-print briefs and has a huge back tattoo of a bare-breasted woman riding a dragon and wielding a sword, takes her to his tattoo artist, who identifies the design as an eye. More intriguing of course was the aggressive shine the parlor owner (played by Katherine Moennig of “The L Word”) took to Deb. I’ve sort of been waiting throughout the entirety of this series for Deb to explore her sapphic side but alas, apparently Moennig is only signed on for this one episode. 

'Dexter' recap: Never lie to someone who trusts you; never trust someone who lies to you

Let’s talk about the most important part of the episode: Michael C. Hall with his shirt off -- twice! Just kidding. What was great about tonight’s “Dexter” was that we were supposed to cheer for Dexter, who was basically committing an act of one-on-one terrorism, and root against Quinn, who was actually completely right in his instincts. I think the only people who came out of the episode clean were Harrison and Sonya. 

The episode picked up right where the last one left off, with Dexter dealing with the filthy, terrified Boyd victim on his hands. Harry appears and chides Dexter for violating the No. 1 rule, which isn’t, as Dexter suggests, “Never kill an innocent”: Above all else, it’s don’t get caught.  The girl wakes up and starts freaking out so he needles her. Deb calls to ask Dexter to help read the blood at the decapitation crime scene and he realizes that it’s morning and he left Harrison with Sonya all night. Oops.

At the crime scene Dexter is there just long enough to run a preliminary ID test on his captive and finds a key clue in the beheading investigation, no big deal.  He heads home to an irate Sonya, who quits. I liked the way Dexter said “I miss your mom,” to Harrison, because we know he didn’t mean it in a sentimental way: He meant it in a convenient babysitter way. 

Unable to find much on his girl, named Lumen, Dexter tries once again to get her to trust him by giving her some of Masuka’s antibiotics, but she refuses.  Terrified, she tries to tell Dexter she didn’t see him do anything, but he tells her he knows that’s not true. I think Julia Stiles did a great job in this episode portraying a woman half-mad by terror and exhaustion; she seemed almost feral to me. Once again she tries to flee and Dexter locks her up in the tourism center where he was originally going to kill Boyd.  I had flashbacks to Dexter’s imprisonment of Sgt. Doakes with this scene.

Dexter tracks down the hotel where Lumen last stayed, using Harrison as cute bait to get her luggage from the woman at the front desk. He finds a letter from her parents begging her to come home, which he hands back to his prisoner.

'Dexter' recap: 'Dexter will'

Two things in tonight’s episode exemplified why I love “Dexter.”  One, the little jokes that Dexter seems more comfortable cracking now: I understand he had to mourn his wife and all, but I don’t think I would care nearly as much about the series if it weren’t for the dark humor.  And the other is that this is a show where a serial decapitator is running through Miami and it’s perhaps the third-most interesting thing going on in the show.  Maybe I’m a little bloodthirsty.

Deb Morgan got to handle a lot of the jokes in tonight’s episode, first interrogating potential nannies for baby Harrison as if she were in the FBI, and then delivering a very special, unprintable epithet to Quinn if he ever mentions the word “marriage” around her again. He can’t stop needling her about the time they hooked up. I hate Quinn and I find his obsession with both Deb and Dexter creepy and I kind of hope he gets murdered.

Once he’s gotten the nanny settled, Dexter takes Harrison to the grief counselor, who relieves Dex by letting him know the baby probably was too young to register Rita’s murder, unlike Dexter, who remembers sitting in a pool of his own mother’s blood.  “Do something for Dexter,” the counselor encourages. “Dexter will,” he muses, and goes off to stalk Boyd Fowler.

At the cafe where he’s spying on Boyd, Boyd spots Dexter first, another indication that Boyd isn’t the dumb yokel that he appears to be.  Dexter introduces himself as “Darryl Tucker,” says he’s looking for a job, and agrees to tag along on a future run with Boyd. 

Before he rides along with Boyd, Dexter gets the kill room ready at a creepy old abandoned tourist center, relishing “putting my life back in order.”  Of course, just because he’s a murderer doesn’t mean he’s not a daddy, so he panics when he gets home and can’t find the nanny who was just out with Harrison and left a note. After his wife was murdered and his kids didn't show up to school, can you blame him for being a little paranoid?

Before I get to Dexter and Boyd, there’s also the matter of the possible death cult decapitations, which Deb is investigating with Cira.  She interviews the owner of a  black-magic shop, who then turns up missing his head as well, which Cira blames herself for.  Of course the storyline with Angel and Maria ranks last in order of interest in tonight’s episodes.  With Boyd, Dexter and a beheader on the loose and Quinn apparently trying to prove that Dexter murdered Rita, who cares if Angel is being investigated by internal affairs for defending his wife’s honor?

