New to BBC1 – Apparitions

Described in advance of broadcast as the bloodiest TV drama ever made, Apparitions arrived to BBC1 last week, and though it had some blood, it was no more then can be found in the average episode of Dexter…

The-six part drama, which drew around four and a half million viewers for it’s first episode, follows the exploits of Father Jacob (Martin Shaw), the Chief Exorcist for the Catholic church as he rids London of evil.

(Wait did I say Chief Exorcist? Who knew such a career path was even possible?)

The storyline is a bit silly at times, but overall the show was entertaining and a bit creepy, but it offered enough to get me to tune in again… But if you are hoping for a television version of The Exorcist then sadly you will be disappointed!

Dexter 2.12 – British Invasion

The last episode of series two means clean up time for Dexter; time for him to fix problems, sort grudges and eliminate his worries until season three. So how did our anti-hero get on?

• Dexter’s captive Doakes is discovered by Dexter’s nemesis, and ex-NA sponsor Lila. Did she set him free? Did she heck, she used her pyromaniac tendencies to blow him up, but not before she discovered that Dex is the BHB.
• With Doakes out of the way he feels free. He feels like he has his old serial-killer life back, so he celebrates by having sex with whiny old Rita.
• Dexter still has one problem to solve though, and it comes in the form of a sexy British babe, who just so happens to be a bit loopy. Dexter ponders what to do about her… kill her perhaps?
• Lila isn’t as dumb as one would think, and discovers Dexter’s evil plan to get rid of her. So being a psycho, she kidnaps Rita’s kids and takes them back to her apartment. Dexter being a hero flies in to save them, only to be trapped by Lila, who sets her studio apartment on fire (Lila really likes fire doesn’t she). Dexter though isn’t going down without a fight, and he dons a blanket for a cape, and does his best superhero impression smashing through a burning wall to escape.
• Meanwhile, Debra decides, grudgingly, to stay and help Dex, getting rid of that wrinkly supercop Lundy in the process.
• So only one more problem for Dexter to solve, eliminating Lila, the one person who can spills the beans about him being the BHB. So in ways unknown, he tracks her to Paris, and then does what Dexter does best, he eliminates his problem using some horse tranquilliser and some cutting implements.

Dexter 2.11 – Left Turn Ahead

Season two of Dexter is almost finished so it is time for Dex to start clearing up and prepare for season three. So lets see how Dex is getting on:

• Dexter is starting to feel guilty. Guilty about leading Harry down the path to suicide, guilty about LaGuerta, and guilty for not protecting his friend Angel from the evil Lila… “is this how evil works? Destroying everything in it’s path?”
• Dexter contemplates turning himself in because he feels so guilty. This would not only break Dexter’s first rule; Don’t get caught, but also the first rule of television; Never cancel a hit show. (Unless of course they want Dexter to go running around prison chopping up baddies?)
• Doakes has managed to break free from the cage that Dex has been keeping him in. Unfortunately he makes the mistake of telling the first people he comes across (a couple of Cuban drug dealers) that he is a cop. The Cubans celebrate this news by cracking Doakes on the head with a gun and marching him back to the cabin, along with a few kilos of coke. On returning to the cabin who should happen along but Dexter, who kills the drug dealers, and puts Doakes back in the cage.
• Dexter gets a call from the hospital regarding Lila. Dex is clever though and sees right through her, he knows Angel didn’t rape Lila. Debra who has known all along that Lila is as loose as nutless wheel goes and warns the British nut-job to leave Miami… or else face the wrath of immigration.

A fairly slow week in Dexter’s Miami, but it does set us up nicely for the season finale next week…

Dexter 2.10 – There’s Something About Harry

At the end of the last episode of Dexter, our anti-hero had Doakes locked up firmly in a cage in Jiminez’s cabin. Dexter now has a decision to make; Kill Doakes and break his code, or release him and break rule #1 of not getting caught. Additionally he also has the small problem of how he can dodge his protective detail to take care of ‘personal’ matters… “what ever happened to the good old days of who’s next?”

