Review: Dexter: Resurrection, "Risky Business" | Season 2, Episode 1

Welcome back to our coverage of Showtime's ongoing commitment to keeping Dexter alive, which are honestly more entertaining than the derivative logics governing them would suggest. As always, this first review is free, but subsequent reviews will be exclusively for paid subscribers. To follow along, support our work for only $5 a month.

Dexter Morgan is having a good time. Despite the ostensible theme of the season laid out in this premiere—"serial killer midlife crisis"—there's a clear vibe of playfulness emanating from Michael C. Hall's performance, and it's a large part of what has made this legacyquel (at this point really just a continuation of the series, instead of the somber vibe of one-and-done New Blood) work. As I noted in my review of the finale from Resurrection's first season, the sense of fun is essential to turning this back into a long-running series: "...even when he's angry, or upset, or worried, there's something in Dexter that's having a good time. And when he is, then so, by extension, can we." Here's maybe the best analogy I can make: If Hall-as-Dexter used to be Sean Connery as James Bond, a serious man who nonetheless had wit that lightened the proceedings, then the Hall of Resurrection is Roger Moore as James Bond. The situations, stories, and psychology are still basically the same, but there's a knowing wink to the camera. It's a loose and sly performance that says, "Relax, we're all here to have a good time."

Like Moore, it's also an older take on the character. Dexter is over 50 years old, and rather than pretend either actor or role doesn't age, season two is placing that fact front and center. Whether in minor asides—grumping about the fact that he's "Gen X," not a Boomer like that asshole rideshare customer assumed—or in major moments of drama—Al Walker almost getting the drop on him during their climactic struggle, leading Dexter to reflect, "I gotta start working out"—the character's age is spurring a new way into his psyche. Harry calls out the fact that he's taking unnecessary risks, and putting himself into dangerous situations without proper preparation: "It's like you're trying to prove something...that you're as good as, or better than, you've ever been." "I am," Dexter replies grimly, and the exchange almost works better on a meta level than it does in the scene. The show managed to recapture the magic of early Dexter seasons last year with its "serial killer murder club" storyline, so now it has to prove that wasn't a fluke. "We've still got the juice!" the series is announcing, but in a manner that acknowledges both it and its star may have to work a little harder to keep up the momentum.

But keep it up, it does. Right from the jump, this premiere announces its intention to maintain the sense of absurdist entertainment to be gleaned from watching a murderer ply his trade: Watching Dexter and Batista hunt his imagined version of the New York Ripper with style, swagger, and (of course) a cubano—all while "The Heat Is On" plays, natch—is so silly and endearing, the inevitable swap to nightmare with Batista on the table bleeding out is almost beside the point. It's an afterthought to remind us that sure, okay, killing is serious business...but not really, wink-wink. Harrison aced his officer training tests and our homicide detectives just happen to have an open spot for a rookie? What a coincidence! Blessing tells Dexter the room he's renting should reflect who you truly are, and suddenly we're in a campy, red-lit monster lair with our hero cacklin' away? You bet! Almost no dramatic scene misses a chance to undercut tension with a bit of visual comedy or a well-timed bon mot. And it's working.

Much like last season's premiere cleared out all the lingering threads from the past in order to start fresh, so, too, does "Risky Business" wrap up a loose end from season one, the better to introduce our new players. Eric Stonestreet's Al Walker returns solely for the purpose of being dispatched by Dexter, and the creative team manages a clever inversion of their past exchanges: Suddenly, after some light catching up, Walker demands his trophies back, and the silliness is gone, replaced by an unhinged monster. It's Dexter who's taken aback while the supposedly goofy dad is the scary one. It's an enjoyable enough way to kick things off, but even with the unexpected manner in which he dispatches Walker—no table killing, just hanging him by a chain—it does feel like something that needed to be checked off a list before the real fireworks can commence.

