TV Series Review: DEXTER – Season 3 (2008)

DEXTER’s been a show that’s been evolving since Season 1. The character has grown, and even the format of the show follows a lesson and moral per episode that the sociopathic character learns and utilizes in his life over time. Season 3 is no different as it’s the most significant when it comes to the changes in Dexter’s life.

The last 2 seasons saw him deal with his origins. Being the son of a brutally murdered mother, that he experienced firsthand and repressed from age 3, along with a brother who was a serial killer just like him. After killing his own brother, and struggling with identity issues and questioning everything his adopted father taught him, Dexter had an affair that jeopardized his relationship with Rita. And after having a cop colleague finding out the truth about him, and then basically having the entire city and police be on a manhunt to find him, Dexter is finally at peace. Or so he thinks.

Season 3 sees him as trying to become an independent person from his father, after finding out all he things his father kept from him. The Season plays out almost like a subtle rebellion of a child from their parents. Dexter finds a friend, and lets him get way too close to himself, just to defy his father’s claims that he could never have a friend who would accept him for who he truly was, a murderer.

The new addition to the cast this season is the always great Jimmy Smits. Smits comes in as the Asistant District Attorney who gets involved right away as his brother gets killed accidentally by Dexter in the first episode. This kick starts a chain of events where Dexter thinks he’s found his soulmate and can teach him everything about his serial killing life, like his father did to him.

One of the best things about DEXTER is how the father-son relationship is portrayed between Dexter and his dead father, through hallucinatory exchanges between Dexter and Dad. It’s also one of the things that makes you realize just how psychotic Dexter really is, essentially talking to his dead father in his own head.

The relationship angle also plays out this Season as Dexter starts to become more of the family man and more of a human really. It’s always funny to watch him go through a family event with kids, while hours away he’s planning on killing someone, brutally.

Season 3 isn’t nail bitingly intense like Season 2, however it deals with more of Dexter internal issues. How he’s able to balance the killer with a guy who’s trying to be normal. Dexter’s friendship with Smits’ character shows how he truly wants to be accepted into society as a normal person. He even shows some emotion this season.

DEXTER continues to be a contradictory concept, as we, the audience, are left rooting for the sociopathic killer, and always wanting him to get away with murder… literally.

Get Season 3 on Blu ray