Cheshire Cat Studios - Video Game and Movie Reviews

Dexter: Season 3 Review

Part 3 of a 4 part Dexter season review marathon.

By Kenny Farino

Four Part Review of Dexter Seasons 1-4

Dexter: Season 3 review

After I thought that "Dexter Season Two" was going to set the tone for the rest of the series, I admit that I was really worried when "Dexter Season Three" was coming around the corner. Were we never going to go back to antagonists like the Ice Truck Killer, and instead be knee-deep in sex? Well, by the time "Season Four" hits, we go back to the formula that seems to really work with Dexter. However, while "Season Three" was better than the previous season by leaps and bounds, it acts as a stepping stone, where the series is slowly but surely recovering back to its previous greatness. While it's not as good as Season Four, mainly due to a huge problem that bugs me to this day, Season Three is a huge step above Season Two, as it cuts out some of the television cliches that plagued its predecessor (See: gratuitous sex). But you're probably wondering what the merits are for Season Three, so get ready to find out!

Synopsis

After the events of Season Two, Dexter Morgan is back to his old ways after his close call with being caught in his deadly past-time. While he works for the Miami Metro Homicide division by day, he murders serial killers and other dregs of society by night. When he is on the hunt for Freebo, a drug dealer who turned lethal, he accidentally kills the wrong man, the brother of a powerful Miami attorney, Miguel Prado. As his life takes an unexpected turn, Dexter makes friends with Prado, a sensation that he has never known before. But will he be able to hide his secrets from his new friend and continue his deadly past-time?

Miguel and Dexter

Characters

Note: More minor characters like Masuka, Batista, and LaGuerta are still present, but not enough has changed with them between seasons to include in this review, as it would be redundant.

	Dexter Morgan Played by Michael C. Hall. Another kill, another day, after Dexter Morgan narrowly escapes being caught for his past murders, he takes a leap from the pan to the oven as he accidentally kills not a drug dealer he's after, but a man who happens to be the brother of one of Miami's top attorneys, Miguel Prado. To save himself, he befriends Prado and covers his tracks, but as the friendship takes unexpected turns, he may not be out of the boiling water yet.
	Rita Bennett Played by Julie Benz. After her relationship with Dexter was rescued in Season Two, Season Three begins with a new dilemma for Darkly Dreaming Dexter: she's pregnant. Now set to get married, Dexter soon adjusts to a lifestyle where he fits both his new family, and his murderous tendencies.
	Debra Morgan Played by Jennifer Carpenter. Returning this season as a much stronger character and more competent officer, Debra Morgan helps the Miami Metro Homicide division seek out the newest serial killer in town, the Skinner. She also has a new partner, Joey Quinn, but when she is asked to investigate him by I.A., and when she a relationship with his C.I., Anton Briggs, will their new partnership get complicated?
	Harry Morgan Played by James Remar. Harry Morgan returns this season not as flashbacks, but as mini-hallucinations experienced by Dexter. Harry's purpose this time is to act as Dexter's inner-voice, guiding him to make decisions he may not want to make. Sometimes he acts as Dexter's conscience, but other times he acts as the mouthpiece for his "Dark Passenger," the drive to kill.
	Joey Quinn Played by Desmond Harrington. After last season, Joey Quinn has come into the force as the new guy. He is Debra's new partner, and he is a smooth operator with the suspects. However, when I.A. asks Debra to help them investigate him, how sure can she be about her new partner?
	Miguel Prado Played by Jimmy Smits. After Dexter's accidentally lethal run-in with his brother while looking into killing a murderous drug dealer, one of the top attorneys in Miami seeks justice. But when Dexter covers the tracks by pinning the murder on the drug dealer, Miguel Prado soon befriends our favorite psychopath. But when he gets too close to Dexter, will he get burned if he finds out his dark secret?
	The Skinner The new antagonist of Season Three, his motives for skinning patches of flesh off of his live victims are unknown. Although Dexter is unaware of his existence, the end of the season sees him becoming a very real threat to our favorite murderer.

The Good

Note: Since other aspects like Music or Technical Details are identical to the other two seasons, and the characterization is also very strong, only new critiques will be included in this review. With that said, what are the strengths of Season Three?

1. Writing

First off, the writers take the series in an interesting, new direction that wasn't deeply explored in seasons one or two, particularly that Dexter interacts with somebody he actually calls a "best friend." While Batista and Masuka were both considered 'friends,' Dexter never really had interest in interacting with them, so his new "friendship" with Miguel Prado is a new twist. To emphasize what I mean, Dexter is forced into a friendship with Prado because when he goes to kill the drug dealer, Freebo, somebody else is there with a similar goal in mind: Miguel's brother. In an act of self-defense, Dexter kills him instead, so he has to keep a powerful attorney off of his tail by befriending him and trying to figure out how to get out of a potentially life-ending situation. In other words, the writers show us a side of Dexter, an outsider to society, previously unexplored without forcing it, because he has to make a friend out of necessity. While the overall outcome of this friendship didn't surprise me (I'm not going to spoil it, worry not), it was still interesting, as an audience member, to watch because it was an almost weird chemistry between them that worked out really well. Personally, I felt that this was a great direction for Season Three because it takes Dexter out of his zone of comfort without making the overall feel and atmosphere of the series disappear entirely.

