Dexter 3.01 “Our Father”

On this week's episode of “True Blood”, Sookie and Bill have a romantic encounter where Bill mythbusts more vampire lore and Sookie is torn between the desires of her aching loins and the cold glare of her purity ring, Jason has sex with an anonymous woman while fantasizing about being butt raped by a vampire and Lafeyette calls somebody “honeychile”. I'm assuming. Yes folks, now that there's a good horror-themed show on Sunday nights I'm ditching “True Blood” like a preemie at a prom to cover the most lovable serial killer on pay cable, “Dexter”. Don't worry, “True Blood” fans those of you who use the recaps to justify not watching the show- I'll still be watching and I'll check in every few weeks to let you know what's going on in Bon Temps. Maybe it's just the habits of a lifetime of watching bad movies but I just can't quit you, “True Blood”. Not yet anyway.

So “Dexter”, how you been? Last season saw our anti-hero come dangerously close to being exposed by Doakes as the Bay Harbor Butcher, but with a little luck and a little intervention by his crazy-ass girlfriend Lila, Doakes was killed and posthumously framed as the Butcher. Dexter snipped the loose ends by taking out Lila in Paris, and even got back with his more stable but still slightly loopy ex, Rita. As we open Season 3, in Dexter's own words, “life is good”.

Of course, even a show about a serial killer with a code of ethics would get boring if everybody ran around happy all day. Dexter's tumble into shit creek begins with his latest planned victim, a drug-dealing scumbag called “Freebo”. The plastic is hung in the killing room with care in the hopes that Dexter soon will be bringing Freebo there. Alas, Dexter's plan goes fubar when he shows up at Freebo's house and finds him in a tussle with a mysterious assailant. Dexter gets caught up in the fight and by the end he's killed somebody, but it's not Freebo.

Dex struggles with the implications of possibly killing an innocent for the first time. It turns out the stiff is Oscar Prado, a local youth leader whose big brothers are the sheriff and a hot-shot prosecutor (ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Jimmy Smits!). To make matters worse, Miguel, the prosecutor, has a romantic past with Lt. Maria. Miguel confronts Dexter for digging into his brother's past and ends up confiding in him, even insisting that he come to the wake. It's not all “Oops, I killed the wrong guy” for Dexter, though. It turns out there's a strong possibility that Oscar might have actually been “a fucking junkie” as Debra guilelessly blurts out in the office just as Miguel and Maria walk up behind her.

Oh, Debra. Dex's sister has given up “men, booze and cigarettes” (but not the potty mouth, thankfully) and has herself a cute new haircut that everybody (even Masuka) notices but Dexter. She's still trying to make detective and has a possible path offered to her by Internal Affairs officer Yuki Amado, who is asking Debra to keep an eye on Quinn, a new cop in the division.

So far it looks like season three, in a possible attempt to draw in new viewers, has hit the reset button and we'll see a fresh start for Dexter. Hopefully, we won't see a rehashing of past seasons (“Will Dexter finally be exposed as a serial killer?”) and the show will go in a new and different direction. One strong indication that it will came in the last minute shocker of this episode. Rita's pregnant! How will raising a little American psycho of his own affect Dexter? I'm picturing stuffed animals with their necks cleanly severed, stuffing neatly piled up nearby. How adorable.