Yes, all Dexter fans have been joking about Michael C. Hall’s terrible wig in these flashbacks to college-aged Dexter. But more to the point: Dexter’s origins were very well told throughout the original show. There are so many flashbacks to different parts of his life and so much information given over time that Original Sin was always bound to tell and show us things we already knew. Turns out it only took one episode to fall right into that trap. At this point, Dexter Morgan just isn’t a character with holes in his story begging to be filled.

“And in the Beginning” also introduces new Miami Metro characters Bobby Watt (Reno Wilson), Aaron Spencer (Patrick Dempsey) and Tanya Martin (Sarah Michelle Gellar). The show certainly did well in terms of casting actors with particularly iconic backgrounds in the form of Slater, Dempsey and Gellar. And it’s in this Miami Metro realm that we’ll probably get the biggest ongoing story and genuine new information, since you probably don’t cast Dempsey and Gellar without intending to do some remarkable things with them—which also means we can begin to guess which of them will turn out to be a killer and/or a victim by the end of the season.

In its early seasons, Dexter was a prime example of a dawning era of prestige television. But then it went on way longer than felt comfortable, collapsing into a shell of itself with some truly awful storylines that culminated in a disappointing eighth season and finale. (Lumberjack Dexter, anyone?) Rumors of keeping Dexter alive was a Showtime mandate, which makes sense since network executives immediately talked about their desire to have a Dexter spinoff about… Dexter. When it finally happened, 2022’s Dexter: New Blood wasn’t great, but it was decent—and far better than Dexter’s last few seasons. More importantly, it gave Dexter Morgan, the character, a much better and seemingly final send off.

But they just couldn’t pass up good enough, and so not only do we have this prequel series, it’s already been announced that Michael C. Hall will star in “Nah, he’s not dead” Dexter: Resurrection. Original Sin kicks off with a teaser for the 2025 series – actually proving to be a bridge between New Blood and Resurrection as this is also a bit of a sequel series, with a framing device showing Hall as Dexter is rushed to hospital after to have been shot by his formerly estranged son, Harrison. The character’s life flashing before his eyes provides Original Sin with a framing device and an excuse to keep Hall talking about the action on screen.

Is Hall’s voice a comforting presence in Original Sin, bringing back memories of Dexter at its best? To an extent, yes, and Hall still seems to be having fun and giving it his all. But the narrative came to be a handheld, annoyingly redundant symbol of the show’s decline. And even in “And in the Beginning” there are hints of it, such as Tanya telling Dexter that Harry taught him well, and Hall’s narration saying “She had no idea” in a way that almost invokes Gibson gotta give a Jim Halpert look to the camera.

Gibson gets off to a solid start playing Dexter, evoking the same coldly detached attitude Hall was so good at. A few of the small smiles he gives show rare, amusing signs of genuine joy – via killing or the thought of killing, of course. Playing Deb is more of a thankless job, as Jennifer Carpenter’s delivery and quirky attitude in the role was so specific and funny, leaving Brown looking like she’s emulating Carpenter. Hopefully she can make the character feel like her own in future episodes – and hopefully Dexter: Original Sin can somehow stop feeling like such an echo of something that was once great.

Other thoughts:

• The premiere’s only major addition to the Dexter story is the revelation that Harry and his late wife Doris (Jasper Lewis) had a son who died before Harry adopted Dexter. The son’s death by drowning (under Harry’s watch) is clearly there to add another layer to why a guilt-ridden father would protect Dexter (and his murderous urges) at all costs. But it also feels unnecessary. Couldn’t Harry just have been a loving father with his own messy idea of ​​how to deal with a messy child?
• In Dexter canon, Harry dies a year after Dexter kills Mary, so if this show continues, Christian Slater may end up playing the same imaginary/”ghost” Harry that James Remar did. It’s pretty funny given Slater’s role in Mr. Robot.
• Dexter’s urge here is portrayed in almost supernatural terms, especially when he tells Harry that seeing the blood of the guy he fought at that graduation party brought it out. This almost makes Dexter sound like a vampire, which is an amusing approach.
• Although we saw Dexter kill Mary back in the 2006 episode, we hadn’t seen him dispose of her body or take her earrings from her. If we’re going to look for new information, it looks like this show will fill in more of the blanks for how Dexter ultimately ends up taking a vial of blood from each of his victims and throwing their body parts into the water, rather than feeding a corpse to gators. But because the original show showed us so much in flashbacks, we know this has to be Alex Timmons. Timmons was already established as the first Dexter victim he took the vial of blood from, as established in the Dexter Early Cuts web series back in 2009, following his flashback appearance in Season 1’s “Return to sender.”
• The director of Original Sin’s first episode was Michel Lehman, who last worked with Slater on 1989’s classic Heathers.