Miguel and Dexter
...nohomo.

Speaking of good writing, something that I found to be another strength for Season Three is the unpredictability of the situations as the series progresses, so the suspense is made more effective when the audience can't predict what's going on. When I showed my room mate the entire series of Dexter, for example, he was able to predict what was going to happen as the first two seasons progressed. When Season Three came along, however, the plot lines were woven together so effectively that he was genuinely stumped on some things, like the identity of the newest killer, The Skinner. If you make everything so apparent and obvious in a suspense show, you're going to lose the edge you once had if you continue on this trend, so thankfully Season Three learned from that. Where you could easily predict that Lila was going to be an evil bitch in Season Two, for example, the writers were more effective in making the plot of Season Three more unpredictable, like the identity of the true antagonists, and, thus, more suspenseful.

Debra Morgan and Anton Briggs
Deb and Anton Briggs

However, although the story receives much praise this season, there are also factors that make it weaker than it should be, which is a huge shame because Season Three had potential of being a hit.

The Bad

1. Story

While the story is well-written, and the drama is made even more intense then before, there are some plotholes that are never answered as the season goes on. For example, nothing is ever mentioned about a pedophile that has 'interest' in Aster when he 'disappears'; after Dexter kills him for eyeballing his surrogate daughter, nobody reports the pedophile missing, nobody notices a weird smell coming from his house, and Dexter never has to worry about him ever again. I know it is for the sake of convenience that the particular plot line is forgotten as soon as Dexter's paternal instincts were shown to the audience, but there are some plotholes that, while unimportant to the plot in the long run, are never answered.

Dexter

However, the most unforgivable flaw about Season Three that stop it short of being fantastic is going to be a SPOILER, so if you do not want to find out what happens, then you need to skip it. However, since we're already at Season Five on television, and Europe is on Season Four, people most likely already know about it, but that doesn't justify not putting on a spoilers label. With that said, you have been warned.

After the season starts taking a very interesting twist in which Miguel Prado takes Dexter's teachings and uses them to murder his rival attorney Ellen Wolf, Dexter has no choice but to put his friend down since he violated The Code of Harry and took an innocent life. The problem with this, however, is that Prado also got the Skinner to try and take care of Dex so he can be out of the way for the homicidal attorney to continue offing his opposition without getting caught. This would have been the makings of an EPIC season finale, but the way they ultimately executed it was all wrong.

Dexter kills Miguel

a) They kill Miguel Prado in the episode before the season finale: I understand that the season had more unresolved stories to take care of that needed to be in the finale, but to have, essentially, the main antagonist of the season killed before the final episode is just inexcusable, especially when they have the final confrontation be between the Skinner, who was a side-story until Miguel got him involved. You're honestly telling me that a character who was the dominating force of tension in the whole fucking season is killed off in the second-to-last episode, and that a villain who wasn't even a blip on Dexter's radar until a few episodes near the end is all that stands in the way between him and a happy ending? BULLSHIT. They should have given Prado a more justified ending in the finale, just as they gave the Ice Truck Killer, Lila, and the Trinity Killer justified endings in their respective seasons.

Dexter Kills Skinner
BULLSHIT.

Not only this, but for fuck's sake, offing Miguel an episode too early also makes the finale anti-fucking-climactic. The final confrontation between Dexter and the Skinner wasn't even that grand, and the rest of the episode seems like there is no more tension to build, instead neatly wrapping up the story after Miguel's death, and then just dragging it out for another hour. The Season Three ending was disappointing as hell, and it was a shitty way to end an otherwise great season.

**END OF SPOILERS**

Verdict

While I gave Dexter Season Two a lower 3 because of the general weaknesses I felt that the season had, I have to confess that I can't feel that just about giving Season Three any higher because although the suspense was actually great, and everything leading up to the finale made this a fabulous season, the finale is exactly the reason why I have to mark it down. If you didn't read the spoiler rant, it is essentially extremely anti-climactic, and there is no real need for it to exist. Therefore, while I am not going to give this season a lower grade than Season Two, "Dexter Season Three" receives:

3.5/5

However, tune in next time for the final Dexter season review in our little marathon here when we look over possibly the best one yet! Keep in mind that while I'd like to review Season Five, I'm not about to order Showtime for one show. Seeya next time!

Dexter collage