Detective Hole: Nordic Noir with a Vengeance

It's been a while since I reviewed a Nordic Noir series, and that's because I've been watching science fiction, and also a variety of Britbox and Acorn whodunnits with my wife. We binged Detective Hole on Netflix the past few nights -- pronounced Holeh or Hola -- and whew, it's a combination of well worth waiting for and Nordic Noir to the max, based on the fifth novel of the Jo Nesbø's series, which I haven't read.

Nesbø was also the writer and showrunner of the series, which began streaming on Netflix in March, so he deserves a lot of the credit for the extremities -- the blood and sheer gore -- or blame, if you find them a bit too much.  If you do, I'll say it's at least redeemed by a complex story about serial killing that will keep you guessing until the ninth and concluding episode.

The acting is also top-notch.  Joel Kinnaman, whose breakout role as an American police detective in The Killing was outstanding (and who was great in the first through current season of For All Mankind), projects a very different kind of power in Detective Hole.  Tobias Santelmann plays Harry Hole (first name pronounced Harey, like you pronounce the word "are"), and like Kinnaman's Tom Waaler, Hole is emotionally crippled, though in a very different way. (The two exemplify a genre that I identified decades ago -- the "defective detective":  Barnaby Jones was aged, Columbo was a schlep, etc.)  In contrast to Hole, his domestic partner Rakel (very well played by Pia Tjelta) is usually a cool voice of reason like a ginger ale with ice on a hot summer day, and I like Beate's detective work (well played Ellen Helinder) too.

I'm not going to say anything about the plot, because I don't want to give anything away, other than I've always thought, watching shows about serial killers (my first review on this blog some 20 years ago was of Dexter), that the serial killing could be for a very different reason...

But I will say that I read recently that crime in Norway, where Detective Hole takes place, is among the lowest recorded the world, and my wife mentioned, as we were enjoying and sometimes cringing at what we were seeing on the screen, that maybe viewers in Norway have a special interest in seeing in their fiction what they happily don't see much of in their news.  But I'd bet that Detective Hole will keep you hostage as a viewer wherever you are.

Review of Jude O'Reilly's Heartbreaker: No One's an Angel

I just finished Jude O'Reilly's Heartbreaker, about a desperate mother's hunt for a serial killer who wiped out her whole family and left her to blame, literally.  I really enjoyed this novel, chocked full of stunners, replete with a multi-twist ending with shocker after shocker.

Now, readers of this blog through the years since 2006 will know my high regard for Dexter and its spinoffs, about a serial killer intent on eliminating serial killers and others out to destroy more or less good people.  O'Reilly's serial killer would be an ideal target of Dexter, he or she -- they, in today's parlance -- has nothing good about them.

O'Reilly has a keen understanding of human nature, including academe, a field I know all too well.  "Some of my colleagues are more interested in their own research. But for me, it’s the light that goes on in their eyes when a young person realizes a profound truth for the first time,” a professor tells the mother hunting the serial killer.  And O'Reilly's way with words infuses other elements of the story that somehow manages to be sassy, sexy, sage, and frightening throughout.  

Harvesting organs has played a role in fiction at least since Robin Cook's Coma in 1977, made into a movie the following year by Michael Crichton. Heartbreaker -- which applies more than figuratively to its story -- takes this to a whole new level.  Daphne, the desperate mother, is a defense attorney, and her interactions with police and lawyers provide a simmering blend of law, medicine, and often life-and-death ethical dilemmas that you'll likely ponder long after you finish the novel.

O'Reilly is British, and among the new words and phrases her novel taught me are "swallow hands","kohl eyes","plinth", and "blagging".  They'll be no blagging of your time if you read Heartbreaker, and I highly recommend it if your heart and soul are in need of a rollercoaster ride.

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Memory of a Killer: Hit Man with a Heart

I rarely review TV series on old-fashioned broadcast television, and even more rarely on Fox. But Memory of a Killer is a worthy exception. 

