By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Dexter And How I met your mother are two completely different series that have something unfortunate in common: both have a series finale so bad that it retroactively undoes what came before, making it difficult for fans to revisit even the greatest episodes. DexterThe ending was so bad that I hesitated to watch the surprisingly good follow-up series New blood. But I did it once and then lost track Dexter: Original Sin (the prequel is making its way through the ratings), I decided now was the perfect time to watch the original Dexter Show off the bloody magic of your work on Netflix.
What you should know about Dexter
If you’ve never seen it Dexter Before you add it to your Netflix queue, you should know the wild premise (straight from Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter novels). Our title character is a forensic specialist for the Miami Police Department who has a baffling secret: he is a serial killer driven by the violent urges of his “dark passenger” ever since he witnessed his mother being brutally murdered. Raised by a police officer who taught his adopted son to kill only bad people, Dexter must now lead a double life as a mild-mannered blood spatter analyst and ruthless vigilante assassin.
Dexter (unlike many series on Netflix) has a great cast, including Michael C. Hall (otherwise known for Six feet under), who won a Golden Globe for his powerful performance. Other great actors include Julie Benz (from Buffy And angel Celebrity) as Dexter’s love interest and Jennifer Carpenter (horror fans will recognize her). Quarantine And The Exorcism of Emily Rose) as his little sister. And without giving too much away, later seasons feature great guest stars including Jimmy Smits, Edward James Olmos, John Lithgow and many more.
If the cast of Dexter If it doesn’t inspire you to go to your Netflix account, you might be interested to know how many awards and nominations this show about a quirky killer has received. The show was nominated for an impressive 24 Primetime Emmys, winning two, as well as being nominated for 10 Golden Globe Awards, taking home two statues. Hall personally took home one of those Golden Globes as well as Satellite, Saturn and Screen Actor’s Guild awards for his magnificent performance as Dexter.
For the most part Dexter impressed critics and fans alike long before it landed on Netflix. On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a critical rating of 71 percent and audiences gave it (via Popcorn Meter) an 81 percent. This shows that while the series has a legendarily terrible ending, most viewers felt that it was greater than the sum of its parts and that its creativity and clever execution in most of its eight seasons outweighed the series’ fairly epic stumbles the finish line at the end.
The right time to visit again
Plus, New blood really did its best to make up for the bizarre ending to the original series, and original sin has proven to be a clever prequel that adds juicy context to our titular killer’s earliest adventures. Overall, these two follow-up shows accomplished what I once thought was impossible: they piqued my interest in the original show, despite its deeply flawed finale. And now this Dexter is on Netflix, I enjoyed rewatching one of the premium cable channel’s boldest and bloodiest creations.
You will find Dexter equally rewarding to watch (or re-watch). on Netflixor is this a series you’d rather throw into the Gulf Stream? You won’t find out until you press play. And if you’re like me, you can look forward to an opening title sequence (which even won a Creative Arts Emmy) to help you out never makes you want to skip the intro.