Tonight’s the night. Or Sunday night, rather, that Michael C. Hall will take home an Emmy award for “Dexter.” On television’s biggest night, one filled with hundreds of stars and nominees from hundreds of shows, the man who plays Dexter Morgan is the most deserving. Based on the 2004 novel “Darkly Dreaming Dexter,” the series has exceeded expectations by being both a compelling mystery show and an excellent character study.
The world’s most lovable and sympathetic serial killer, Dexter Morgan, is the most complex character on television today. Dexter is a psychopath, a murderer who shows no remorse for the victims whose lives he takes. However, there is one catch – he only murders murderers. When Dexter isn’t taking lives while the moon shines in the sky, he works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Dexter has a disease. In order to live and breathe, he must kill. When Dexter was a young child, his father, Harry, noticed he had a penchant for killing small animals. Mutilating small animals is a classic characteristic of numerous real life serial killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer. Harry, being a police detective himself, knew as Dexter grew older, his thrill and thirst for taking life would become greater. As a son who greatly cares for the safety and protection of his own flesh and blood, Harry would do anything for Dexter. In order to quench that thirst for bloodshed, Harry developed a “code” for Dexter to follow.
This “code” is more of a way of life. As per the “code,” Dexter can kill human beings, so long as they are murderers themselves. No innocent people can be killed. But the most important part of the “code” is that Dexter must never be caught. Living in a crime-infested city like Miami, Dexter always has a full supply of evil lives to take.
Every new season finds Miami being plagued by a new breed of serial killer. So while Dexter is off murdering wife-killers and child-rapists, his ultimate pursuit every season is the current serial killer at the time. In the first season it was the “Ice Truck Killer,” who murdered prostitutes and left clues for the police to follow. This format of a new serial killer being introduced has repeated every season.
In the grand scheme of the show, it looked like the climax of every season would end with Dexter confronting and murdering the serial killer. Going into the fourth season of the show, I wasn’t convinced that the writers would be able to keep up the momentum of the first three successfully if this creative pattern was to be repeated every year. That’s where the genius of this most recent season comes in.
The main serial killer in season four, played by John Lithgow (“Cliffhanger”) was a man who had eluded capture for thirty years whom the police nicknamed “Trinity” for his tendency to kill in threes. By episode five, Dexter has found the whereabouts of Trinity and follows him home to discover that he is unlike any killer he has previously encountered. He lives a double life as Trinity the killer and churchgoing family man Arthur Mitchell. As Dexter aptly put it, “He’s like me.”
Dexter decides not to let homicide know that Trinity is in town, but instead keeps it a secret so Dexter can kill him on his own.
By the middle of the season, Dexter creates a new persona in Kyle Butler, an orphan who goes to Arthur for help and guidance. Underneath it all, Dexter’s mind is in a much deeper state. In the physical sense, Dexter interacts and communicates with Arthur, who takes him under his wing. In an emotional sense, Dexter is learning how another family man like him can successfully balance two sides of his life.
Hall is a brilliant actor. He plays the character with such smoothness and ease that unless he was ever caught in the act, no one will ever know Dexter’s secret.
On Sunday night, Hall will be up against a stacked collection of actors for Best Actor in a Drama Series. Bryan Cranston, who was outshone by an amazing supporting cast this season in “Breaking Bad,” comes into the night as the heavy favorite having won the award two years in a row. Hugh Laurie, who plays everyone’s favorite doped up TV doctor, House, has been denied the award for four years is looking for his first Golden Lady. Jon Hamm, who plays the suave scotch-soaked ad man Don Draper in “Mad Men,” is also looking for his first Emmy.
Matthew Fox and Kyle Chandler, two first-time nominees for “Lost” and “Friday Night Lights” respectively, are looking for upsets to bring award praise to two great television dramas.
But those other five men should just get comfy when they sit down for the beginning of the show on Sunday night. When it comes time for the Best Actor in a Drama series award, they’ll just continue to sit, because it will be Hall who stands when his name is called.