Blu-ray Review: DEXTER: NEW BLOOD

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Mar 20, 2022 Posted by Kyle Nolan in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) has always struggled to control the Dark Passenger inside of him. However, when he was young, his father Harry had taught him a code, to only unleash his bloodlust on those who deserved it. By day Dexter worked as a blood pattern analyst, helping to investigate murders for the Miami Metro Police Department, but by night, he was The Bay Harbor Butcher, exacting vigilante justice on those who managed to escape punishment, including several fellow serial killers. However, his actions also led to the deaths of some people he loved. The Trinity Killer had murdered Rita, the mother of his child, Harrison, and his sister Deb was shot by serial killer Oliver Saxon. Dexter ultimately used a hurricane to fake his death and escape Miami, heading to the Pacific Northwest to become a lumberjack. And that was the end of Dexter…until now.

For nearly ten years Dexter has managed to keep his Dark Passenger at bay. He’s been living in a log cabin in the small town of Iron Lake in upstate New York, under the alias of Jim Lindsay. He works in a local fish & game shop, is friendly with everyone in town, and is even dating the Chief of Police, Angela Bishop (Julia Jones, The Mandalorian), a single mother with a teenage daughter, Audrey (Johnny Sequoyah, Believe). It seems like he has the perfect, happy and normal life. Keeping to his routine, he hasn’t killed anyone in almost 10 years. However, Jim starts to let his guard down and give into his Dark Passenger when an obnoxious Wall Street rich kid—and son of one of Iron Lake’s wealthiest businessmen, Kurt Caldwell (Clancy Brown, Billions, The Crown)—shows up. Dexter learns how Matt has evaded justice for some horrible things in his past, and then a new event sets him over the edge, and reawakens the monster inside of Dexter. Things get even more complicated when Dexter’s teenage son Harrison (Jack Alcott, The Good Lord Bird) suddenly shows up in Iron Lake looking to reconnect. As Dexter tries to bond with his son, he wonders if Harrison has inherited his Dark Passenger affliction, and wants to help be his moral compass if that is the case. However, Dexter struggles to reveal the truth about himself to Harrison for fear of pushing him away. This fake new life that Dexter has carefully built is now in danger of falling apart, especially as the police start to investigate Matt’s disappearance.

When Angela was younger, her best friend Iris went missing, and while the police claimed she just ran away, Angela always believed her friend was abducted. Over the years, there’s been many more unsolved instances of young women passing through town who mysteriously disappear—a case that continues to fuel and haunt Angela, and one that Dexter will soon become interested in. Meanwhile, the disappearance of a hometown hunk attracts true crime podcaster Molly Park (Jamie Chung, Lovecraft Country, Believe) to Iron Lake to cover the story. She had previously discussed The Trinity Killer and The Bay Harbor Butcher on her podcast, and Dexter fears that Molly may cause his old life to resurface. However, Dexter seems to have a knack for attracting other serial killers, and soon discovers that Kurt Caldwell has been hiding a dirty little secret, and is in need of some justice. So while he tries to keep his past hidden and connect with his son, Dexter also plots ways to feed his newly-awakened Dark Passenger, but he’s become a bit rusty in the past 10 cover up before cops Angela and Logan (Alano Miller, Sylvie’s Love) discover the truth about Jim Lindsay.

In its early seasons, the original Dexter series was must-see, appointment TV, but by the end of its run and change of showrunners, it had kind of fizzled out—the lumberjack finale was a major disappointment among most fans. However, Dexter: New Blood brings back everything that made that original series so good, including the return of the original series showrunner Clyde Phillips. I didn’t realize how much I had missed Dexter until I started watching this follow-up. While Dexter is in a different place in his life, both physically and mentally, he’s still the same serial killer struggling to keep his Dark Passenger at bay. And once he unleashes that passenger, we get kill rooms and desperate cover-ups galore. The new series trades in the sunny Miami locales and big police department, for the wintery Northeast and small town setting with only 3 cops. This adds a fun new dynamic and atmosphere to the series, with the snow-covered small town setting giving a bit more of a horror vibe. Though I may be partial to this new location since part of the penultimate episode was filmed in my hometown. Each episode of the limited series builds to some big reveal or cliffhanger, making you anzious to see what happens next (and thanks to this Blu-ray release you don’t have to wait a week to do so!). The story is filled with lots of great twists and turns, making the audience constantly wonder Is Dexter going to get caught? Will Angela discover the truth? Is Harrison like his father? Has Dexter finally met his match in Kurt? and so on. I couldn’t help but binge through the entire 10-episode run in one sitting—I found it just as engaging and entertaining the second time around.

