Dexter: The Second Season

No Sophomore Slump for America's Favorite Serial Killer
Miami blood-spatter analyst and moonlighting serial killer Dexter Morgan spent the first season of Showtime's groundbreaking drama helping his police department track the Ice Truck Killer, a man who turned out to be the brother Dexter never knew. In Season Two, he helps hunt someone even closer...himself. When his Glad-bag graveyard is discovered at the bottom of the ocean, all of Miami buzzes about the Bay Harbor Butcher, the nocturnal crime fighter who litters the sea with body parts of bad guys.

The search for the Bay Harbor Butcher (and the ensuing cat and mouse game between Dexter and his colleagues) provides the overarching glue for Season Two. The middle episodes of the season feature the slippery Dexter trying to wiggle his way out of the grasp of the investigation, lead by new character FBI Special Agent Lundy (Keith Carradine), a professional everyman as unassuming as he is brilliant. Lundy's dedication and focus rival Dexter's and present a challenge for our...

Long live Dexter!
Season two of this Showtime piece of excellence is just as good as the first season, if not better. If you haven't already met Dexter Morgan (played by Michael C. Hall), he's a Miami police forensic expert - he specialises in blood spatter - with a taste for murder all of his own. By twist of tale, Dexter's past comes back to haunt him this season and Dexter the hunter becomes Dexter the hunted. This takes the excitement and suspense up to new heights.

Dexter is still coming to terms with the season one's shock ending and initially finds (to his horror) that his killing skills are not what they used to be. And as if he didn't have enough worries, Sergeant Doakes (played by the lovely Erik King), the only one around who senses that Dexter is not all that he seems, is still very much on his case. Add to that the fact that his sister Debra (played by Jennifer Carpenter), who is still recovering from her own trauma from season one, is asked to join the FBI manhunt for him. The...

A bloody good show!
Even though I am a huge fan of "Dexter--the First Season," I couldn't imagine a better second season. In fact, I'm going to need imagination-stretching exercises because all the people behind "Dexter-The Second Season" give us just that--a BETTER second season!

An observation: Whoever determines casting definitely has an eye for borderline anorexic women with small breasts. Dexter's sister Debra, his girlfriend Rita, and newcomer Lila, an English woman he meets in a 12-step program and who becomes his sponsor for Season Two--all match that description.

In Season One Dexter tells us over and over he is emotionally dead, but as the season progresses, Dexter truly develops feelings for Rita and her two children. In Season Two he no longer denies his feelings, making it clear how much Rita means to him. However, Lila's presence and declaration that she understands him moves Dexter off-kilter.

Throw into the boiling pot the discovery of all Dexter's plastic...

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