I loved the whole dynamic between Dexter and Boyd.  Dexter notices that Boyd’s more perceptive than he seems but still underestimates him: after he needles Boyd in the neck, Boyd shoots him with a tranquilizer gun and the two end up in the same ambulance. It was an amusing scene, the guys both pretending like it was an accident but eyeballing each other suspiciously.  Even though Boyd is obviously a bad guy who won’t live long, I sort of wanted him to survive the episode (and not just because I enjoyed looking at the pictures of the dogs on the wall of his house). 

Both Boyd and Dexter escape the ER and they tangle again at Boyd’s house, this time Dexter doing it right (I liked the detail of Dex capturing Boyd’s blood in a dainty little Tupperware).  Boyd warns Dexter that he doesn’t know what he’s getting into, but Dexter ignores him and kills him anyway, noting that he doesn’t feel as fulfilled by this murder as he thought he would.  Literally still with blood on his hands, he hears a knocking at one of the doors and one of Boyd’s unkilled victims emerges and faints. It’s Julia Stiles! And she’s seen everything.

-- Claire Zulkey

Photo: Michael C. Hall as Dexter. Credit: Cliff Lipson / Showtime

'Dexter' recap: It was all just a lie

The grieving process is all about time. We may not ever get back to the way things were before a loss, but eventually, gradually, life begins to feel normal again.  Sometimes we tell ourselves lies to try to speed the process, and that appeared to be the theme of Sunday night’s episode of “Dexter,” as Dexter tries to talk himself into post-Rita life. “Once the kids and I are back together, it’ll all be fine,” he says at the beginning of the episode. Lie No. 1.  As he heads off to his FBI interview, he says, “There’s just one final loose end to tie up before putting all this behind me.” Lie No. 2. And while it’s maybe not actually a lie, trying to pretend for a moment that cramming into Deb’s apartment with three kids might work is probably Lie No. 3. 

Dexter may have troubles with his family, but at least for the time being the FBI isn't his problem, as agents tell him they know he was at Arthur Mitchell’s house while Rita was being murdered. Sure to bite him later on, though, is their interest in Kyle Butler, whom the police know as a murder victim and potential affiliate of Trinity but who we all know was Dexter himself.

Dexter tells himself that he doesn’t need distractions right now, but that’s what he gets when he starts fixating on a blood stain he spots in the bottom of a moving van (the repeated, highlighted close-ups of the blood along with the mysterious harp music got a little too obvious for me after a while). Eventually, he takes baby Harrison out to the van to run some tests. For a guy who was so worried about his baby turning out like him, Dexter doesn’t seem to have a problem introducing him to his way of life (sneaking around at night, mucking around in blood). 

Dex finds out that the previous renter of the van was a city-employed dead-animal retriever named Boyd. Dexter decides to scope him out by calling in a dead raccoon by the side of the road that Boyd notices was killed elsewhere but brought to the site. “He’s CSI’ing me,” Dexter notes irritably, which is a welcome return to the ironic humor of the show I love so much.

Raccoons aren’t the only dead things in the area: Miami Metro arrives on the scene of a decapitated head found in the park (I have to admit that, ever since the first season, I have a weakness for sawed-off body parts on this show), which a new cop on the scene deduces may be the work of the cult of Santa Muerte.

'Dexter' Season 5 premiere ratings creep up to a new record

"Dexter's" problems are proving a boon for Showtime.

The serial-killer drama unfurled its fifth season Sunday with its best-ever season-opener ratings. A total of 1.8 million viewers tuned in, according to the Nielsen Co. Another 575,000 watched a rebroadcast at 11 p.m., for a same-night total of 2.3 million. 

That was a bit below the record-breaking Season 4 finale (2.6 million), in which Dexter (Michael C. Hall) found his wife murdered. But it was Showtime's best season premiere in 15 years and the network's most-watched program so far this year.

-- Scott Collins

Twitter: @scottcollinsLAT

Photo: Michael C. Hall in "Dexter." Credit: Peter Lovino / Showtime

'Dexter' recap: Goodbye, Rita Bennett. Goodbye, Dexter Morgan

After the last season of “Dexter,” when John Lithgow, as the Trinity Killer, took the scenery, chewed it up, spit it out and then let it bleed to death in the bathtub, it was hard to imagine where the show could go next. By having Trinity kill Rita, Dexter’s wife, the show’s writers not only left the season on an unbelievable high note of a shocker, they provided a great setup for this fifth season. How will Rita’s death affect Dexter’s role as a father, killer, police department employee and functioning member of society? After all, Rita was Dexter’s main link to a normal life.

