Dexter: New Blood

The Six Feet Under and Safe star slips perfectly back into the role. ... Overall, it’s brilliant to see Dexter back on our screens again and New Blood holds plenty of promise for what’s ahead.

New Blood has plenty of direction. It promises to tell a self-contained story, stripped of the flabby camp that came to define it, and to tell it well. This is a leaner, hungrier Dexter than we are used to, and it’s a little bit thrilling to have him back. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, but I’m all in.

This miniseries revives old themes but drops in enough new conflicts — internal and otherwise — to pull the narrative forward into fresh terrain.

By the end of the fourth episode, I found myself desperately eager to find out. Though I thought I’d moved on from this show and its terrible ending (or, at least, what was framed as an ending at the time), I’ve gone and gotten myself ensnared by it all over again.

Ultimately, though, the appeal of “New Blood” comes down to Hall and Carpenter, who chew, gnaw, and bite into their dialogue, and who thoughtfully find the layers of contrasting motivations and shared sympathies between their characters. ... “New Blood” comes to life in their hands.

It's thrilling to watch a series find its footing once again, one that is as chilling as ever, and come into present day grappling with today's complex ideologies of redemption and a potential myth of goodwill. It is as dark as it is thoughtful.

The best thing about Dexter: New Blood is that it is unapologetically fun. The episodes sent to critics are full of dark — borderline campy — humor and some truly compelling human drama.

A clever and suspensefully compelling resurrection of one of the great and grisliest antiheroes of all time. [25 Oct - 7 Nov 2021, p.9]

Given the Hollywood mindset that anything worth doing is eventually worth redoing, if Dexter had to come back, "New Blood" pretty quickly justifies the visit by getting back under your skin.

New Blood wants to be all the things. Focusing on Harrison and other teens allows it to broach not only the MMIW movement but other forms of activism and societaly talking points like climate change, bullying, and the opioid epidemic.

Based on the four episodes made available for review, the revival is a solid effort at creative redemption.

Despite some contrivances and overly familiar beats, there’s also enough suspense and substance to this follow-up, led by showrunner Clyde Phillips, who served as Dexter’s showrunner during its first four seasons, to make it worth your attention, at least for a few episodes.

Even with its plot holes (everyone seems to greet the abrupt arrival of Jim’s not-previously-mentioned son with a remarkable lack of curiosity), “Dexter: New Blood” is made with care. Solid performances from Hall, Alcott, Carpenter, Jones and Clancy Brown as a town businessman who’s clearly keeping some secrets, pump energy into the series.

Whether “Dexter: New Blood” offers a decent ending that the original run lacked remains to be seen, but for “Dexter” fans there will be comfort in the familiarity of this new iteration.

Familiar habits are a comfort, even the bloody ones, which mean it's probably sufficient that Dexter Morgan's limited series misadventures are at least as entertaining and those driving better past arcs. As to whether the story can maintain its edge through the finish, consider us wary.

All the things that are good about new Dexter are the very same things that were good about original Dexter. It's not an improvement, or a new thing at all really – indeed, it only serves to remind you how far that series fell.

Based on four episodes, it can be said that Dexter: New Blood is neither as bad as seasons six through eight nor as good as seasons one through four. It’s a story about a man trying to move on and find a place in a new world, frustratingly told within a show that seems determined to pretend that nothing in the television landscape has changed at all.

“Dexter” is still “Dexter,” and Dexter is still Dexter. ... Many of the ensuing story beats will feel familiar, even soothing. Watching Dexter scramble (rather expertly) to cover his tracks is still engrossing. ... Other hallmarks aren’t so welcome. Supporting characters are thinly sketched. Nods to local customs and indigenous people seem superficial so far. The show’s disdain for journalists is alive and well.

In repeating many of the familiar beats from the previous series, Dexter: New Blood demonstrates the same inertia Dexter and Dexter Morgan suffers from. Nothing has changed here. Some monsters are not that complicated. Maybe it’s foolish that we ever thought they were at all.

We’re introduced to a few intriguing subplots, including the arrival of a true-crime podcasting star named Molly (Jamie Chung) and the mysterious machinations of Matt’s father, who is played by ever-reliable character actor Clancy Brown. Mostly, though, “Dexter: New Blood” could use a transfusion of excitement and edge.

Not unwatchable, but not particularly satisfying either.

It seems unlikely that the resuscitated "Dexter" will inspire any crimes or even much passion, although the first episode is engaging precisely because it doesn't give fans what they presumably want. ... As a manifestation of his guilty conscience, Jim's dead sister, Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), becomes an increasingly shrill presence.

One wishes that “New Blood” had premiered with an ensemble as rich as its protagonist instead of delaying that satisfaction. There’s just too little to “New Blood” to hook anyone but the hardcore fans for the first few episodes.

Unfortunately, while “Dexter: New Blood” helps replace the bad taste of the original series finale, outside of some exterior components, it doesn’t do much to redefine much about “Dexter.” ... “Dexter: New Blood” is still “Dexter,” though, so all the strengths are there as well as all the weaknesses.

Showtime's revival of the droll serial-killer drama tries (and fails) to recover from a disastrous series finale.

What we don’t get, in the four competent but redundant episodes screened for critics, is the “new”: any hint of a fresh creative impulse in a series that had worn itself out years before it left the air. ... Sanguinary and superfluous, “New Blood” ends up being an example of the worst traits of two different TV eras at once.

The new episodes do not return the show to its early prestige by any measure; they bring us back to the looser storytelling of the later years. They contain any number of questionable leaps. ... Sure, Deb is as foul-mouthed as ever, which can be humorous. But the scenes are abrasive and, since we understand Dexter so well at this point, unnecessary.