Dexter: New Blood: Episode 6 review: The perfect blend of drama, suspense, and black comedy

4/5

Story:

Angela discovers that Jim Lindsay’s real name is Dexter Morgan, Harrison drifts further away from Dexter as Kurt seemingly takes an interest in Harrison’s life. Whereas crime podcaster Molly could have bitten off more than she can chew after going after Kurt in an attempt to get a scoop for her podcast.

Review:

If the series were to suffer from a ‘mid-season blues’ and had a dip in quality, the showrunners could be forgiven as it has become a norm in several new TV series where a few episodes would suffer from a drop in standards. These episodes usually end up being filler episodes of sorts that are merely added to prolong the story. However, Dexter: New Blood suffers from none of it and has gone from strength to strength and has delivered its strongest episode yet.

The sixth episode is engrossing from start to finish and the only letdown is that it had to end and that the viewers will have to wait for another week till the next episode is released. The episode has perfected the formula in telling a riveting self-contained subplot whilst moving forward with the overall story. The seamless transition between scenes, the crisp screenplay, the careful edits that up the ante with suspense and intrigue, and the well placed black comedy in certain scenes are reminiscent of the original series.

The narrative is definitely moving towards a fully-fledged return of Dexter Morgan as the vigilante serial killer. However, there is enough evidence to suggest that he is not a slave to his primal urge to kill. He has evolved to an extent, which makes him more dangerous to people like the Caldwells. His scene with Molly and Kurt appears to suggest that he has indeed developed empathy - a trait that he never mastered during his younger days. Empathy was drilled into him like a law that should be abided by at all times by his adoptive father Harry Morgan.

Harrison’s first wrestling match at school ended with broken bones, for his opponent that is. For obvious reasons, Dexter is not too pleased with Kurt’s role in pushing his son over the edge. In that very brief moment, there was that unmistakable killer in Dexter’s eyes. There was almost a very public altercation between two serial killers in the middle of the high-school gym in front of a capacity crowd. Michael C Hall's performance in this scene as Dexter is quite simply flawless, The manner in which his expression subtly shifted from concerned father to a high-functioning sociopath in the blink of an eye is remarkable.

Elsewhere, Angela’s suspicion of Kurt leads her down new avenues, one that has the potential to turn the narrative on its head and one that will bring Dexter Morgan, the forensic expert, back from his sabbatical.

Verdict:

The series keeps getting better and better and it exceeds any expectations fans had about the limited series before its first episode.