The season opens with Dexter in total shock, clutching little blood-covered Harrison on the front lawn as the police show up, saying, inexplicably, “It was me” when the police show up. This of course promises to set Dexter up as a potential suspect in the case, and for the first time seems to make Deb really question what’s going on in her brother’s head. Deb steps up in a big way in the episode, taking care of the unpleasant business following Rita’s death. In the meantime, Dexter’s co-workers are upset when the FBI takes over the case, but that was fine by me because the Miami Metro Police Department has always been one of my least-favorite parts of the series. I like Masuka’s dirty sense of humor but did he need to make a sex joke while Rita was still lying dead in the tub? And Quinn questions Dexter’s lack of emotion during the whole ordeal -- has he never seen a family member in shock before? And while I can perhaps understand Deb’s desperation when she has sex with Quinn, that lady always and forever has the worst taste in romantic partners.

I’ve always loved Dexter’s awkward attempts to act human, and this episode throws him back several steps. He’s grieving and in shock after Rita’s death, but he also has his first experience with people who are simply dead, not murdered. Dexter studies the funeral director (I was on the lookout for any winks towards “Six Feet Under” in this scene, but even without them it was fun seeing Michael C. Hall basically confront his old David Fisher character) for how one is supposed to act around mourning people.

“This is how normal people do it,” Dexter muses, as he, all in pastels, infiltrates a funeral filled with black-plaid family members. “No Hefty bags, no diesel fumes.” His attempts to utilize the funeral director’s language just comes off horribly (or from my point of view, wonderfully) stiff and robotic as he says “I’m sorry for your loss” to Cody, Astor and Rita’s parents when they return from Disney World, his delivery rendered even creepier by the Mickey Mouse ears they’ve placed on his head. 

Astor’s never been Dexter’s No. 1 fan and she hates him even more now, as her only parent, link to her mother, and worst-bad-news-breaker ever, so Dexter not only needs to figure out how to take care of his own feelings but the kids’ now too. The episode is filled with flashbacks to Dexter’s and Rita’s first date, an awkward affair back when he was even less sure of how humans interacted, made even stranger by his hidden agenda of tracking a potential murder victim.

'Dexter': The fifth season begins Sunday with Dexter's life 'dismantled'

Hello, Dexter Morgan.

No one can say that quite like John Lithgow, but here at Show Tracker, we want to try because we are so happy that our favorite serial killer is back in prime time on Sunday.

The Times visited the Hollywood set  of "Dexter" recently, where Michael C. Hall and his peers were furiously at work on the ninth episode of the fifth season.

The new season kicks off exactly where we last saw our serial killer of serial killers and follows Dexter as he grieves for Rita (Julie Benz).  Hall, who is looking healthy after being treated for lymphoma earlier this year and is in great spirits, says Dexter's journey now is one of penitence, even though he doesn't quite realize it.

"I think Dexter’s origins story leading up to this point had him as an innocent child, and now his son is the innocent child in this new origins story and Dexter has some of the blood on his own hands, so I think his journey is one of atonement," he said. "I don’t think Dexter is consciously seeking that out. I don’t think he knows what he needs. But I think things unfold in a serendipitous enough way for him to come to the realization that is in fact what he’s doing, even though he might not put it in that language."

With the formidable shadows of acting heavyweights Jimmy Smits and Lithgow looming on set -- they guest-starred in the third and fourth seasons respectively -- the producers and writers decided to spice up this year's storyline with a series of guest stars. Julia Stiles, Shawn Hatosy, Johnny Lee Miller and Peter Weller all play characters that will interact with Dexter all season and eventually be connected.

Although everyone on the cast and crew is aware that there's plenty to live up to from last season, Stiles says the season is full of unexpected turns.

"It’s a credit to the writers that they don’t just write something for the sake of shock value," she said. It’s really earned. I feel like now we’re shooting episode 9, so it’s close to the end of the season, and where Dexter is now, he’s in a position that I don’t know how they’re going to resolve this. He’s in a bit of a pickle. I don’t know how he’s going to deal with all this and my character certainly doesn’t make it easier for him."

For more about the fifth season, check out our feature, "Dexter tries to move beyond sudden death in the family."  A photo gallery of The Times' set visit is here.

In the video below, actors David Zayas and new cast member April Lee Hernandez prepare for a scene and discuss the new season. (Maria Doyle Kennedy has also joined the cast as a nanny to Dexter's baby boy).

   

The show airs at 9 p.m.

