Dexter – The Second Season (Showtime DVD)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Episodes: B-

 

 

Some television series seem to take eons to arrive on DVD, and then there are other series that just can not arrive fast enough.  The 2006 Emmy nominated series Dexter was an instant hit and as soon as this reviewer had finished Season One, he drooled in anticipation of the next installment.  The series is griping as it becomes one of those guilty pleasures that you just can’t get enough of.

 

Season Two of Dexter starts where Season One left off with Police Sgt. Doakes keeping a watchful eye on Dexter (Michael C. Hall), to the point where Dexter is not able to fulfill his urge to take justice into his own hands and kill.  Eventually the righteous serial killer has the opportunity to kill, but in the end can’t seal the deal and take a life.  Early in the season a crew of treasure hunters find where Dexter has been dumping his ‘victims’ for years and the FBI gets involved to bring the ‘Bay Harbor Butcher’ to justice.  Unexpectedly, however, a cult following of the ‘Bay Harbor Butcher’ grows in popularity as it slips out that the ‘victims’ themselves were murders and criminals.  Dexter life becomes disrupted as tensions rise between him and his girlfriend Rita after her ex-husband (Paul) is killed in a prison fight; Dexter setting Paul up in the first place.  Dexter’s seemingly controlled world takes another blow as his sister moves in with him, still not over the events from the ‘Ice Truck Killer’ incidents of Season One.  Dexter’s undying passion to control the chaos that he finds necessary takes the series in a tailspin that is full of suspense, cliff hangers, and all new issues.  Just as Dexter takes two stabs forward, he gets one stab back.

 

Dexter Season Two is once again packaged in a 4 Disc, 12 episode set with technical features that are nice but not perfect.  The picture quality is better this time around once again presented in a 16 X 9 Widescreen with vibrant colors, but there still is a degree of digitization and clarity issues that have yet to improve.  The sound is an adequate 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround that fails to impress the viewer, but has good enough depth and clarity to build suspense in this heavily narrated series.

 

If fans of this popular series were expecting extras, they were dead wrong.  Sadly Dexter - Season Two contains no extras except a few unnecessary episodes of Showtime’s The Tudors and Californication.  Looking at the back of the box it seems as though there are extras include on this 4-Disc set, but in the end it is just a deceptive ploy.

 

Hacking its way to the top, Dexter with an ever growing fan base and a slue of Emmy nods is becoming a front runner for one of the best suspense/drama series on television today.  The series has a solid cast with very intriguing storylines that will always leave viewers wanting more.

 

 

-   Michael P. Dougherty II