Part of its power is acting. Patrick Dempsey, who established his creds on Grey’s Anatomy (my wife has been a devoted fan for its umpteen seasons) and was excellent last year in Dexter: Original Sin, was great in the lead role of Angelo Doyle, a hit man suffering from the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Michael Imperioli, one of the many standouts on The Sopranos, was good to see as Angelo’s boss/senior partner. And Odeya Rush, whom I probably saw on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Law & Order: SVU, was refreshing as Angelo’s pregnant daughter Maria.

The Dexter connection is especially relevant.  I've been an avid fan since the series began in 2006, and I put the series and its sequels (and one prequel) in the top 5 of all TV series ever.  The key to Dexter Morgan's appeal is that he's a serial killer of serial killers and other monstrous people who deserve to die, but our police and legal system have for some reason missed.  Angelo doesn't get quite the same pleasure from his work, but also takes pride in his victims being people who deserve to die.

[And there will be spoilers ahead ... ]

His unknowingly killing someone who did not deserve to die sets up the central thrilling tension of the series:  the victim's mother Linda Grant (well played by Gina Torres from The Matrix sequels) is an FBI agent, and she's determined to kill not only Angelo's beloved wife, which Grant makes sure happens, but his brother Mike and daughter Maria.   This turns the tables on the serial killer narrative, making the hit man's loved ones the target, and is a nice piece of storytelling,

The other leg of story, a hit man with the onset of Alzheimer’s, is also very effectively told.  Angelo's brother Mike has a much more advanced condition, which adds the heart-rending element of letting us and Angelo know where he's headed.  The series has been renewed for a second season, so we'll get to see some of that, and, optimist that I am, I'm hoping that Angelo finds a treatment that will further delay the progression of this crushing illness.

See also First Place to Dexter and Dexter: Original Sin: Activation of the Code

For All Mankind 5.2: Actor Reunions

It's great to see Joel Kinnaman as Admiral Baldwin in For All Mankind Season 5 still flying morally high, still shaking things up, defying authority to do the right thing, still causing good trouble (as John Lewis put it so well down here on Earth in our off-screen reality), in his advanced age.   Kinnaman is especially impressive in the role, given that he's now also playing a character much closer to his real age in Imperfect Women, which I'll review as soon as its first season is over.

[And there will be spoilers ahead ... ]

Baldwin in Season 5 of For All Mankind has stage-three cancer, and is not supposed to fly.   All the more the impressive that he risks his life in this condition to save Lee Jung-Gil (played by C. S. Lee -- Vince Masuka from Dexter old and new!).  And episode 5.2 concludes with Baldwin's plan to save Lee on the way to working, though as that happens, Mireille Enos's character Celia Boyd -- Enos starred with Joel Kinnaman in The Killing around the same time the original Dexter was concluding -- finds Baldwin unconscious at the controls.

Now if For All Mankind were made by Taylor Sheridan, this might be the end of Baldwin.  But given that Ronald D. Moore is its creator, I'd be stunned if Baldwin didn't survive until at least the end of this season.  In fact, given that Joel Kinnaman has been reported to return as Baldwin in the final season 6 of the series, and though, again, apropos of Sheridan, this could be in flashbacks, I'm thinking we'll see Baldwin in real current time in the final season.  (And while we're at it, in the alternate history spin-off Star City to debut in May, though probably at a younger age.)

Anyway, Celia Boyd is a great new character, so is Leonid played Costa Ronan (from Homeland and The Americans), and all the continuing characters are good to see in this 5th season of For All Mankind. And I'll see you back next week with my review of the next episode.

