"Tonight's the night. And it's going to happen again and again. It has to happen..." - Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) on his compulsion for justice
Dexter: The First Season DVD Review
By Casey Richards
As the Miami Police Department's blood spatter expert, Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall, Six Feet Under) helps solve some of the city's most gruesome murders. In his spare time, he commits murders, too. Unknown to his colleagues, Dexter is a serial killer who metes out justice when the law fails to do so, hunting down and killing child molesters, murders, and human traffickers. Based on the Jeff Lindsay thriller Darkly Dreaming Dexter , Dexter premiered on Showtime in 2006.
How did Dexter become such an expert on killers and killing? When he killed a neighborhood dog as a kid, his adoptive father, Miami P.D. Officer Harry Morgan (James Remar, Sex and the City) realized that his son lacked a certain amount of humanity...like emotions, feelings, and other helpful things like that. When it became obvious that Dexter was not just going through a phase-he simply kept killing stuff-Harry decided to teach his son how to kill for good rather than recreation. He also taught Dexter a code to follow-sort of a morality for killing. The code has served Dexter well since his stepfather died, once again leaving him an orphan.
Dexter only kills those who "deserve" to die. He uses his skills as a spatter expert to cover his trail and dispose of the bodies. It also helps that Miami's crime solving rate is a miserable 20%.
Though Dexter is an emotional blank inside, he tries to put on a good show for his coworkers. Officer Angel Batista (David Zayas, Oz), undergoing a painful divorce, respects his colleague and his opinions. Fellow spatter tech Vince Masuka (C.S. Lee), a sometimes tactless horndog, is often amazed by Dexter's abilities. Their boss, the embattled Lt. Maria Laguerta (Lauren Velez, Oz), even has a little crush on Dexter, winking at him on occasion. His biggest fan on the force, however, is his lovelorn sister, Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), who constantly defends her adopted brother. Not everyone is so supportive-Sergeant Doakes (Erik King, Oz) never wastes an opportunity to say that he thinks Dexter is up to something, vowing to get to the bottom of the matter.
Debra helps to humanize him-she has an unconditional love for Dexter that he can never return. Dexter's cover also includes a girlfriend, Rita Bennett (Julie Benz, Buffy the Vampire Slayer). He struck the jackpot with Rita. A victim of domestic abuse by her ex-husband, she is too skittish for intimacy, a development that is perfectly fine with Dexter. He gets the benefit of claiming to have a girlfriend without having to go through the motions of sex.
As season one begins, Dexter learns that he has competition in Miami-another serial killer, dubbed the Ice Truck Killer, begins targeting hookers. Dexter grows to admire the killer's immaculate style, his clean cuts, the total lack of blood, and the strange tableaux in which he leaves the various body parts of his victims. It soon becomes obvious that the killer knows Dexter is a fellow traveler. He leaves clues in Dexter's apartment, leaves photos from Dexter's childhood at crime scenes, and leaves a nasty surprise at another crime scene-a surprise that threatens to reveal Dexter's secret. As they play a game of cat-and-mouse, Dexter begins to remember pieces of his pre-adoption past. He doesn't remember it all, but what comes to him is pretty horrific.
The audience is let in on the killer's identity before the other characters are, but the series still manages to pull off a twist ending. This ending is one hundred percent earned and never feels phony. This could also describe the series itself. Atmospheric and moody, suspenseful and theatrical, the series will please fans of crime dramas and serial killer tales like The Silence of the Lambs and the HBO import Epitafios.
The twelve episodes that make up Dexter: The First Season are divided onto four discs. The discs are housed in two slim, clear plastic keepcases, both of which hold two discs. The fronts of the cases are adorned with the same publicity still of Hall. The backs of the cases include different publicity photos of Hall along with episode titles and numbers. The interiors of the cases include publicity photos of the entire cast along with episode titles, numbers, and brief synopses. The keepcases slide into a cardboard outer sleeve.
The DVD menus are simple and easy to navigate. Viewers can play all of the disc's episodes or choose them individually. The episodes are divided into chapters, but there are no scene selection menus.
