Dexter Season 3 Will Be Killer
New Season of Dexter this September
I recently marathoned both seasons of Dexter this month, what a treat. It is perhaps the smartest, most well produced show on television right now, and I am excited as ever for season three and so should you.
The best thing about this show is the intimate character development, particularly of the main character, Dexter himself. The basic premise is that Dexter, a blood lab technician at the local police department, is also a serial killer who only kills murderers that the system couldn’t put behind bars. Dexter is a miracle of efficiency and works with absolute precision. His number rule is “Don’t get caught”, so no other characters in the show know about his dark condition, they think he is just a regular lab geek. The viewer is the only one who gets to see him lead his alternative life as a vigil ante killer and this creates a lot of intimacy with his character.
It is also the type of show that each episode is part of the larger whole, unlike other detective shows where the episodes are much more self contained. The entire season makes an overall statement and each episode plays a vital role in making that statement. And this leads me to why season three promises to be a monster season.
If you are familiar with Nietzsche’s Three Metamorphoses or any standard mythology Dexter follows it quite expertly. Dexter learned about how to kill and not get caught from his adopted father, Harry. The code that Harry teaches him are strict rules that help him to survive. This mirrors Nietzsche’s first metamorphosis of the camel, that carries a heavy load on his back without question to its destination. It is like being born into a world and needing to learn its rules. The entire first season deals with this for Dexter.
The second metamorphosis begins when the load on the camel’s back becomes too much of a burden and it throws off the load becoming a fierce and free lion who roams with speed and destruction in the desert. By the end of season one, the load of Harry’s code becomes to great and Dexter realizes he needs to try a new set of rules. Season 2 is all about Dexter getting into deep trouble when he casts off his old rules, and starts improvising, like a lion.
At the end of season two Dexter realizes that he still needs the code of Harry to keep him out of trouble, but he no longer needs to be totally ruled by them. This mirrors the third metamorphosis, which occurs when the lion enters the dark cave and slays (and drinks the blood of) the Thou Shalt Dragon to become a baby. What Neitchze’s point here is that only when you have fully embraced both what you were born into and what you desire to create yourself do you become truly human, no longer an animal. Well in season three Dexter has arrived as a baby and will be getting quite creative with his behavior, becoming even more powerful, that I am sure.
Go ahead and watch season one and two at SurfTheChannel.com or buy the DVDs on Amazon and prepare yourself for season three that premiers on Sunday, September 28th at 9pm, and see one of TV’s most interesting characters kick some ass.