In plenty of time for the premiere of The Fourth Season on Showtime next month (September 27th, 2009), Dexter: The Third Season is out on Blu-ray now from Paramount so you can relive the excitement of last season, or experience it for the first time, all in the best way possible: 1080p resolution and Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1.
Dexter: The First Season introduced Dexter Morgan, Miami's secret antihero serial killer of serial killers, and the cast of characters in his life including his sister, officer Debra Morgan (Hall's real-life wife Jennifer Carpenter, Quarantine), his mental ghost Jiminy Cricket and foster father Police Officer Harry Morgan (James Remar, Jericho), girlfriend Rita Bennett (Julie Benz, Darla from Buffy and Angel), fellow forensic scientist Vince Masuka (CS Lee, Harry Tang from Chuck). Season One centered around "The Ice Truck Killer", a serial murderer who turned out to be closer to Dexter than anyone would have thought.
Dexter: The Second Season spins right out of the first, when bags containing the bodies of Dexter's victims are found by divers in the water off the Florida coast, and Miami Metro PD focuses all it's resources on finding a new serial killer, and ironically that serial killer is one of the department's resources.
*SPOILER ALERT* Read on for details about the beginning of Dexter: the Third Season.
Dexter: The Third Season sees Dexter feeling very sure of himself and his role in the world. He feels like he has grown beyond the mentorship of his father and is now ready to take on all the bad guys of Miami. But then the season gets off to a running start when Dexter, on his way to dexterize a drug dealer, comes upon said drug dealer, "Freebo", fighting another man who then attacks Dexter with a knife and ends up with the business end through his aorta. The next morning, Dexter learns that his mystery assailant is really the little brother of Assistant DA Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits – NYPD Blue, Star Wars: Episodes II & III). Dexter kills Freebo just as Miguel arrives outside Freebo's hideout, and Dexter tells Miguel he's killed Freebo in self defense rather than the truth that Dexter stalked to his hideout and killed in his usual ritualistic way. Will the district attorney learn the truth about Dexter, or will Dexter get away with murder again?
Dexter: The Third Season sees some new revelations about Dexter in his personal life as well. He's grown emotionally over the first three seasons, and now has some more growing up to do, as his girlfriend is now pregnant with his child. What will this mean for our favorite vigilante? Pick up Dexter: The Third Season to find out!
Extras:
All the extras are on BD Live. This is kind of pro and con. In the pro column, this means they can fit an entire season in the same size case as we'd get a single Blu-ray movie because all of season three fits on only 3 Blu-ray discs. Also in the pro column is the fact that in theory they could add a virtually unlimited amount of special features. They could, but strangely, even though this review is being written a week after street date of this release, there are no special features on BD Live yet besides the first two episodes of The Tudors and Nurse Jackie. The back of the case reports that we are still due Dexter By Design book exerpts and interviews with Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter, Lauren Vélez, and David Zayas "And More" but we're still waiting…
…But this is Dexter! We're not too fussed about getting special features. I mean, I wouldn't mind some bonus audio tracks with directors and effects guys, but we just want more Dexter stories, and while this one's more low-key than the first two seasons, it's by no means disappointing, this is 629 minutes of some of the best cable TV has to offer. Really, it just makes me look forward to Dexter: The Fourth Season coming September 27th to Showtime.
ComicsOnline gives Dexter: The Third Season 4 out of 5 deeper cuts.