Michael C. Hall steps right back into this iconic character, finding that perfect blend of charm, wit, humor, sarcasm, and pure psychopath. I also noticed some of the more nuanced parts of Hall’s performance this second time around, like how Dexter tries to change the conversation as people start to discuss the bad things Matt may have done, because Dexter knows that once he knows the truth, he’s going to have to feed his Dark Passenger and get justice for Matt’s victims. The return of Deb to replace Harry as Dexter’s conscience and the angel on his shoulder was also a brilliant choice. The chemistry between the two actors and characters was always a highlight of the series, and it is great to see that again. While Deb can try to get Dexter to do the right thing, she can’t control him, and over the course of the series, you see her start to give up as she realizes that the Dark Passenger is taking over. The new cast is also fantastic, especially Jack Alcott as the abandoned Harrison who has come back to reunite with and confront his father, and Julia Jones as cop Angela who’s dealing with her own demons from the past while investigating the new case that could reveal some things about the man she thought she knew. Clancy Brown’s Kurt Caldwell also makes a solid new big foe for Dexter to match wits against. Dexter: New Blood also brings back several characters from the original series not just for some fun cameos, but in a way that definitely affects the story. The limited series also finally provides a proper conclusion to the show, though it certainly won’t please all fans.

Dexter: New Blood looks a bit different than the original series, opting for the more cinematic 2:35:1 aspect ratio, which works really well, especially with the more haunting wintery, small town setting. There’s no opening breakfast prep montage, but the filmmakers have had some fun creatively integrating the episode titles into the start of each episode. While the Blu-ray presentation looks very clean and provides a solid level of detail, the colors are a bit more washed out and faded at times. However, comparing the disc to the 4K Showtime Anytime presentation, this appears to be the aesthetic the filmmakers were going for, and not a limitation of the Blu-ray presentation. Dialogue primarily comes from the front channel, but the stereo and surround channels are used to provide some immersive ambiance, and often showcase the film’s haunting score as it reverberates across the room. The ten episodes are spread across four discs, residing on trays in a standard multi-disc HD keepcase, which is placed inside a carboard slipcover. There are a couple short promotional featurettes as well as a 30-minute behind-the-scenes featurette. The longer feature repeats some of the same footage from the shorter ones, and all of this material has been culled from the same footage used on the “Dissecting Dexter” featurettes released on the Showtime YouTube channel as the series originally aired, though the footage has been edited together differently for the “All Out on the Table” feature, along with some previously unreleased interview content.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (8:46:41)

All 10 episodes of the series:
Disc 1: “Cold Snap”, “Storm of Fuck”, “Smoke Signals”
Disc 2: “H Is for Hero”, “Runaway”, “Too Many Tuna Sandwiches”
Disc 3: “Skin of Her Teeth”, “Unfair Game”, “The Family Business”
Disc 4: “Sins of the Father”
1080p / Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD
Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

Why Now? (2:13)
Hall, Carpenter and Phillips talk about bringing back the series, and let fans know what they can expect.
Dissecting Dexter: New Blood – Deb is Back (1:58)
Carpenter, Hall, Phillips, and Siega talk about Deb’s new role as the angel on Dexter’s shoulder, serving as his conscience and trying to lead him down the right path. They also talk about the reunion and having fun on set.
Dissecting Dexter: New Blood – The Kill Room (1:58)
Hall, Phillips and Siega talk about what it was like to be back filming Dexter’s iconic kill room scenes again.
All Out on the Table (30:04)
This is a re-editing of all of the “Dissecting Dexter” footage, including some previously-unreleased material, into one long behind-the-scenes featurette. Some of the footage is repeated from the previous featurettes. The cast and filmmakers talk about returning to this world, the story, stepping back on set, what it was like for the new actors to join this iconic series, shooting on location in Shelburne Falls, MA rather than LA for Miami, shooting in a new scope and color scheme, giving the series a more of a cinematic feel, Dexter’s journey over the course of the season, filming the kill room sequences, building the cabin, recreating the Trinity killer set, bringing back Batista, the decision on how to end the series, and more.

Final Thoughts:

My Rating

Episodes:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Highly Recommended

I didn’t realize how much I had missed the original Dexter series until I sat down to watch Dexter: New Blood. This 10-episode limited series is a return to form, bringing back that intense, must-watch feeling of the earlier seasons of the show, while also giving the series a proper ending (sorry to anyone who actually liked Dexter the Lumberjack). This was one of my favorite seasons of the series as a whole, and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around. The Blu-ray release features solid picture and sound, as well as about 35 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage and Q&As with the cast and filmmakers. This is a must own for any Dexter fan, and highly recommended for anyone else. Longtime fans of the series will certainly have a deeper understanding of the character, and get some of the fun the series has at the beginning playing on viewer expectations. However, I feel like new viewers could still fully enjoy this limited series on its own.