Reviews

This show is insightful, yet too brutal

Dexter is a sociopath, someone with no human feelings and hence no natural, inner moral compass, and he has an unquenchable blood lust that drives him to kill. But he had the great grace to have been the adopted child of a police officer, who (as we see in terrific flashbacks) successfully instilled in him a complete moral code, which he adheres to on a strictly intellectual level. This is an utterly brilliant concept (which I assume derives from the novels it's based on), one that allows the writers to explore the nature of moral behavior and of what it means to be human (Dexter is, in a sense, an alien).

Another thing the show is doing brilliantly is moving at different speeds in parallel. There is a primary apparent season-long story arc (concerning a cat-and-mouse game between Dexter and a serial killer), and a a secondary arc involving Dexter's sister's police career. The first handful of episodes include a very powerful completed arc concerning one of Dexter's police colleagues and a local crime lord, while two of the four episodes so far have also included a self-contained story spliced among (and playing off) the ongoing ones. I've seen the future of TV season structuring, and this is it.

While the writing isn't quite up to the brilliance of the best of _House_, it's been excellent. The cast and production are terrific. The only reason you wouldn't want to watch this utterly brilliant show is the frequent use of extremely graphic images: there have probably been more severed body parts shown in these first four episodes than in the first four episodes of every other TV show on the air combined. If you can stomach that, tune it for a mesmerizing look at what makes us human -- or inhuman.

C'mon now, I've seen worse movies. Much of the disappointment I feel for this film is because of how good it could have been.

First off, the script - it was simply over the top. Often, more subtle humor works better - the audience does not need to be hit with a sledgehammer when a tack hammer will do the job. The plot, complete with twists (some predictable, some not) was workable - and there were some truly funny moments, but they ended up being overshadowed by the overdone bits.

Much of the cast did good work - Ray Liotta turned out for a surprisingly good performance, and Jennifer Love Hewett surprised me with the quality of her performance. Ms. Weaver, however, seemed at many points to be simply reading the cue cards. In light of her usually excellent work, I can only surmise that she was as appalled by the material she was being asked to work with as I was, and couldn't get into the part and retain her self-esteem.

There are some great lines, and the general plot is believable, but this is NOT a 'con' flick - the con artistry that movie viewers have loved in 'The Sting' and 'Ocean's Eleven' is pretty well blown by the general ineptness of the con "artists".

One remarkably onerous note may please some viewers. The mark (capably played with awful lines by Gene Hackman) is such a caricature of the offensive, rude smoker that it's likely to be offensive to anyone who knows, likes, or is a smoker themselves. The anti-smoking message was so loud that it ruined some scenes that could have been humorous otherwise.

All in all, a worthwhile flick if you like the overdone comedy of 'Dumb and Dumber' better than you like, say, the obvious but not overplayed 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' or 'Bedazzled'.