Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Dexter season 1 ::
by William the Bloody
Dexter Morgan is a 30-something forensic scientist for the Miami police department who specializes in blood and blood spatter. He is exceptionally good at his job. He is efficient and precise. He has his own apartment, which he keeps neat and tidy. He has a steady girlfriend whom he has been seeing for about six months. She's trying to get a divorce from her in-and-out of prison junkie husband who used to beat her up. She's pretty traumatized by that, so she and Dexter are taking it slow. Most guys would be wary of a woman as emotionally damaged as Rita who also has two kids and is too shaky to have sex even after six months, but Dexter understands. To Rita, she has found the perfect boyfriend. To everyone else, Dexter seems like a pleasant enough guy who gets his work done and does nice things like bring donuts for everyone at work. They like him. He's normal. He's also a serial killer.
When Dexter was a small child, his parents were killed, and the first police officer on the scene took a shine to him. Officer Harry Morgan took Dexter into his home and raised him alongside his daughter as his own. It took a few years, but the formal adoption papers went through. It was around that time that the neighbour's dog went missing. Officer Morgan found the dog's grave and it wasn't alone in there. He wasn't stupid. An eight year old who kills animals? He knew where this could go. Officer Morgan got Dexter to open up to him. Dexter couldn't remember his parent's deaths at all. His memory was a blank until being rescued by his new dad, Officer Morgan, but ever since that day he has felt empty inside. Like he can't feel anything. Dexter's not even ten and he's a sociopath. Officer Morgan cares about his new son, and doesn't want him to wind up on the electric chair, so he tells him that if he ever feels these urges to let him know and they'll deal with it together. Morgan takes Dexter hunting as a substitute for neighbourhood pets, but as a teenager, Dexter's urges grow to be tempted towards human prey. Morgan teaches Dexter about emotions and normal human reactions, like smiling for photos, putting on a pleasant face even if you don't really feel it, and most importantly, not to stick out. Dexter needed to blend in and be just like everyone else. As a teenager with the strong urge to kill, Morgan knew it would be only a matter of time before Dexter actually acted, so Morgan did the only thing he could think to do. He trained him on how to kill someone and get away with it. How to sneak up on someone undetected. How not to leave evidence behind. How to stash s body. And most importantly, to only kill people who deserved it and to be absolutely sure you were right. There are bad people out there who kill others and beat the system. They get off on a technicality. But Dexter, someone like him doesn't need a warrant or due process before carrying out a death sentence. To Officer Harry Morgan, if his son was going to be a killer, he may as well be one who did some good.
The Good: Where to start? How about... nearly everything? I'm a guy who likes his serial killers, and this series really delivered me a serial killer I could like. They put together Dexter's sociopathic personality well, and I really dig his narration of the show. Dexter's perspective on relationships is definitely unique and intriguing. The supporting cast of characters which surrounds Dexter is a great group, too. Everyone really likes Dexter in varying degrees of affection... except for that one guy. There's one detective at the Miami police force, one only, who gets the creeps from him. He's a big, bald black guy, and his interactions with Dexter are hilarious. "I'm onto you, you scary motherfucker!" But he has nothing besides a gut reaction, so it's pretty cool. My above series description is more or less the background set up for the show. There is so much cool stuff that goes on it would be impossible to sum up every little thing, but one major ongoing plot point is another serial killer on the show whose identity is unknown. He drains the blood out of hookers and dismembers their bodies and displays them "artistically." Dexter and this other killer have this little sort of curious relationship regarding each other which is the pure definition of good television. The tiny wink to American Psycho made me giggle.
The Bad: There were one or two moments when I felt that Dexter's "I'm a feel nothing sociopath" personality wasn't as "feel nothingly" depicted as I thought is should have been. That could just be me. Also, the grand finale of the season felt more than a little far reaching. It left many HUGE questions regarding how such a thing could even be possible from so many angles, but it's possible that these issues will be dealt with at some point in the future.
All in all, I greatly enjoyed season 1 of Dexter and would urge you to see it in its full, uncut format rather than whatever edited version they'll be playing on network TV, and rent it. There are breasts and lots of blood, and trust me, you wouldn't want to miss a minute of it. Not since Dead Like Me has a television show made death so darkly fun and funny for me. If a supremely dark comedy about a serial killer sounds like it's up your alley, you won't find any better than this.
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