Dexter - The First Five





Season One promo image

 

I have FINALLY seen Dexter Season Five thus, I have now watched all five seasons of Dexter thus far. Season Six debuts October 2, 2011. When people ask me what the show is about, I say in a nutshell,  the show is about a serial killer--who kills serial killers.

For the record-

Dexter is an American television drama series that centers on Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer.

Dexter structures his killing around "Harry's code", a body of ethics and procedures devised by his adoptive father Harry Morgan (who was a Miami cop) to make sure Dexter never gets caught and to ensure that Dexter kills only morally wrong people.

The show debuted on October 1, 2006, on Showtime.-Wikipedia

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Dexter's main enemy in Season One is "The Ice Truck Killer", a serial killer of prostitutes who eludes the Miami Metro Police Department. The killer leaves items at the crime scene that have personal relevance to Dexter.

Image from the Season One storyline

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In Season Two, the bodies of Dexter's victims are uncovered and an investigation is launched in Dexter's own department to find the killer, dubbed the "Bay Harbor Butcher". Keith Carradine appears as Special Agent Frank Lundy (pictured below), an FBI agent who heads the "Bay Harbor Butcher" investigation.

Keith Carradine as Agent Lundy

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In Season Three, Dexter kills a man in self defense and initiates a friendship with the man's brother, Assistant District Attorney Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits, pictutred below) that deters into an unsuspecting friendship.



Jimmy Smits and Michael C. Hall in a Season Three episode



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In Season Four, Dexter went on to become a family man, and has moved to the suburbs, where he struggles to reconcile his new life with his killing urges. Special Agent Frank Lundy returns (Keith Carradine reprising his role from Season Two) to hunt down the "Trinity Killer" (John Lithgow, pictured below) who he believes always murders three people in a very specific sequence: a young woman in a bathtub, an older mother of two falling to her death, and a father of two bludgeoned to death.

John Lithgow in a Season Four episode

Season Four promo image

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In Season Five, the season focuses on how Dexter deals with his recent loss, coming to terms with it. After Dexter kills his next targeted serial killer & discovers, the killer's next victim Lumen Pierce (played by Julia Stiles, pictured below), whom he has in captivity.

Julia Stiles and Michael C. Hall in a Season Five episode

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Season Six Guest Stars will be Colin Hanks and Mos Def and Edward James Olmos

Edward James Olmos

Edward James Olmos will play a brilliant, charismatic professor of religious studies.

Colin Hanks and Mos Def

Colin Hanks will play Travis, Dexter’s main nemesis and a highly intelligent ancient artifacts expert who is linked to a series of grisly murders in Miami.

Mos Def will play a hardened ex-con who claims to have found religion yet seems to continually find himself surrounded by violence. You can see an image  from Season Six premiering October 2, 2011 below.

Michael C. Hall and Mos Def in a Season Six episode

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Below is the Cool Black Mad Killer Commentary on each season where I will try to explain how I felt about each season without giving too much away. Thus my commentary might seem brief. At the end I will provide the Cool Black Killer Countdown of what was the best seasons.

Dexter's main enemy in Season One is "The Ice Truck Killer", a serial killer of prostitutes who eludes the Miami Metro Police Department. The killer leaves items at the crime scene that have personal relevance to Dexter.

Cool Black's Killer Commentary: This season is not only great because it introduced the series, but it contains a great adversary for Dexter. It is also when Dexter is at his most inhuman and detached. He kind of "grows" throughout the rest of the series.

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In Season Two, the bodies of Dexter's victims are uncovered and an investigation is launched in Dexter's own department to find the killer, dubbed the "Bay Harbor Butcher". Keith Carradine appears as Special Agent Frank Lundy , an FBI agent who heads the "Bay Harbor Butcher" investigation.

Cool Black's Killer Commentary: While Special Agent Lundy was Dexter's adversary as he  heads the "Bay Harbor Butcher" investigation, the real worthy adversay for Dexter was HIMSELF when "the bodies of Dexter's victims are uncovered and an investigation is launched in Dexter's own department to find the killer".



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In Season Three, Dexter kills a man in self defense and initiates a friendship with the man's brother, Assistant District Attorney Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits) that deters into an unsuspecting friendship.

Cool Black's Killer Commentary: While Jimmy Smits was superb, after two fantastic seasons this season was a let down. Overall its worth watching, mostly because of Smits, but nothing to write home about.



 

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In Season Four, Dexter went on to become a family man, and has moved to the suburbs, where he struggles to reconcile his new life with his killing urges. Special Agent Frank Lundy returns (Keith Carradine reprising his role from Season Two) to hunt down the "Trinity Killer" (John Lithgow).

Cool Black's Killer Commentary: After a sub par Season 3, Season 4 really rocked! John Lithgow was super creepy and outstanding.

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In Season Five, the season focuses on how Dexter deals with his recent loss, coming to terms with it. After Dexter kills his next targeted serial killer & discovers, the killer's next victim Lumen Pierce (played by Julia Stiles), whom he has in captivity.

Cool Black's Killer Commentary: Because of the aforementioned loss, Dexter this season had to be different and accomplished that with the introduction of the Lumen character also superbly played by Julia Stiles. A really good season.

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Here are what I thought was the best seasons of Dexter's first five seasons worst to best.

5. Season Three

4. Season Five

3. Season Four

2. Season Two

1. Season One

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