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| 'starts to take Dexter's fascination with family so far you wonder whether Rita's mother might be revealed as the killer in the final act' |
Dexter has always been intimately interested in family, most notable during the sections where the protagonist's father pops up to advise on how and when to kill various do-badders. Season Three though starts to take Dexter's fascination with family so far you wonder whether Rita's (Julie Benz) mother might be revealed as the killer in the final act.
In addition to a returning James Remar as Dexter's (Michael C. Hall) pater familias and Dex's ongoing love-in with his sister (Jennifer Carpenter), there's copious amounts of detail here when it looks like Dexter and Rita might get married and have a child, as well as spurious other distractions who manifest themselves as a trio of Prado bothers (headed by Jimmy Smit's Miguel) and the illness of Morgan-family friend, Camilla (Margo Martindale).
It begins to be a wonder that the series has any time at all to deal with the intertwining plot of a killer who skins his victims and the inconvenient fact that Dexter has accidentally-on-purpose murdered Miguel's brother, and, indeed, in episode four, it doesn't. Every series, if it goes on for long enough, will have an 'episode four' and some will have multiple. In episode four, nothing happens. There's various bits of character building, an introduction to Batista's (David Zayas) love life, which we didn't need, and that's about it. Nothing that actually matters a jot to the plot happens at any point.
Thankfully episode four is the only moment where Dexter's preoccupations harm it for an entire episode and Season Three proves once again to be about as pleasant a time as you can spend in a serial killer's company. Episode six takes on a nicely comic tilt (Harry appearing in the same dress as Dexter is a laugh-out-loud moment) and the main plot with Miguel is pivoted around well right up until its climax, which happens a little early and leaves the last two episodes with not quite enough to do.
This finale notably throws Batista's love life completely out of the window (where it belongs) but is still slowed down by the promist (threat?) of impending nuptials and, as such, sums up the reason why Season Three is the most average Dexter yet; too much filler, not enough killer.
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