Steven Prusakowski
Tomorrow is the night! Dexter Morgan returns to our televisions on October 30 for Season 2 of Dexter: Resurrection on Paramount+. Not only does this mark the 12th season of the Dexterverse, but also 20 years since the original series premiered on Showtime. With the Dark Passenger notching a second decade of serial killer avenging on his belt, something new settles in, an enemy like no other… age. Now in his 50s, Dexter finds himself in a midlife crisis of sorts, yet the series feels as vital as ever.
I had the chance to speak with Dexter himself, Michael C. Hall, and the cast of Season 2, as well as attend the panel at New York Comic Con, where thousands of fans cheered on twenty years of the character with a taste for the blood of serial killers. You can watch my interviews and see some of the exclusive panel photos below.
The conversations touched upon the evolution of the series and what we can expect this season, including a deeper relationship between Dexter and Uma Thurman’s Charley, who returns with a proposition unlike any other.
For Michael C. Hall, two decades of playing television’s most charming serial killer have allowed Dexter to evolve in ways he never anticipated. Looking back on the past two decades of the character, Hall shared that, “He was someone who had a completely sort of simulated persona that he simulated in service of the true monster he imagined himself to be. Now that simulation and that monster are so fused and intertwined and muddy and more complex and complicated and human. So that has been a part of how it’s evolved and changed and become richer and less clear-cut. But he remains pretty fundamentally mysterious to me as a character, as an idea, which is a part of why it’s fun to continue exploring.”
Hall never appreciated “how sort of elastic this character could be.” Twenty years ago, who would have expected Daddy Dexter? But parenting was just one of the challenges Dexter would take on. Now, having gone from his 30s to his 50s, Dexter faces another unavoidable challenge: aging. It makes for the perfect time for a new kind of relationship.
Hall described Dexter as being “in the midst of a midlife crisis, open to or needing to do things differently. Along comes Charley (Uma Thurman), someone who offers him access to victims that he can’t quite get himself. And also, someone who in as much as she can and as much as he can be, knows him and appreciates what he does. Which he’s vulnerable to that kind of potential flattery. So, yeah, it’s too sweet an offer to pass up.” The world, Hall added, “keeps suggesting to him that he’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing because it keeps facilitating it in one way or another.”
Uma Thurman, an unexpected but very welcome addition to the Dexterverse, is back with a new dynamic developing between Charley and Dexter. The actress finds the experience “super exciting,” sharing her enthusiasm for a series that feels both familiar and fresh. “It’s masterful to see that type of leaping in different directions and creating something brand new. It’s so alive, Michael, what you’re doing.”
During the New York Comic Con panel, Thurman recalled what drew her to the role in the first place. “It was a wonderful yes and I mean I first of all received this script and I don’t know I’m not jaded I swear where I just my heart sinks when I go to crack a script. Like I’m just like, let’s see. And I couldn’t put it down. And I burned through the whole season… Clyde and I had a Zoom that went on for about 90 minutes… and I just completely fell for the whole situation… I’m so glad. I think it’s the best decision I ever made in my life to be the security guard… and I think the fruits of that being a brilliant decision… come out more in this coming season and I’m really excited for people to see it.”
Charley isn’t the only person tagging along on Dexter’s journey. As mentioned, becoming a dad to Harrison (played by Jack Alcott) is something that has added new facets to the serial killer we thought we knew. As is always the case, this is not your standard dad-let’s-go-play-catch relationship. Dad-let’s-go-catch-a-killer may be more accurate. This season, Harrison finds himself on the other side of the law, becoming a police officer and developing a potentially complicated relationship with fellow officer Fiona Mixon (Nona Parker Johnson), whose father happens to be the homicide captain, Captain Mixon (Bokeem Woodbine). It’s another example of the constantly shifting power dynamics found in Dexter, something Alcott likens to a spider-and-fly scenario, with nobody guaranteed to remain in either role for long.
“In this dynamic I’m the fly. Very much the fly. Frantically buzzing around going, ‘Hey, how you doing? You guys mind if I hit on your friend?’ What I love about this show, this dynamic and how that overlaps with my dynamic with Dexter and kind of all the way around is that everything ends up connected. I’m going to end up being the fly. I’m going to end up being the spider. Everybody sort of gets to be both things because everyone’s going to have a moment. There’s going to be a reversal of some type at some point and you never know when it’s going to happen. And that’s one of the many ways I think our writers just really consistently knock it out of the park. It makes it fun to perform.”
For Alcott, the show’s ability to balance serious themes, the macabre, and outrageous moments is part of the appeal. Recalling one scene from last season, he laughed, “I got to kill a dude with a toilet. Are you kidding? Everything about this show is fun because it is elevated. It’s funny, it’s elevated, but it’s got weight. It’s fun to be in something dope.”
For veteran actor James Remar, who plays Dexter’s deceased father Harry, but also the active voice inside his serial killer son’s head, that balance of humor, darkness, and humanity has been something he has appreciated since the beginning.
“The dynamics are constantly shifting and the juxtapositions are really challenging in a great way for an actor,” said Remar. “I’m reading these scripts and as they come to me even though I’m in the production, I’m reading them and I’m saying, ‘Wow, I had no idea it was going to unfold that way.’ Not just for my character, but for all the characters… the duality, the nature of humanity, it’s really so well explored this season in the scripts… it’s so much fun to go to work on this show.”
Remar recalled the circumstances that brought him into the Dexterverse twenty years ago, a time when his career path seemed uncertain. “I had just come off a terrible show and I didn’t think I was ever going to work again,” remembered Remar. “I walked onto the Paramount lot thinking, I am never going to get this part. It’s just too damn good. It was the best television script I had ever read. Hands down. I thought they’re just never going to give me this part. And I guess I gave the best audition of my life and they did.”
Bokeem Woodbine, who joins the cast this season as Captain Mixon, admitted he never understood his friends’ obsession with Dexter. That quickly changed once he joined the series. “When I got to the set and I got the scripts and I started interacting with the crew and the cast, I understood why people are so obsessed with this show. It really is a singular wonderful thing.”
He described the show’s unique appeal as “a great mixture of hyperreality but grounded in the truth. It’s kind of hard to describe, but I really get a kick out of it.”
Twenty years in, neither the cast nor the fans, judging by the thousands packed into the NYCC Main Stage, have lost their enthusiasm for Dexter, a series that seemingly continues to top itself. When Hall was asked during the panel when he realized the show itself was indestructible, he half-jokingly answered simply, “Right now,” before reflecting on the crowd’s impact on him and his perspective on the series.
“We make this in a vacuum on a sound stage or on locations and to be face to face with people who have love for enthusiasm for the show is gratifying and gives us a sense that we’re not in a vacuum,” shared Hall. “We made this pilot just hoping that the first season would get picked up. It seemed like a crazy proposition to invite people to identify with a character like this, but it worked.”
In attendance at the NYCC panel were: Michael C. Hall, Uma Thurman, Bokeem Woodbine, Nona Parker Johnson, Jack Alcott, Kadia Saraf, Dominic Fumusa, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Desmond Harrington, James Remar, Krysten Ritter, and surprise guest Eric Stonestreet, who revealed his return as Rapunzel.
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