ACC Countdown - Series Tip: "Dexter"

This week is Amsterdam Comic Con Countdown Week and one of the guests attending is Julie Benz.

You might know her from her role as Dharma in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel”. She also plays Mayor Amanda Rosewater in SyFy’s “Defiance” and in other series like “Hawaii Five-O”, “No Ordinary Family” and “Desperate Housewives”. But she is mostly known as Rita Bennet in “Dexter”. “Dexter” is a show that has been on my “To Watch” list for a long time and a few weeks ago I finally started watching it (and I like it, I like it a lot!). So let’s talk some Dexter and also check out our vlog above.

“Dexter” revolves around Dexter Morgan, a forensics expert at Miami Metro Police. He specializes in blood pattern analytics. His (step) sister Debra Morgan also works at the Police Department. Dexter was adopted into the Morgan Family at the age of three, so he and Debra grew up together and they are very close. He also has a girlfriend Rita, she has two children (Astor and Cody) and her husband is in jail (for physically abusing her). So far all seems pretty normal, right? Wrong! Dexter leads a double life and at night he is a vigilante serial killer. He hunts down and kills criminals who got away with their crime. He works with a code. First rule is to not get caught and the second is that he has to know for sure that his victims killed someone. He learned this code from his adoptive father Harry Morgan, a former police officer. When Dexter is a young boy Harry discovers that Dexter has problems with emotionally connecting to people and has an irrepressible urge to kill.  He teaches Dexter to channel these urges and to use them for “good” things (killing other murderers). He also teaches the emotionally numb Dexter to act “normal” in everyday life. And so he does, no one (but Harry) knows about Dexter’s double life and when Harry dies Dexter tries to live by his code. Because of his work at the forensics department, Dexter knows how to cover up his tracks.

There are a lot of great actors/actresses in the show, starting with Dexter himself. He is portrayed by Michael C. Hall in a truly genius way. The role of Debra Morgan is played by Jennifer Carpenter. Debra is a foul mouthed tomboy and she is very passionate about her job. She is one of my favorite characters. I also love David Zayas in the role of Dexter’s colleague Angel Batista (I think David is a great actor and I also loved him in “OZ”) and Julie Benz as Rita. Rita is a very loveable character and she is perfectly portrayed by Julie Benz. I like the way her role evolves throughout the first seasons. Furthermore I like James Remar (As Harry Morgan), Laura Luna Vélez (as Dexter’s boss Lt. LaGuerta) and Jimmy Smits (and ADA Miguel Prado).

If you like shows like CSI, you will probably like Dexter. But what I like most about Dexter is the dose of dark humor that is in it. 

“Dexter” was aired for 8 seasons between 2006 and 2013 and has a total of 96 episodes.

IMdB: 8.8

Me: 9