-- Maria Elena Fernandez
twitter.com/writerchica

Photo: Michael C. Hall works on a scene on the set of "Dexter." Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times

Video Credit: Maria Elena Fernandez / Los Angeles Times

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"Dexter: Hello, Arthur Mitchell. Goodbye...?

Fall TV Sneaks: Mary McNamara's top 5 new shows, what else is new and where we left off

The 2010 Fall TV season is here, and that means our Fall TV Sneaks is too. New shows, new faces; returning shows and old friends. What will be our new obsessions and our new disappointments? It all begins Monday (with the exception of HBO's new "Boardwalk Empire," which premieres Sunday).

Los Angeles Times TV critic Mary McNamara wants to help with all the competition for your attention. Here's her Top 5 of the newbies:

But you don't have to take just Mary's word for it.  Here's what Los Angeles Times critic Robert Lloyd thinks of all of the new fall programs, including "Hawaii 5-0," "Nikita" and "Undercovers":

 

And the winners of the Creative Arts Emmys are...

Our colleagues at the Gold Derby attended the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday and blogged the results.

A few things we noted:

"Modern Family" picked up an Emmy for best casting in a comedy series. Does that mean an Emmy for outstanding comedy is on its way? Most TV critics are predicting the ABC single-camera comedy as the winner next Sunday. This could be a sign the academy agrees.

"Mad Men" nabbed the nod for best casting in a drama series. We do love the cast, but hope this doesn't mean the AMC series will pick up its third Emmy in a row in that category. With "Lost's" final season in the mix and spectacular seasons for "Dexter" and "Breaking Bad," there's got to be a new winner, no?

Choreographer Mia Michaels may have turned off a lot of viewers when she replaced Mary Murphy at the judge's table of "So You Think You Can Dance" this season. But arguing against her immense talents as a choreographer is futile. She deserves the Emmy she won Saturday night.

"Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" won the Emmy for best reality program, and that's not a bad pick. The charming naked chef took on children's obesity in this weight-loss show and struck a chord with viewers.

Of course, Jeff Probst won his third Emmy for best reality show host for his work on "Survivor." As long as he's in the running, it's not likely anyone will ever beat him. No one can elicit information from contestants and direct a reality competition the way he can. (Boo to the academy for not including this award in the regular telecast Aug. 29).

John Lithgow did amazing work on "Dexter" last season as the Trinity Killer and won an Emmy on Saturday for it. Apparently, he thanked HBO instead of Showtime for the opportunity. Hope Dexter didn't hear that.

Ann-Margret picked up a guest actress Emmy in a drama for her work on "Law & Order: SVU." She apparently knew what network that show is on.

Neil Patrick Harris hasn't won an Emmy for his role on "How I Met Your Mother" but he won Saturday for his guest spot on Fox's "Glee."

Betty White is still on fire. She won an Emmy for guest actress on "Saturday Night Live." But she got bested in the best commercial category by the Old Spice dude. Apparently, you can't have it all Betty.

-- Maria Elena Fernandez

twitter.com/writerchica

Photo: John Lithgow at the Creative Arts Emmys on Saturday.

Credit: Chris Pizzello / Associated Press

TCA Press Tour: The atonement of 'Dexter' Morgan

When "Dexter" returns for its fifth season in September, things will pick up exactly where the fourth season ended: with Dexter (Michael C. Hall) discovering Rita (Julie Benz) gruesomely murdered and their baby son covered in blood.

From there, the season will move into exploring Dexter's atonement, executive producer Sara Colleton said at a session for the show at press tour Thursday. Dexter's mourning process will be complicated since America's favorite serial killer certainly has some culpability in these matters and he doesn't know how to handle emotions of any kind.

"As he's going through different stages of grief -- although for Dexter it's completely unarticulated ... he doesn't know what he's feeling, there will be different characters who will come in and interact and so as the season progresses, some of these characters interlock," Colleton said. "The through line is Dexter's atonement and different people help along the way at different capacities.

For the first time, Dexter Morgan will not be chasing one big, bad serial killer, which is good news for actors everywhere because who could possibly come after Dexter after John Lithgow's Trinity Killer? Among the actors joining the cast in non-murdering recurring roles are Julia Stiles and Johnny Lee Miller.

Besides grieving, Dexter won't have much time for his bloody tendencies. He's now the single dad of three children.

"He has some responsibilities that are really serious," Colleton said. "Like all single dads, they don't know until the wife is gone just how much that is."

-- Maria Elena Fernandez
twitter.com/writerchica

Photo: Michael C. Hall on "Dexter." Credit: Randy Tepper / Showtime

Related

Follow our coverage of the TCA Press Tour

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