See also For All Mankind 5.1: On the Intersection of Alternate and Real Histories

And see also For All Mankind 4.1: Back in Business and Alternate Reality ... 4.2: The Fate of Gorbachev ... 4.3-4.4: The Soviet Union in the 21st Century, On Earth and Mars ... 4.5: Al Gore as President and AI ... 4.6: Aleida and Margot ... 4.7: Dev on Mars ... 4.8: Sergei and Margot ... 4.9: Progress ... 4.10: Earth vs. Mars

And see also For All Mankind 3.1: The Alternate Reality Progresses ... 3.2: D-Mail ... 3.3-3.4: The Race

And see also For All Mankind, Season 1 and Episode 2.1: Alternate Space Race Reality ... For All Mankind 2.2: The Peanut Butter Sandwich ... For All Mankind 2.3: "Guns to the Moon" ... For All Mankind 2.4: Close to Reality ... For All Mankind 2.5: Johnny and the Wrath of Kahn ... For All Mankind 2.6: Couplings ... For All Mankind 2.7: Alternate History Surges ... For All Mankind 2.8: Really Lost in Translation ... For All Mankind 2.9: Relationships ... For All Mankind 2.10: Definitely Not the End

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Cross 2.1-2.3: To the Rescue

My wife and I saw Season 1 of Cross (starring Aldis Hodge) a few years ago and really enjoyed it.  I didn't have time to review it then, but I thought it was fast-paced, full of twists and turns, and emotionally powerful.  I liked it just as much as, if not more than, the Morgan Freeman movies in the 1990s.

We saw the first three episodes of the second season last night.  It's starting as engaging and powerful as the first season, with a crucial additional ingredient:  it speaks to the political turmoil currently pulling our country apart, and comes in on the ethical, democratic side on two related, front-page issues.

Those would be the Epstein files and the ICE attacks on anyone they see as not belonging in this country.  

[Spoilers ahead .... ]

The new season opens with a pair of assassins killing a man disturbingly similar to Epstein on an island with middle-aged men and young female victims.  It was an opening gambit that posed a vexing moral question: Are Cross and company right to hunt such assassins? And, are this serial killer couple second cousins of Dexter Morgan?

Next, we have an immigrant who kills a vicious ICE officer (or whatever racist US police force), who had recently killed someone that Cross was about to subdue without violence.  It will be instructive to see how Cross investigates, but the series deserves credit for correctly depicting what ICE and the Border Patrol have been doing not just near our borders, but in Minneapolis, Chicago, and cities across our country.

As was the case in the first season, there's lots of hot romance in the story, and more than one crime and criminal that Cross and his associates must bring to justice.  Based on the first season, I'd say that no one (other than Cross) is safe in this narrative, and I'm looking very much forward to seeing how it all unfolds.

A Political Hypothesis about Why Dexter Original Sin Was Unrenewed

I've been a devoted fan of Dexter since it debuted on Showtime in 2006.  My very first review of a TV show on this blog in December 2006 was a rave review of the first season of Dexter 20 years ago on Showtime.  The review is entitled First Place to Dexter.

I've reviewed in this blog every episode of every season of Dexter since then.  And of course I reviewed every episode of Dexter: Original Sin last summer.  I was sad when the original run of Dexter ended in 2013, thrilled when Dexter returned in New Blood in 2021, disappointed when Dexter Morgan apparently died at the end of that one season in 2022, delighted with the prequel Original Sin, glad that it was renewed earlier this year, and I think Dexter: Resurrection this year was masterful.

So you can imagine how stunned I was about the announcement that the renewal of Original Sin for a second season had been reversed, the prequel series cancelled, this past August.  As Alisha Grauso pointed out in her Screen Rant article four days ago, Original Sin "immediately became Showtime's most-watched premiere ever, with 2.1 million viewers".  She then says its about-face cancellation by Paramount four months after Original Sin had been renewed "was seemingly a casualty of the Skydance-Paramount merger," and goes on to explain that after the merger, Paramount reviewed all of its programming (ok, that makes sense) and she further suggests Paramount may have to decided to revoke its renewal because prequels are narratively difficult and even when successful often satisfy their viewing audience with just a single season.  And that makes no sense to me at all.  Even if that characteristic of prequels is true, there was no way Paramount would not go for a second season of Original Sin, given how successful -- immediately becoming "Showtime's most-watched premiere ever" -- Original Sin on Showtime was.