 Dexter is a clever killer though and comes up with a way of dealing with Doakes that neither breaks his code of conduct, or Harry’s first rule – he decides to frame him.

Dexter decides to drug Doakes and put his finger prints all over his collection of killing tools. As we know though things don’t always go so smoothly for Dex, and before Doakes passes out from the drugs he gave him he tells Dexter that his Dad Harry was a nutcase – now Dexter has another problem in his life, finding out what Doakes was talking about.

After a bit of poking around, Dexter does discover that his Dad Harry didn’t actually die from a heart attack, he committed suicide… something that does not go over well with poor Dexter.

This series though is not all about Dexter though, and this episode also revealed some stuff from the other characters. Lila, has decided to try and win Dexter back by seducing Angel, which she does after getting him to paint her apartment. She then takes some ‘roofies’ in an obvious attempt to frame Angel for rape… but why?

Also the Debs and Lundy affair continues, and Debs is unsure where the relationship is going after the case is solved, and in typical Debs fashions she has a little girl hissy fit and breaks up with the wrinkly supercop. Later though after one of Deb’s famous “talks” she takes him back.

And with that another episode of Dexter is finished, leaving us with more questions and less answers about how Dexter will clean up the multiple messes he has in his life!

Dexter 2.09 – Resistance is Futile

Season two of Dexter is gathering momentum now, and the twists and turns are making the new series a fantastic ride, that is easily my most anticipated show each week.

In flashback mode, we watch a young Dexter attending and execution with Harry… just another fun day out for Dexter with Harry’s but the message is clear; Don’t get caught! So present day Dexter sets out this week to clean up his mess, and ensure he follows Harry’s premier rule. As we all know though Dexter’s life is never straight forward, and when he arrives at work he finds his lab has been invaded by a team of geeks, brought in by Lundy – what they are looking for is anybody’s guess, but Dexter knows if they are looking for evidence against him it won’t be found on his computer, or in his lab.

Meanwhile that pesky Doakes has gone on a trip to Haiti… no he is not on holiday, he is trying to convince an old associate to get him access to a lab to analyse Dexter’s ’souvenier’ blood slide collection.

Back in America Dexter has set the geeks up in his lab, and decides to slip back home to clear his apartment of any incriminating evidence he may have lying around… killing tools, the blood slides, 20,000 feet of cling film, that sort of stuff. Before he gets out of the police department though he finds that Lila is hanging about with the boys. Not wanting to appear as though he is running off, to say, hide some evidence, Dexter is persuaded to go for a drink. Whilst in the bar, Dexter gives Lila another warning to leave him alone… something tells me though we have not seen the last of needy Lila.

When he finally arrives home he soon finds that somebody has taken his collection of blood slides from within the air-conditioner, “Lundy found my slides. It’s over.” Dexter then discovers that Debra is in his apartment who starts babbling on about her “complicated situation”, but before she can bore Dexter and us viewers to death there comes a knock on the door. Debra thinks the feds outside have come because Lundy has made a major break-through on the BHB case – Dexter thinks they have come for him – which they have!

They arrive at the station, and walk in slow-motion as Dex looks into the main office to see Angel, Masuka, and LaGuerta watching him come in. Strangely, they don’t look shocked at all. In Lundy’s office, Dexter walks slowly towards Lundy and Matthews, who are standing behind a desk, on top of which lie the blood-slides, sitting in a sterile evidence bag. Dexter fears the worse, but his fears are soon changed to feelings of joy when Lundy explains that they recovered the slides from Doakes car – the feds are sure that Doakes is the Bay Harbour Butcher.

