Dexter - Season 2

The second season of Dexter just barely fails to reach the quality of the first, what with all of the revelations and such, but they still manage to weave a web of interesting characters and surprising twists. Sadly, I first started watching this show at the end of this season, so I kinda robbed myself of all the extremely intense moments that pop up over the season. While season one's plot seemed like something that would appear later in a series, season two's story seems like it could work as a final story arc. Season two sees another huge serial killer gaining attention in Miami, but this time it's Dexter himself. His graveyard of victims underwater gets discovered by accident, and he has to do everything he can to keep himself in the clear.

There's plenty of other subplots, like Dexter faking a heroin addiction to cover up his true secret and Deb trying to come out of her shell after what happened last season, and most of the supporting cast's roles are expanded and developed a bit. Whereas I found Angel and La Guerta to be pretty non-essential obstacles the first time, much more is shown about their true character, and they actually become somewhat sympathetic. The sole exception is Doakes. His actions rapidly cross the line into being just ridiculous. We're meant to believe that he has, quite literally, been following Dexter every single night for weeks now. Really? He's been portrayed as a smart cop in the past, but Doakes' "investigation" around Dexter is just silly. And his smug, hardass attitude doesn't make him any more bearable. Doakes being so suspicious of Dexter was a compelling idea and it definitely reaches an exciting climax, but its execution needed a bit more work. Kinda went off on a tangent there.

The show's still really about Dexter, and he's still a really great character, funny and resourceful as he has a major identity crisis and learns more about his past. I thought the background stuff revealed near the end of the first run came a little early in the series, saying too much too soon. But they proved that there's still plenty about the character we don't know. I also like how Dexter has to spend a good bulk the season playing defense and trying to manipulate the current crisis. I didn't care too much for the relationship drama Dexter endures, but Lila was a unique, interesting character that resulted from it. I also didn't care that the resolution to the story arc resulted more from him being lucky than smart, but that's not enough to distract from an otherwise excellent season and the first time I saw this it certainly made me interested to see what happens next.