My wife, also an avid fan of Dexter on television, didn't get a chance to watch Original Sin until this past week.  I was half-watching it with her and enjoying it immensely.  And I starting wondering, again, why had  Paramount reversed itself?  Why cancel at a time when the Dexter franchise was taking the screen by the storm? Yes, that decision was indeed a result of the Skydance merger.  And what else had happened with Paramount and CBS after that merger?  Well, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert had been unceremoniously cancelled (effective May 2026) after Skydance got in the driver's seat.   And why was that?  The billionaire who owns and runs Skydance is a big Trump supporter, and Colbert's sarcastic comedy has been at its sharpest when it came to Trump.

But Dexter: Original Sin had no political comedy, right?  Ok, but maybe one of its lead actors, or writers, or directors, had spoken out against Trump and the march towards fascism in America he's engendering and leading.  I did a search on Christian Slater (who brilliantly plays Dexter's father Harry in Original Sin) and Trump.  And bingo!  Back in 2018, Slater called Trump an "asshole".  Breitbart, a right-wing publication, was so upset about that, they devoted a whole article about it.   Surely Trump, who keeps track of every insult, real and imagined, was bearing one of his myriad continuing grudges, and desire for revenge, against Christian Slater.

Of course, I have no proof of this.  But I wanted to put this hypothesis out there.  Was Christian Slater and thereby Original Sin another victim of Trump's rampage against free expression, abetted by the billionaires who support him, in this case, a billionaire whose company now in effect owns Paramount, and thereby has easy control over its programming?  Maybe, given the damage Trump has already done to the arts and culture in this country, I'm being too quick to see him as the villain behind Paramount's illogical reversal on its renewal of Dexter: Original Sin.  But the other explanations just don't add up, given Original Sin's enormous success, and I really can't think of a more convincing explanation of why it was cancelled after it had been renewed.

See also: Dexter: Resurrection 1.1-1.2: The Imposter ... 1.3: Killers and Prey ... 1.4: The Nefarious Club ... 1.5: Father and Son and the Watch ... 1.6: What's Half of Gemini? ... 1.7: Batista and Dexter in the Car ... 1.8: The Enemies: An Evaluation ... 1.9: And Then There Were Two ... Season 1 Finale: First Place in the TV Age of Sequels

And see also Dexter: Original Sin 1.1: Activation of the Code ... 1.2-1.3: "The Finger Is Missing" ... 1.4: The Role of Luck in Dexter's Profession and Life ... 1.5: Revelations and Relations ... 1.6: On the Strong, Non-Serial-Killer Parts of the Show ... 1.7: First Big Shocker ... 1.8: Dexter's Discovery ... 1.9: Brian's Story ... Season 1 Finale: Satisfying

And see also Dexter: New Blood 1.1: Back with a Vengeance ... Dexter: New Blood 1.2: Dark Tendencies ... Dexter: New Blood 1.3: Fathers and Sons ... Dexter: New Blood 1.4: Harrison and Kurt ... Dexter New Blood: 1.5: No Satisfaction for Serial Killers ... Dexter: New Blood 1.6: Breaks and Arm Breaks ... Dexter: New Blood: 1.7: Dexter vs. Kurt ...Dexter: New Blood 1.8: The Hug in the Car ... Dexter: New Blood 1.9 One Down, One To Go ... Dexter: New Blood Finale: Superb, and I Didn't Like It All

And see also Dexter Season 8 Premiere: Mercury in Retrograde, Dexter Incandescent ... Dexter 8.2: The Gift ... Dexter 8.3: The Question and the Confession ... Dexter 8.4: The "Lab Rat" and Harry's Daughter ... Dexter 8.5: Just Like Family ... Dexter 8.6: The Protege ... Dexter 8.7: Two Different Codes? ... Dexter 8.8: "A Great Future" ... Dexter 8.9: The Psycho Son ... Dexter 8.10: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ... Dexter 8.11: "Not the Old Dexter" ... Dexter Series Finale: Solitude, Style, and a Modicum of Hope

