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Dexter 06x04 - ‘A Horse of a Different Colour’

Remember when Dexter was one of the finest shows on television, back in its first two seasons? It seems hard to believe that this is the same series that used to be so thoroughly engrossing, even in the slightly weaker seasons following those first two (season 2 in particular remains one of my favourite of any show ever). But what we have now is a show that avoids any exploration of the morals behind Dexter as a character, absolutely lacks in momentum, and is just downright idiotic a lot of the time.

This episode carries on with the religious themes at the centre of the season, using practically any excuse to throw in some biblical platitudes or references. At the heart of Dexter’s storyline for the week is his son, Harrison, having his appendix burst, necessitating an emergency visit to the hospital. It seems like this plot serves no other purpose than to give the admittedly excellent Mos Def a whole bunch of lines on faith and surrendering to God (because at this point I have no idea what Mos Def’s actual purpose is in this season, other than to provide a means for the writers to stack on the religious themes by having Mos Def says ‘Lord have mercy’ fifty times each episode). Anyway. This plot annoyed me, because not only was it manipulative and unsubtle, but it wasted a whole lot of time and slowed the episode’s momentum to a crawl.

On the seasonal villain front (Edward James Olmos and Colin Hanks have been labelled the ‘Doomsday Killers’, handily) things are getting dumb. Well, more so. Colin Hanks gets laid, quite easily, and Olmos watches through a door crack in a laughably cartoonish manner. Predictably, the nice young girl becomes their next victim, for whatever reason, and is cinematically hanged or something after a Miami police officer accidentally sets off the trap (and then doesn’t seem too bothered? What?). Then, some GOD AWFUL CGI locusts are set loose, and Colin Hanks stares creepily into the sky and looks really happy. BORING. Honestly, I could not give a fuck about this storyline, and the fact that Dexter has had minimal involvement in it is just strange. Olmos and Hanks have been fleshed out as characters so superficially that it is impossible to actually understand their motives, beyond being ‘religious fanatics.’ Everything about this storyline is tacky and completely lacking in subtlety, and in this sense, the earlier seasons seem worlds apart.

Finally, on the Miami Metro front, lots of really random and annoying shit going on. Deb as Lieutenant isn’t working too badly, but it’s completely predictable that she would be praised for her ‘forthrightness’ (i.e. complete lack of professionalism) by Deputy Chief Matthews, if only to stick it up LaGuerta. Also, LaGuerta. Is there a worse character on television? Every scene with her is torture. Was she always this bad? Probably. Angel is not much better. He and Quinn smoke a joint because lol weed. Angel may not be the worst character, but he gets the worst lines. My favourite was ‘If all this Revelations stuff has to do with Doomsday… maybe it’s to the end of the world.’ There’s also a new detective (Anderson), who looks like being Deb’s new love interest, as if she needs one every 0.8 seasons. And then there’s Masuka, with his usual F-plot involving the attractive intern. I actually don’t mind the Miami Metro stuff so much, but only on the condition that we don’t have to see more than 2 minutes of LaGuerta per episode.

4 episodes in, and this is shaping up to be a very poor season of television. Dexter often has its stretches of episodes lacking forward momentum, but that eventually get around to a dramatic third-act change of pace, which generally works (season 4 is a good example). But this season just seems completely scattered, with otherwise solid characters like Mos Def’s Brother Sam doing nothing beyond merely hanging around, not to mention Quinn and Angel getting high for zero reason whatsoever. Michael C. Hall remains the one redeeming feature. But when he’s wrapped up in such pointless plots as the one in this episode, it’s hard for that to be enough.

Also:

• Speaking of Michael C. Hall, his facial expressions during those long periods of dialogue with Mos Def were excellent. It’s a shame he never really won much for Dexter when it used to be good.
• Astor and Cody get a mention tonight. I almost miss the Rita/family stuff a little bit.
• I wish this show would lay off the god damn harp whenever something interesting or evil happens. A harp! WHY?