And what fireworks they promise! Much like last year, Resurrection has become a playground for talented actors wanting to cut loose and have some fun. Dan Stevens is such a natural on the show, it feels like he should've popped up as a killer long ago. And Brian Cox appears to be having a ball as the past-his-prime New York Ripper, calling up family of his old victims to gloat since he can no longer kill anyone new, like an old athlete obsessively rewatching their greatest-hits reel. (Although, surprisingly, Cox was apparently aghast at what came out of him when playing the character: "Doing Dexter was the weirdest experience I’ve had as an actor, because I was playing someone who I absolutely loathed. I don’t buy into method acting, but this creature came out of me, which I didn’t even know I had. It makes me shudder to think.") The Five Borough Killer story is just starting, but thanks to Stevens, it looks promising. I'm less sure about what they're doing with Cox's Don Framt; there may be something more to this "let's try to prove a guy who killed people decades ago really did it, even though we know he did" but thus far, it doesn't exactly seethe with dramatic tension. Were it not for Cox's involvement, I think I'd be wondering if there's anything to this.

At least Detective Wallace, Super Genius™ is less obnoxious this season. They still make her listen to "Stayin' Alive" as a lazy reminder: "this isn't just a normal cop, she's a quirky cop who plays by her own rules!" But overall, the few scenes with her and her partner Detective Oliva were acceptably muted, with no try-hard, Hannibal-style recreations of a crime scene or anything. Instead, it's just the two of them investigating the new 5 Borough Killer murder while still trying to make a case against Framt. It's simple, uninventive, and deeply procedural-esque...and I'll take it any day over the nonsense that were these two last season.

And Jack Alcott as Harrison is finally feeling like a fully realized performance. Alcott slowly won me over last season with his work, and now that Harrison is a proper "adult," complete with a new apartment and shiny new job as a cop, there's less drop in pacing whenever we turn our attention from Dexter to focus on his son. Plus, if he assumes that role in homicide as this episode all but promises he will, the character will have a much better chance to be integrated into storylines without the need to clumsily shoehorn in a family-drama scene between all the action.

"Risky Business" suggests that last season was no fluke; despite a couple of meandering moments (did we really need an angst-ridden sequence of Dexter missing his son's graduation ceremony to let us know that the people he loves will invariably take a backseat to his Dark Passenger?), this was a fleet and invigorating return. And not "to form," but to an evolution of that form: Hall, showrunner Clyde Phillips, and the writing team have successfully evolved their lead into someone who—much as he did in last year's finale—can now throw a wink and a smile to the audience, no matter the circumstances. Not everybody loved Roger Moore's take on Bond, but if you could accept that a hint of camp had entered 007's orbit, there were ample pleasures to be had. And if you're okay with Dexter goofing around a three-second dream sequence in his murder apartment, laughing it up, then I can only imagine you're going to have some fun this season. I know I will.

Stray observations

• We only got a short scene of him arriving at the police station, but I'm very curious how they plan to integrate Desmond Harrington's Joey Quinn. I'll be disappointed if it's just a rehash of Angel from last season, in which "character from his past suspects foul play and slowly tracks him." Give us a new relationship to care about, not an old one to endure.
• Bokeem Woodbine looked so unsettlingly like Dave Chappelle that when he popped up as the chief, I had to look it up again to reassure myself the latter hadn't snuck into the proceedings somehow.
• I talked a bit last season about how the show had really leaned into a new propensity for needle drops (one that actually started with Original Sin), but holy hell, were there a lot here: Besides "The Heat Is On," we got the hilarious hyper-pop of "Pore" by ohGr, Nas' "New York State Of Mind," Tame Impala's "My Own Ways," Ramones' "We're A Happy Family," Dead Kennedys' "Police Truck," Dropkick Murphys' "I'm Shipping Up To Boston," Run The Jewels' "Yankee And The Brave," and I'm sure I'm missing at least one more. That's a crazy amount of licensing for one episode.
• Fun stunt casting this week: The "Midnight Mangler" from the two opening montage kills drawn from Prater's files is wrestler and horror regular Chris Jericho; the "Yonkers Slayer" is System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian; and the dream sequence version of the New York Ripper is none other than Jason Voorhees himself, Kane Hodder.
• "Why would he send a thumbs-up if he didn't mean it?" Oh, Dexter, still so naive in the ways of texting.
• Welcome, everyone, to season two of Dexter:Resurrection! I had a lot of fun breaking it all down with you last season; excited to hear what my fellow murder aficionados have to say about Dexter and co. this year.