Les Miserables in Miami

"Don't Get Caught!"










The tantalizing passion play continues and it's starting to feel like a chapter out of Victor Hugo's classic, Les Miserables. Our hero Dexter (Jean Valjean) dispatcher of evil doers and all around nice guy, pursued relentlessly by the obsessive cop Doakes (Javert) who won't rest until Dexter is brought low. It's a lovely, blood drenched, beautifully choreographed dance and guess what fellow Dexter-Stalkers?....we only have three more weeks of this tango before the season ends. I could weep.

In this week's episode, "There's Something About Harry", Dexter the dragon slayer (avert your eyes spoiler haters) miraculously escapes discovery when the feds discover his stolen blood sample treasure box in Doake's car. Thus Doakes becomes the prime suspect before he can finger his nemesis and Dexter is appointed the chief forensic investigator of his own victim's blood splotches. It was a sweet twist, and I did not see it coming.

OK Dexter-ites...it's time for the first ever Flaming Nose official Dexter Poll. Please select one of the following moments from this week's episode as your favorite. You may leave your vote in the comment section:

1. The brief glimpse of Agent Lundy's pale, yet surprisingly firm middle aged butt.
2. Doakes and the hand-cuffed Dexter thrashing about in the Everglades. Gator bait? Not in this episode. Darn.
3. Lila's inappropriate (and yes Irish accented) goat joke.
4. The teenager Dexter's field trip with Harry to see someone flash fried in old Smokey. (This is Florida, and yes they still do have "the chair")
5. Other?
   

I do finally have one tiny complaint this week. Dexter's tangled love life is getting a little tedious. Why must he choose between sugary Cinderella Rita and her banana pancakes and Lila the whippet thin anti-Christ? Why can't he find a nice, quirky, somewhat damaged girl like his sister Deb? Not that I'm suggesting that he take up with his sister, that would be weird. How about someone a little off beat and edgy? Someone drop dead gorgeous with a corrected harelip, a large collection of sci-fi movies and a cat. Just a thought for next season...now that we know (hip hip hooray!) that there will be a third season for our beloved Dexter and his merry band of Miami misfits.

Diving into the Dark Side of Dexter

(We have more Dexter here! Be sure to check out our latest posts! New visitors to The Flaming Nose who may have come here from the Showtime link-- and great to see you here! -- can find our whole Dexter collection by checking out our "Labels" area on the lower right hand side of the page and clicking on "Dexter." Be sure to check them all out and please leave comments! Thanks for visiting!)


The second season of Dexter has evolved in delightful ways that we never would have anticipated. The looming May-December love affair between Debra and Agent Lundy is mesmerizing, as Lisa has so eloquently described in her postings. The arrival and (thank God) recent banishment of Rita's overbearing mother has been odd and unpredictable. I vote for Mommy Dearest as the most evil person yet in a program where bad guys sprout like mushrooms in the night. This series is a burlap bag full of oddballs and sweaty psychopaths, and Episode 7, "That Night a Forest Grew", has revealed some of the most damp and twisted layers yet. Our boy Dexter is becoming quite the awful fellow. Last season he was such a sweet guy, a cuddly do-good boy scout with a really mean knife. Yeah, he had a thing for blood spatter and dismemberment, but hey...they were all bad guys, so it was fine. Wasn't it?

But lately Dexter has started to morph into a bad guy too. He lies and cheats on sugary, clueless Rita. He obsesses about saving his own skin, even to the point of implicating an innocent man in murder. He's into rough sex with Lila the nutcase artist. (By the way, best sex scenes ever in this latest episode...had to hit the TiVo reverse button many times. I highly recommend it in HDTV).

However the darkest side of Dexter yet was revealed quite suddenly this week when he head butted Sgt Doakes, causing the ex-Special Forces veteran to go utterly berserk and get fired. It happened so suddenly I actually felt sorry for the hapless Sergeant. He KNOWS that Dexter is guilty as sin, and for his conviction he's now headed for the unemployment line.

I love the tough new Dexter. He's creepier and sexier. He's less a victim now and anything could happen. Bravo to the writers too (wherever they are...probably on a picket line somewhere) for keeping the tension in the program in perfect balance. One minute we're watching crazy Lila burn down her cannibal sculptures and the next moment it's all about awkward love as Debra and Agent Lundy eat their one o'clock briefcase sandwiches by the Miami Bay.

Watching Dexter is all about love for me. Love for television at its absolute best.

Dexter's Back and It Bothers Us that We Love Him

Some drama series get you in the mood from the very first moments of the opening montage. The Sopranos was that way; Tony and his fat cigar driving through the Jersey wastelands with Alabama 3 wailing in the background. DEXTER is most certainly that way, and a more original opening sequence would be hard to imagine. While creepy, almost silly, haunted house music sets the tone, Dexter slices blood oranges, snacks on raw meat and cracks eggs into a frying pan...all in extreme close-up. It's like a food snuff film. I should be appalled, we all should be appalled. But I'm not, because I know that I'm about to experience one hell of a great hour of TV. Tonight's season premier (9-30-07, 9pm eastern on Showtime) lived (died?) up to all expectations.

When we last saw Dexter at the end of the first season, he had saved his step sister and dispatched, in the usual creative Dexter-like manner, his evil, irredeemable serial killer brother. As everyone surely knows by now, Dexter is a serial killer too, but none of his victims are innocent. In fact, Dexter, in a code enforced by his deceased adoptive cop father, only kills the worst of the worst.

But Dexter has a problem. He's trying to get back in the groove again, first with a blind voodoo murderer possessed by the Devil and then with a monstrous 6 foot 10 inch gang banger who's killed at least three people. Dexter is unable to finish the job in either case and he just can't figure out why. A curse? A conscience? What the heck is the matter with Dexter? What's worse, scuba diving treasure hunters discover the underwater graveyard where Dexter has been stashing his victims. Black plastic trash bags full of body parts, as far as the eyes can see.

I love everything about this series, and then hate myself for it. The sly humor, mixed with the darkest crimes. The Miami setting so authentic, you can practically smell the pressed pork sandwiches. The supporting cast is dynamite, and they look shiny and sweaty all the time, which is as it should be in the 110% humidity of South Florida. Best of all, there is Michael C. Hall, who is superb as the enigmatic, enormously attractive and oddly sympathetic Dexter. Pour yourself a tall Mojito, turn on the ceiling fan, and enjoy the rest of the season for one of the most fantastic crime dramas you will ever see.