It is seemingly not possible for “Dexter,” as a franchise, to move forward. In the final moments of the sequel series “New Blood,” which aired eight years after the original series finale in 2013, Michael C. Hall’s serial killer was fatally shot. (Or at least, he appeared to be — more on that in a second.) This development, on its surface, marked the end of the road for one of the defining leads of the antihero era, a role Hall had been playing for 15 years at the time. Sure, yet another follow-up, “Resurrection,” would pass the torch to Dexter’s son Harrison (Jack Alcott). But if network Showtime wanted to keep wringing drops from this blood-soaked towel, the only direction left to go in was back.
Incredibly, the prequel “Dexter: Original Sin” tries to have it both ways. Not only does the 10-episode season — advance screeners of which were not provided for critics — wind the clock back to 1991, when a 20-year-old Dexter (Patrick Gibson) graduates from the University of Miami and makes his way into the local police department as a paid intern. The show, created by original “Dexter” showrunner Clyde Phillips, also undoes the seeming finality of “New Blood.” As it turns out, Dexter survived, and the events of “Original Sin” are framed as memories he mulls over while on the operating table. Before introducing Gibson, the camera zooms in so the “Emergency Room” sign instead reads “Emerge.”
The immediate, insurmountable problem with “Original Sin” is that the same superfans who form its target audience are already familiar with its major events, because “Dexter” itself was chock-full of flashbacks. Christian Slater may be new to the part of Detective Harry Morgan, but it’s long-established “Dexter” lore that Harry helped his adoptive son channel his “Dark Passenger” to more (debatably) constructive ends by targeting other killers. Even the identity of his first victim, a nurse who preyed on her patients, is locked into the canon. There aren’t many gaps left in Dexter’s early life for “Original Sin” to fill in.
“Original Sin” opts to steer into the skid, embracing repetition rather than putting in much effort to avoid it. Dexter’s coworkers Batista (James Martinez) and Masuka (Alex Shimizu) are introduced exactly as they will be in the first series, right down to their costumes: Batista is a gregarious mensch in a fedora, Masuka is a skeezy lech, and both are already installed at Miami Metro. While Maria LaGuerta (Christina Milian) at least gets a backstory as a new detective who’s been publicly critical of the homicide department’s disproportionate focus on white, well-off victims, she’s not that far removed from the woman she’ll be in 15 years. Gibson spends most of the premiere in a ridiculous wig of surfer curls; by the end, he’s got Hall’s haircut, and his inner monologue sounds suspiciously like his predecessor. (Hall returns IRL for the opening scene, but retreats to the sound booth to provide narration throughout.)
Dexter may be a relative novice at 20 years old, yet he already has his M.O. of wrapping his victims and their environs in plastic — both to restrain them and allow for efficient cleanup — dialed in. His sister Deb (Molly Brown) is a bratty teenager, and there’s a faint whiff of novelty to “Original Sin” as a demented family sitcom about a grieving family with some deadly secrets. (In 1991, Deb and Dexter’s mother has recently passed away.) Dexter’s first kill, initiated by the nurse poisoning Harry when he’s hospitalized after a heart attack, is intercut with Deb’s high school volleyball game. But there’s not enough to unseat the impression that “Original Sin” is just playing back the hits, right down to a soundtrack of ‘90s touchstones like “Ice Ice Baby.” The show could’ve taken more time to get Dexter in the swing of things; instead, he satisfies his bloodlust and lands the job in 45 minutes of screentime.
“Original Sin” offers some new information via Harry, who gets his own garishly color-saturated timeline set in the 1970s. But the device just turns into an echo of the “Dexter” flashbacks, and calls attention to how much the slight ‘90s timeline is in need of padding out. The “fresh” faces in the “Original Sin” ensemble are themselves avatars of nostalgia: Sarah Michelle Gellar plays Dexter’s new boss, while Patrick Dempsey appears as the mustachioed, helmet-haired police chief. (At least the hair and makeup departments are having fun!) “Original Sin” doesn’t draw any new life from a piece of IP that’s now old enough to vote. It does, however, represent the profit-chasing retrospection that’s devouring culture from the inside out like a termite infestation. All that’s left is a hollow structure to be blown away by the next Miami storm.
The first episode of “Dexter: Original Sin” is now streaming on Paramount+ and will premiere on Showtime on Dec. 15 at 10 p.m. ET, with remaining episodes streaming on Fridays and airing on Sundays.