And see also Dexter Season 7.1-3: Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 7.4: The Lesson in Speltzer's Smoke ... Dexter 7.5: Terminator Isaac ... Dexter 7.6: "Breaking and Entering" ... Dexter 7.7: Shakespearean Serial Killer Story ... Dexter 7.8: Love and Its Demands ... Dexter 7.9: Two Memorable Scenes and the Ascension of Isaac ... Dexter 7.11: The "Accident" ... Dexter Season 7 Finale: The Surviving Triangle

And see also Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals? ... Dexter 6.5 and 6.6: Decisive Sam ... Dexter 6.7: The State of Nebraska ... Dexter 6.8: Is Gellar Really Real? .... Dexter 6.9: And Geller Is ... ... Dexter's Take on Videogames in 6.10 ...Dexter and Debra:  Dexter 6.11 ... Dexter Season 6 Finale: Through the Eyes of a Different Love

And see also Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience ...Dexter 5.8 and Lumen ... Dexter 5.9: He's Getting Healthier ... Dexter 5.10: Monsters -Worse and Better ... Dexter 5.11: Sneak Preview with Spoilers  ... Dexter Season 5 Finale: Behind the Curtain

And see also Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ...Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ...4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations

And see also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ...Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review

Reviews of Season 2: Dexter's Back: A Preview and Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out of This? and The Plot Gets Tighter and Sharper and Dex, Doakes, and Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and All's ... Well

See also about Season 1: First Place to Dexter 

Dexter: Resurrection 1.7: Batista and Dexter in the Car

Well, as I said last week, Batista at this point is easily Dexter's greatest danger -- more than Detective Wallace and company, more than Prater and Charley.  I mean, he knows about Dexter as much as I and you do.

[Spoilers ahead ... ]

So my favorite scene is episode 1.7 is at the end, when Dexter warns Batista, who is then thrown out of Dexter's car (told to get out by Dexter), after planting a tracking device that presumably Dexter doesn't know about.  My only question is why Dexter didn't kill Batista right then and there, or at least try to.  And, actually, I'm also wondering why Batista got in the car with Dexter, knowing how deadly Dexter could be.

I guess the answer to the first is Dexter needed to think about the best way to kill a detective.  And the answer to the second is Batista wanted to plant the tracker.   But there's now a very volatile situation between the two, to say the least.

Over on Mastodon, where I post links to these reviews (I do on all my social media), David Scott Moyer, whom I didn't know before now, commented on my post there of last week's review, "I suspect one of Dexter's upcoming kills will either save or avenge someone close to Batista." I replied "that could be something that could save Batista," which I'd like to see happen, because Batista has always been a great character, and David Zayas gives him a great portrayal.   But it was crystal clear in episode 1.7, in that scene in the car, that the hatred Batista feels for  Dexter for killing all those people that we the viewers also loved runs pretty deep.  (Btw, as Dexter's inner voice reminded us a few episodes ago, it was the Trinity Killer who killed Deb, of course not Dexter.)  But I can't see anything Dexter now does slaking Batista's need to bring his former friend and colleague to justice.

And I think Dexter got to realize that in the car ride.  (Tour de force acting, by the way, by both Michael C. Hall and David Zayas in that car.)  So I'd say, the only thing that could stop Dexter from killing Batista is someone else -- maybe Prater? -- kills Batista first.

I expect some powerhouse episodes ahead.

See also: Dexter: Resurrection 1.1-1.2: The Imposter ... 1.3: Killers and Prey ... 1.4: The Nefarious Club ... 1.5: Father and Son and the Watch ... 1.6: What's Half of Gemini?

