Paramount+ Just Quietly Rebooted the Most Divisive Serial Killer Show of the Century

It’s impossible to be a fan of Dexter without having a love-hate relationship with the show.

At its best, Dexter is pulpy, peak TV done to perfection — the story of a man with an insatiable desire to kill, who channels that into vigilante justice as a release. The first few seasons are some of the best storytelling that television has to offer, with subtle acting, a strong visual motif, and an award-winning performance by Michael C. Hall. But immediately after the incredible high of Season 4 (anchored by John Lithgow’s haunting turn as The Trinity Killer), the quality of Dexter fell off a cliff, leading to some of the worst television in history until the original series ended with Season 8 in 2013.

That’s why, when the series returned in 2021 for Dexter: New Blood, fans were cautiously optimistic. After all, the show’s legacy had already been so thoroughly tarnished, another season could only make things better, right? The answer was (somewhat surprisingly) yes. New Blood moved the story from Miami to the frigid snows of upstate New York, while introducing a worthy new villain (played by Clancy Brown) and Dexter’s adult son, Harrison (Jack Alcott), who was struggling with murderous desires of his own. New Blood also promised a worthy conclusion to the story, and made good on that vow by killing Dexter in its final episode — which is why the news of Dexter: Resurrection once again has fans feeling conflicted.

Now that Resurrection has arrived (and I’ve watched the first four episodes provided to critics for review), I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Resurrection is fun and pulpy in the way Dexter should be, while offering a few clever twists on the original formula. The bad news is that nothing this new season is doing (so far) is enough to validate the way it undermines the extremely good sendoff that was New Blood.

So, Dexter Morgan is alive. The reasons why don’t really matter, though we’re told it has something to do with the cold temperature slowing down his heart rate and minimizing blood loss. Battered and bruised, our hero sneaks out of the hospital and heads to New York City once he hears about a gruesome murder on the news and realizes his son is the culprit. But while Dexter’s original plan is to protect his kid, he quickly gets sidetracked by his passion for murdering other villains. This leads our hero to a secret society of killers, which gives Dexter a fresh slate of targets but also a chance to open up about his condition like never before.

Moving Dexter to the big city works about as well as relocating him to upstate New York, which is to say, it works very well. It’s fun to watch Michael C. Hall make his way through the streets of Manhattan — and discover the painful reality of trying to take public transportation between the outer boroughs. The supporting cast also expands to include some noteworthy new characters, including an outgoing Uber driver who takes Dexter under his wing (played marvelously by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) and an NYPD detective (Kadia Saraf) with an eye for detail and her own personality quirks.

The most exciting addition, however, is the murderer’s row of serial killers who make up the secret society Dexter manages to join. Each member is played by an instantly recognizable actor: Neil Patrick Harris is a tattoo-obsessed psychopath. Eric Stonestreet is the unnervingly neighborly “ponytail killer.” Krysten Ritter is a murderous wine snob — and a potential new love interest for Dexter. At the center of the group is Leon Prater (Peter Dinklage), a wealthy venture capitalist with a fascination for serial killers, though he doesn’t appear to be one himself.

While these parts are relatively small (at least within the show’s first four episodes), Resurrection does a good job of quickly establishing unique personalities for each new killer. And while this celebrity overload sometimes feels like a desperate attempt to drum up interest in a crowded TV landscape, the casting feels smart and methodical, but never forced. Even David Dastmalchian, who speaks perhaps one single word in the show’s first four episodes, feels perfectly cast as a creepy, silent serial killer.

Finally, there’s Dexter’s son Harrison (Jack Alcott), who’s now working at a hotel and killing the occasional evil customer to feed his unholy desires. Harrison’s story is what drives the plot early on, but it quickly becomes second fiddle to Dexter’s NYC adventures. A braver TV show would have made Harrison its star and even handed over narration duties to the character. Dexter: Resurrection is not that show, instead opting for what feels safe and familiar once again. This may change as the season progresses, but it seems extremely unlikely that Hall’s extremely imperfect father will ever fully pass the torch to his equally flawed son. (The gerontocracy continues to thrive, even on Paramount+.)

Gripes and criticisms aside, Resurrection is fun, entertaining, and well-done. For a season of Dexter, that’s not a given, so perhaps it should be enough to earn rave reviews. But in the wake of New Blood and what felt, at the time, like a definitive and satisfying ending, Resurrection isn’t doing enough to validate its existence. Maybe the remaining episodes will change my mind, but for now, the love-hate relationship continues.

The first two episodes of Dexter: Resurrection are streaming now on Paramount+. New episodes release Fridays.