I tend to get excited about anything new that’s coming to streaming platforms during the summer months, because it’s a nice reminder that at least someone in a decision-making position in today’s media remembers that seasonality still does play a role in the chances something has in being labeled successfully. That was a truth we seasoned ones knew in the glory days of cable, both basic and pay, and the fact that a whole bunch of audience otherwise committed during prime time hours was a jump ball helped create dozens of success stories, and not just the ones of my employers. And as the ability to measure and aggregate non-live viewing on all kinda of screens improved it created even more paths to victory.
One such example I was aware of was the original version of DEXTER, a Showtime original that would regularly show up at the top of our proportionate lift rankers as a show that may not have had a huge or competitive initial number but would grow its baseline exponentially over seven and eventually 35 days of delayed viewing. And it would regularly be cited in qualitative surveys and studies as a show that those that did watch absolutely loved, regardless of how urgently they would choose to do so. DEXTER was centered around as much of an antihero as any one of the focal points of our FX originals and it would inevitably provide provocative discussion as to how and why someone would root for a serial killer.
So I’m not the least bit surprised that Michael C. Hall is still portraying him nearly two decades after he began, now in his third official spinoffseries, this one appropriately called DEXTER: RESURRECTION, which dropped this weekend on Paramount Plus, now freed from what their team seems to perceive as the shackles of connectivity to the Showtime brand. Dexter is a reminder of what was and, to an extent, what is. When the first detailed news of this broke back in April THE MANUAL’s Shawn Laib was characteristically enthusiastic:
Dexter fans can rejoice at even more morbid, murderous adventures with Michael C. Hall in Dexter: Resurrection. The award-nominated TV star will reprise his titular role once again in the fourth confirmed series in the franchise. Hall was a surprise guest at Comic Con 2024, where it was announced that he would be donning Dexter’s khakis and flannel yet again all these years later.
The prequel series, Dexter: Original Sin, debuted in December 2024 to widespread fanfare. We know Dexter: Resurrection is a sequel series, so it will take place after the events of Dexter and Dexter: New Blood. It’s not a reboot or redo of the original show, so everything will fit into Dexter’s timeline in a way that allows audiences to see even more of Dexter’s life.
And VARIETY’s Emily Longeretta noted in her spoiler-alert recap of the RESURRECTION premiere episodes exactly how that’s happening amidst the omnipresence of justone small detail that its fan base knew was hanging out there like a huge matzo ball:
During “Dexter: New Blood” in 2022, the finale saw the serial killer bleeding out in the freezing cold after being shot by his son. At that time, showrunner Clyde Phillips confirmed that “Dexter is dead.” But apparently, he was just kidding!
“It’s really cold out there,” Hall told Variety at the time, hinting at how Dexter could have some how survived that gunshot wound. It turns out that’s exactly how Dexter survived. The series premiere of “Resurrection” begins (after a brief run-through of what happened in “New Blood”) with the titular character in the hospital after suffering “catastrophic blood loss.” Doctors have revived him and his voiceover is heard: “Ah, a beating heart. I’ll take it.”
The show then flashes forward to 10 weeks later, where he remains unresponsive in the hospital. At first, Dexter flashes to a white heaven-like vision where Arthur Mitchell (John Lithgow), the famed serial killer who died in the Season 4 finale of “Dexter,” appears. After Dexter asks if he’s dead, Arthur responds, “Not yet, but almost being killed by someone you’re fond of has its own particular sting, eh, Dexter?” The two continue to argue, and it’s clear that Arthur still very much haunts Dexter, even in the in-between. Before waking up, Dexter also sees other ghosts from his past: Miguel (Jimmy Smits), who he killed in the Season 3 finale of the original series; his father, Harry (James Remar); and finally, Sergeant Doakes (Erik King), who he killed in the Season 2 finale.
It is that sort of star power and connection that perhaps gives this a fighting chance of being a much-needed jolt of adrenaline for PP+. Laib added some additional tantalizers in his piece:
It was recently announced that Academy Award-nominated actress Uma Thurman will be playing a character named Charley. Thurman has started to experiment with TV roles after spending a lot of her early career in Quentin Tarantino’s movies (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill series). The show has confirmed a myriad of famous guest stars in the months leading up to the premiere. Peter Dinklage from Game of Thrones will be a regular on the series playing Leon Prater. Cameos from Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother), Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad), Steve Schirripa (The Sopranos), and Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family) round out a star-studded guest cast.
And when one considers exactly where and how that connection to the past was and is being forged, it’s all the more necessary to pull out those stops. Because much like the short-sighted and opportunistic sale of YELLOWSTONE’s library episodes to rival Peacock, the OG DEXTER has been killing it, so to speak, for Netflix. As Laib reminds, it may not have performed at quite the outsized level as did SUITS, but it ranked in the top 10 on the streamer for weeks after its arrival. (On the other hand, considering how the resurrection of the SUITS franchise via LA did for NBC this spring, maybe that relative underperformance could be a blessing in disguise).
So far, it appears that outsized support we saw in the day is being expressed in a more quantifiable way, as FORBES’ Tim Lammers reported on Friday:
As of this publication, the series has earned a 100% “fresh” rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics based on 21 reviews. The 100% perfect RT critics’ score marks a first for the Dexter franchise on Rotten Tomatoes. Broken down season by season on RT, Dexter Season 1 earned an 83% “fresh” RT critics score, followed by 96% for Season 2, 72% for Season 3, 88% for Season 4, 84% for Season 4, 84% for Season 5, 38% for Season 6, 79% for Season 7 and 35% for Season 8. Dexter: New Blood, meanwhile, had a 77% RT score for its sole season, while Dexter: Original Sin earned a 70% RT score for its first season. As this musing is being composed, that Tomatometer number is “down” to 90%–still five points ahead of SQUID GAME–and the fan-centric Popcornmeter is a more-than-encouraging 84%.
No, arbitrary opinions from tastemakers isn’t necessarily the kind of KPI that streaming management seems to place high priority upon–especially as the imminent change in top Paramount management seems finally on track to go down sometime before October. But knowing that there’s at least an indication that the franchise may finally be in a position to do something more current and directly for a platform that WILL have top priority is likely to matter. And now having watched that first RESURRECTION myself, they’ve at least invested someone as distant and detached an appreciator as moi to add it to my reminder list.
Like Dexter said, it’s a beating heart. We’ll take it.
Until next time…