Dexter Radote! A “Origin Story” that we could have done (critic)

The most famous serial killer on the small screen tells of his youth in a pop -looking pop with disconcerting lightness. An exploration of the bloody mythology of Dexter, which moves to the sound of Gloria Estefan. Not quite essential.

We have already seen this story, right? Pure prequel if any, Dexter: The origins Go back in time to tell how the little boy collected by Harry became this famous serial killer who made us shiver for 8 seasons (and more if affinities). Except that over his 96 episodes, Dexter had already narrated this youth, often even, to explain his confusing personality. Inevitably, this return to the past gives the feeling of stabbing in the void.

So to get around this obvious problem, the new series – which starts this evening in France on Canal Plus – seems clumsily trying a new approach, trying to give Dexter a Origin Story worthy of a superhero. We find him in medical college, genius of dissection and with a super-power: the student is able to resolve a crime scene at first glance! And here he is debauched by the Miami police – where Papa and a young Batista are already working – to do an internship in the scientific brigade. But he’s hungry … murder! Without really trying to illuminate the complexity of the character further upstream, the series is content to recycle its fundamentals: plastic tarpaulins, apron, knife, code … everything is there. This new evocation of the killer is very aware of herself, roughly fed by fan-service.

What changes above all is the setting. The staging heavily supports the aesthetics of the Miami in the early 1990s: walkmans, garish shirts, emphatic music fed at Gloria Estefan. Each episode saturated with these almost caricatured nostalgic markers, as if Dexter had been raised by Two cops in Miami. A colorful atmosphere that stands out with the oppressive darkness that was the strength of the original series. The psychological darkness of Dexter seems to have diluted, replaced by a pop thriller where the murder loses all gravity, almost trivialized.

Enough to stay hungry … Even if all that remains entertaining, because saved by its casting XXL. Patrick Gibson – Revelation of The OA – Make an improbable lookalike of Dexter in their twenties. Christian Slater Holds its place with confidence, but it is above all the supporting roles that make the job, of the magnetic mustachio Patrick Dempseylooking forward to seeing Sarah Michelle Gellar. Far from reviving the morbid fascination of the original series, the new iteration is satisfied with a pleasant evocation but without real ambition.

Dexter: The origins, to see on Canal more from Thursday, February 6, 2025.