And see also Dexter: Original Sin 1.1: Activation of the Code ... 1.2-1.3: "The Finger Is Missing" ... 1.4: The Role of Luck in Dexter's Profession and Life ... 1.5: Revelations and Relations ... 1.6: On the Strong, Non-Serial-Killer Parts of the Show ... 1.7: First Big Shocker ... 1.8: Dexter's Discovery ... 1.9: Brian's Story ... Season 1 Finale: Satisfying

And see also Dexter: New Blood 1.1: Back with a Vengeance ... Dexter: New Blood 1.2: Dark Tendencies ... Dexter: New Blood 1.3: Fathers and Sons ... Dexter: New Blood 1.4: Harrison and Kurt ... Dexter New Blood: 1.5: No Satisfaction for Serial Killers ... Dexter: New Blood 1.6: Breaks and Arm Breaks ... Dexter: New Blood: 1.7: Dexter vs. Kurt ...Dexter: New Blood 1.8: The Hug in the Car ... Dexter: New Blood 1.9 One Down, One To Go ... Dexter: New Blood Finale: Superb, and I Didn't Like It All

And see also Dexter Season 8 Premiere: Mercury in Retrograde, Dexter Incandescent ... Dexter 8.2: The Gift ... Dexter 8.3: The Question and the Confession ... Dexter 8.4: The "Lab Rat" and Harry's Daughter ... Dexter 8.5: Just Like Family ... Dexter 8.6: The Protege ... Dexter 8.7: Two Different Codes? ... Dexter 8.8: "A Great Future" ... Dexter 8.9: The Psycho Son ... Dexter 8.10: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ... Dexter 8.11: "Not the Old Dexter" ... Dexter Series Finale: Solitude, Style, and a Modicum of Hope

And see also Dexter Season 7.1-3: Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 7.4: The Lesson in Speltzer's Smoke ... Dexter 7.5: Terminator Isaac ... Dexter 7.6: "Breaking and Entering" ... Dexter 7.7: Shakespearean Serial Killer Story ... Dexter 7.8: Love and Its Demands ... Dexter 7.9: Two Memorable Scenes and the Ascension of Isaac ... Dexter 7.11: The "Accident" ... Dexter Season 7 Finale: The Surviving Triangle

And see also Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals? ... Dexter 6.5 and 6.6: Decisive Sam ... Dexter 6.7: The State of Nebraska ... Dexter 6.8: Is Gellar Really Real? .... Dexter 6.9: And Geller Is ... ... Dexter's Take on Videogames in 6.10 ...Dexter and Debra:  Dexter 6.11 ... Dexter Season 6 Finale: Through the Eyes of a Different Love

And see also Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience ...Dexter 5.8 and Lumen ... Dexter 5.9: He's Getting Healthier ... Dexter 5.10: Monsters -Worse and Better ... Dexter 5.11: Sneak Preview with Spoilers  ... Dexter Season 5 Finale: Behind the Curtain

And see also Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ...Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ...4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations

And see also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ...Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review

Reviews of Season 2: Dexter's Back: A Preview and Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out of This? and The Plot Gets Tighter and Sharper and Dex, Doakes, and Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and All's ... Well

See also about Season 1: First Place to Dexter 

Dexter: Resurrection 1.6: What's Half of Gemini

Another excellent episode of Dexter: Resurrection -- 1.6

[And there will be spoilers ahead ....]

First, let's talk a little about Batista.  He tells the NYPD detectives -- Wallace and Oliva -- exactly what's going on, to a tee.  I have to say, much as I really like Batista, this means only one thing: Batista will have to die.  He knows way too much about Dexter and how he operates.  Whether Dexter will kill him, or a possible long shot, Harrison, or maybe Batista will just get hit by a bus, he'll have to go.  A season 2 beginning with Dexter behind bars just doesn't strike me as likely,

But speaking of which, I was sorry last week to see Mia arrested, and I was even more sorry this week to see her permanently gone.   Shows the depth of danger Dexter will be facing once Prater is on to him.