After a night of working and secretly celebrating, Dexter is taken home by some Feds, who assure Dexter he will be safe, because they will be outside keeping watch to ensure Doakes doesn’t come calling for Dex. This poses a small problem for Dexter who still needs to dispose of Jiminez’s body. Dexter though being Dexter soon escapes and makes his way undetected to dispose of the corpse that he has left rotting in the secret swamp hideout where he killed Jiminez… his work though is disrupted by Doakes, back in the country and finally with the evidence he requires to expose Dexter once and for all as the killer he always assumed he was.

Is Dexter finally screwed once and for all… I guess we will have to see next week

Dexter 2.08 – Morning Comes

Somebody said once that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. Sometimes I think this is not a bad thing, especially when that ‘old dog’ is everybody’s favourite TV scum killing serial killer Dexter.

Ever since his stash of bodies was discovered Dexter’s life has been thrown into turmoil – as I guess it would be. So for most of the series we have watched as Dexter has attempted to cure his killing addiction by attending NA meetings. Poor Dexter though, the harder he tries to better himself, the more the world seems to push him back down. So this week Dexter finally accepts what he is, and tries to get his old life back. In Dexter’s world though even going back to being a killer is a road that is pretty rocky, but still he soldiers on!

He begins sorting his life out by killing Santos Jiminez, the man who tortured and killed his mom… but we always knew he would! Dexter then finally sees that Lila is a needy psycho when she breaks into Rita’s house, so Dexter gives her the heave ho… something tells me though he won’t be rid of her until he gives her a bit of the special Dexter knowledge before chopping her to bits.

Unfortunately for Dexter, as he is chucking his girlfriend a new problem arises for him, that he is yet to discover. His old friend Doakes is back to his sneaky ways as well, and as Dexter is busy killing Santos, Doakes is busy sneaking through Dexter’s apartment, and he finds Dex’s souvenirs.

Dexter 2.07 – That Night a Forest Grew

This episode sees Dexter use the deepest darkest parts of his mind to come up with some clever solutions to some of the problems that have been building up in Dexter’s life. Dexter as we know is not a superhero though, and sometimes he is not as clever as we would like to think.

Dexter’s first plan is to get Lundy and his team of super, and not-so-super sleuths off of his serial killing trail. Dexter’s plan involves sending a 32 page manifesto he created by cutting and pasting from blogs to the Miami tribune. The manifesto as we learn contains all sorts of references (political, religious etc.) to confuse the team about his motive, and thus creating hundreds of criminal profiles for the team to investigate – will his plan work? Not exactly it only leads Lundy to the conclusion that the Bay Harbour Butcher works in law enforcement!

Dexter’s other plan is to get Doakes off his back once and for all. How does he do this? Well he gets Doakes to send an innocent man “down the river” by telling him the blood splatter on his clothes points to him being a killer. In actual fact though, he isn’t! Dexter then hides the blood report exonerating the man on Doakes desk, and tells Lt Laguerta that it has been there since yesterday. This leads to Doakes confronting Dexter who headbutts him in private, leading to Doakes assaulting him in public. – Hey presto Doakes is suspended… but is he off Dex’s case? I guess we will have to wait and see!

Dexter though isn’t all about our anti-hero and his killing ways. Dexter like ogres has layers, and we also have the irritating Rita saga and Debra’s life to watch as well.

This week Debra fell even further for her agent Lundy, who makes her feel safe. He is teaching her how to chill out by listening to classical music, and he is teaching her how to be thrifty, by bringing her own sandwich to work. Somehow this is capturing Deb’s heart, and she kisses Lundy while eating a sandwich! She also dumps her boyfriend, with a “it’s not you, it’s me” type speech.

So that only leaves us the Rita/Lila love triangle to sort out. Rita as we know is finished with Dexter, but her kids miss him and her son Cody secretly invites Dexter to his school presentation. Dexter I think misses being a family man and agrees to go – hey presto Rita is back in the Dexter mix, and Lila seems to be on the outs – that is until she burns down her studio and manipulates Dexter back… but will it last? I’m not so sure, I think Dexter might end up chopping this silly Brit to bits, but we will have to wait and see!