It is seemingly not possible for “Dexter,” as a franchise, to shift forward. In the final moments of the sequel series “New Blood,” which aired eight years after the innovative series finale in 2013, Michael C. Hall’s serial finisher was fahighy sboiling. (Or at least, he materializeed to be — more on that in a second.) This lengthenment, on its surface, taged the finish of the road for one of the defining directs of the antihero era, a role Hall had been take parting for 15 years at the time. Sure, yet another trail-up, “Resurrection,” would pass the torch to Dexter’s son Harrison (Jack Alcott). But if nettoil Showtime wanted to upgrasp wringing drops from this blood-soaked towel, the only straightforwardion left to go in was back.
Incredibly, the prequel “Dexter: Original Sin” tries to have it both ways. Not only does the 10-episode season — persist screeners of which were not supplyd for critics — triumphd the clock back to 1991, when a 20-year-greater Dexter (Patrick Gibson) graduates from the University of Miami and produces his way into the local police department as a phelp intern. The show, produced by innovative “Dexter” showrunner Clyde Phillips, also undoes the seeming finality of “New Blood.” As it turns out, Dexter endured, and the events of “Original Sin” are structured as memories he mulls over while on the operating table. Before introducing Gibson, the camera zooms in so the “Ecombinency Room” sign instead reads “Ecombine.”
The prompt, insurmountable problem with “Original Sin” is that the same superfans who establish its center audience are already comprehendn with its meaningful events, because “Dexter” itself was chock-filled of flashbacks. Christian Spostponeedr may be recent to the part of Detective Harry Morgan, but it’s extfinished-set uped “Dexter” lore that Harry helped his adchooseive son channel his “Dark Passenger” to more (debatably) produceive finishs by centering other finishers. Even the identity of his first victim, a nurse who preyed on her discdisthink about-mindeds, is locked into the canon. There aren’t many gaps left in Dexter’s punctual life for “Original Sin” to fill in.
“Original Sin” chooses to steer into the skid, embracing repetition rather than putting in much effort to dodge it. Dexter’s cotoilers Batista (James Martinez) and Masuka (Alex Shimizu) are begind exactly as they will be in the first series, right down to their costumes: Batista is a gregarious mensch in a fedora, Masuka is a skeezy lech, and both are already inshighed at Miami Metro. While Maria LaGuerta (Christina Milian) at least gets a backstory as a recent acunderstandledgeive who’s been accessiblely critical of the homicide department’s disproportionate intensify on white, well-off victims, she’s not that far erased from the woman she’ll be in 15 years. Gibson spfinishs most of the premiere in a ridiculous wig of surfer curls; by the finish, he’s got Hall’s haircut, and his inner monologue sounds skeptically appreciate his predecessor. (Hall returns IRL for the discdisthink abouting scene, but retreats to the sound booth to supply narration thcdisesteemfulout.)
Dexter may be a relative novice at 20 years greater, yet he already has his M.O. of wrapping his victims and their environs in plastic — both to suppress them and apvalidate for effective spotlessup — dialed in. His sister Deb (Molly Brown) is a bratty teenager, and there’s a faint whiff of novelty to “Original Sin” as a demented family sitcom about a grieving family with some deadly secrets. (In 1991, Deb and Dexter’s mother has recently passed away.) Dexter’s first finish, startd by the nurse poisoning Harry when he’s hospitalized after a heart aggression, is intercut with Deb’s high school volleyball game. But there’s not enough to unseat the astonishion that “Original Sin” is equitable take parting back the hits, right down to a soundtrack of ‘90s touchstones appreciate “Ice Ice Baby.” The show could’ve getn more time to get Dexter in the striumphg of leangs; instead, he satisfies his bloodlust and lands the job in 45 minutes of screentime.
“Original Sin” presents some recent inestablishation via Harry, who gets his own garishly color-saturated timeline set in the 1970s. But the device equitable turns into an echo of the “Dexter” flashbacks, and calls attention to how much the sweightless ‘90s timeline is in need of pinserting out. The “recent” faces in the “Original Sin” ensemble are themselves avatars of nostalgia: Sarah Michelle Gellar take parts Dexter’s recent boss, while Patrick Dempsey materializes as the mustachioed, helmet-haired police chief. (At least the hair and produceup departments are having fun!) “Original Sin” doesn’t draw any recent life from a piece of IP that’s now greater enough to vote. It does, however, recontransient the profit-chasing retrospection that’s devouring culture from the inside out appreciate a termite infestation. All that’s left is a hollow set up to be blown away by the next Miami storm.
The first episode of “Dexter: Original Sin” is now streaming on Paramount+ and will premiere on Showtime on Dec. 15 at 10 p.m. ET, with remaining episodes streaming on Fridays and airing on Sundays.