And there were two notable things about Dexter's righteous kill tonight.  First, I liked that the body of Dexter's victim was a shower curtain away from discovery (by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine as Blessing -- starring at this same time in Smoke)*. Second, the fact that the Gemini killer was so named because the serial killers were identical twins was a cool twist in the serial killer narrative genre.  One of the best of the many good things about Dexter: Resurrection is that it pulls out so many stops.

And it does this with a winning attention to detail, like Doake's photo as the Bay Harbor Butcher, and Dexter's face when he sees this.  Michael C. Hall not only hasn't lost a beat in  his current performance as Dexter, I'd say he's better than ever.

*And shout-out to The Sopranos' Steve Schirripa and his brief appearance in this episode.  Lookin' good!

See also: Dexter: Resurrection 1.1-1.2: The Imposter ... 1.3: Killers and Prey ... 1.4: The Nefarious Club ... 1.5: Father and Son and the Watch

And see also Dexter: Original Sin 1.1: Activation of the Code ... 1.2-1.3: "The Finger Is Missing" ... 1.4: The Role of Luck in Dexter's Profession and Life ... 1.5: Revelations and Relations ... 1.6: On the Strong, Non-Serial-Killer Parts of the Show ... 1.7: First Big Shocker ... 1.8: Dexter's Discovery ... 1.9: Brian's Story ... Season 1 Finale: Satisfying

And see also Dexter: New Blood 1.1: Back with a Vengeance ... Dexter: New Blood 1.2: Dark Tendencies ... Dexter: New Blood 1.3: Fathers and Sons ... Dexter: New Blood 1.4: Harrison and Kurt ... Dexter New Blood: 1.5: No Satisfaction for Serial Killers ... Dexter: New Blood 1.6: Breaks and Arm Breaks ... Dexter: New Blood: 1.7: Dexter vs. Kurt ...Dexter: New Blood 1.8: The Hug in the Car ... Dexter: New Blood 1.9 One Down, One To Go ... Dexter: New Blood Finale: Superb, and I Didn't Like It All

And see also Dexter Season 8 Premiere: Mercury in Retrograde, Dexter Incandescent ... Dexter 8.2: The Gift ... Dexter 8.3: The Question and the Confession ... Dexter 8.4: The "Lab Rat" and Harry's Daughter ... Dexter 8.5: Just Like Family ... Dexter 8.6: The Protege ... Dexter 8.7: Two Different Codes? ... Dexter 8.8: "A Great Future" ... Dexter 8.9: The Psycho Son ... Dexter 8.10: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ... Dexter 8.11: "Not the Old Dexter" ... Dexter Series Finale: Solitude, Style, and a Modicum of Hope

And see also Dexter Season 7.1-3: Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 7.4: The Lesson in Speltzer's Smoke ... Dexter 7.5: Terminator Isaac ... Dexter 7.6: "Breaking and Entering" ... Dexter 7.7: Shakespearean Serial Killer Story ... Dexter 7.8: Love and Its Demands ... Dexter 7.9: Two Memorable Scenes and the Ascension of Isaac ... Dexter 7.11: The "Accident" ... Dexter Season 7 Finale: The Surviving Triangle

And see also Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals? ... Dexter 6.5 and 6.6: Decisive Sam ... Dexter 6.7: The State of Nebraska ... Dexter 6.8: Is Gellar Really Real? .... Dexter 6.9: And Geller Is ... ... Dexter's Take on Videogames in 6.10 ...Dexter and Debra:  Dexter 6.11 ... Dexter Season 6 Finale: Through the Eyes of a Different Love

And see also Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience ...Dexter 5.8 and Lumen ... Dexter 5.9: He's Getting Healthier ... Dexter 5.10: Monsters -Worse and Better ... Dexter 5.11: Sneak Preview with Spoilers  ... Dexter Season 5 Finale: Behind the Curtain

And see also Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ...Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ...4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations

And see also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ...Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review

Reviews of Season 2: Dexter's Back: A Preview and Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out of This? and The Plot Gets Tighter and Sharper and Dex, Doakes, and Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and All's ... Well

See also about Season 1: First Place to Dexter