Media Consumes Me

Much can be said about the opening episodes of Dexter’s fourth season. We can discuss the usual Pros and Cons, throw around predictions of what might or might not happen… even share theories on just what the show’s creators think they’re doing adding more silly Deb drama into the mix. But we all know what the hot topic is.

Our boy Dexter has got himself a new nemesis.

Whom, you ask, could possibly stand up to Michael C. Hall going all righteous Patrick Bateman on Miami’s criminal underbelly? To his methodical genius, advanced jujitsu, and boy-bookish charm?

Like a dose of sodium-pentothal to our collective carotid artery, our mystery guest steps forward.

A man who has faced down a raging sasquatch with a vaguely disgusted glance, then made himself a sandwich. A man who has chased windmill-giants and bandied words with the world’s most lovable ogre. Who has gone toe to toe with Jeff Goldblum, and likes to kill in his birthday suit. I think, by now, you know just who I’m talking about.

Admittedly, being excited over a naked John Lithgow is never a place I expected to find myself. Certainly it fits perfectly into the realm of those curious circumstances for which life can’t adequately prepare you. Like your first car crash, or Elektronic Supersonik. But from the minute I realized it wasn’t just a bath he was neurotically preparing for, up until he told that kid on the boardwalk that his choice of an ice cream flavor was repulsive, I’ve been hooked.

He’s the first thing that set the “oh shit, that’s creepy” hairs on the back of my neck on edge since this show’s first season. And I have to say… even those earlier tastes of what macabre lengths this show was willing to get into didn’t effect me like this nut job already has. The villains of this show have always had issues, not to mention our lovable antihero. But whatever the hell is going on in this guy’s head is steps and shadows beyond the rest. While Dexter’s “dark passenger” might always have one hand on the wheel… I think Naked Lithgow’s is in complete control.

Lithgow is the man in every way that shouldn’t be cool. Even when he was repeatedly groaning out eerie no’s beneath the scalding hot water of a darkened YMCA shower. Or when he watched the life drain from his victim’s face via a vanity mirror. Sick shit! Plus, brothers built like a peach colored brick house. Mighty, mighty, and letting it all hang out.

But that’s enough about Naked Lithgow. I don’t want to spoil the cool, refreshing breeze his character is invoking by dragging him through the muck of too much hype. Instead, a few words about the rest of the show. Which, naturally, was the usual mix of positive and negative elements the third season taught me to expect.

While I thought, for instance, that the new family dynamic with which Dexter must contend will prove revitalizing to a formula that has begun to drag, I found some other areas of the story wanting.  Like why is the focus on Quin suddenly intensifying? He’s just not very interesting. And are they attempting to revive that lost Dexter-Doakes friction… or is it just me?

Also, like Dexter committing murder in the 1st on too little sleep, the editing felt noticeably sloppy. Or maybe it was just the production in general. Even the writing was clumsy and a little predictable. From the minute you see that pretty reporter approach Quin, for instance, you know what they’re trying to do.

But some of the other changes might spin out well. I always enjoy watching Batista keep his pimp hand strong, and Lundy chasing down the one killer who has managed to escape him repeatedly might prove interesting.

So… despite the few criticisms I have, my focus will remain firmly on John Lithgow’s surprisingly firm backside. And the promise of the first good story arc since the initial season that it brings. So what do you think? Is Dexter going to learn some lessons and move on to a fifth season… or is Naked Lithgow, like the plagues of Egypt, marking the end of a series that has perhaps gone as far as it is able?