‘Resurrection’ brings ‘Dexter’ back to life — and Michael C. Hall is better than ever

When Dexter premiered on Showtime in 2006, I loved it. Michael C. Hall, fresh off HBO’s Six Feet Under, played the title character, Dexter Morgan. Dexter was so traumatized as a child by witnessing the murder of his mother that he grew up with unquenchable homicidal tendencies — tendencies his dad Harry, a cop, channeled by teaching him to kill only bad people, specifically serial killers.

Dexter arrived on TV at a time when the antihero was king. Tony Soprano on The Sopranos, Vic Mackey on The Shield, Walter White on Breaking Bad — all of them had pushed the envelope of what audiences would accept from a morally complicated central character. But Dexter doubled down, and went all in.

The apex of the original Dexter series came at the end of Season 4, featuring John Lithgow in a season-long guest appearance as the Trinity Killer. By that time in the series, Dexter had evolved to the point where he had a wife, and a baby boy named Harrison, and, in most respects, a normal family life. Except that, as Dexter hunted the Trinity Killer, the Trinity Killer was hunting him — and ended up killing Dexter’s wife, and leaving their son in a pool of his mother’s blood, traumatized just as Dexter had been as a child. Showrunner Clyde Phillips, who had overseen the series for four seasons, walked away after that season finale — which I always considered the perfect ending for the series.

Except it didn’t end. Without Clyde Phillips, Dexter kept going, for several more seasons, none of them any good. Eventually, Clyde Phillips returned to the franchise with two more “Dexter” series — a prequel called Dexter: Original Sin, and a sequel, Dexter: New Blood. That show reintroduced Dexter’s son Harrison, now as a homicidal teenager — who, in the finale, shot Dexter dead with a hunting rifle.

But as we learned in the opening episode of the new Paramount+ and Showtime series Dexter: Resurrection, also developed by Clyde Phillips, Dexter was shot, all right — but not shot dead. Instead, we found him in a 10-week coma, subject to a series of drug-induced dreams. He’s visited in those dreams by several familiar faces from his past — including John Lithgow as the Trinity Killer.

The first few episodes of Dexter: Resurrection are good — better than any “Dexter” show has been in years. But it’s in episode four where Dexter: Resurrection really comes back to life.

Masquerading as a serial killer named Red, Dexter infiltrates a creepy dinner party hosted by a wealthy, twisted eccentric named Leon. Leon, played by Peter Dinklage, has an assistant named Charley, played by Uma Thurman, whom he dispatches to track down serial killers who are still at large, and bribe them with a briefcase full of money to attend a very exclusive dinner party.

It’s at the dinner party, when the usually antisocial killers meet and swap stories, where Dexter: Resurrection regains its formerly strong footing. These murderers are the beneficiary of some killer casting — they include Eric Stonestreet from Modern Family, Krysten Ritter from Breaking Bad, and Neil Patrick Harris from How I Met Your Mother.

Dexter: Resurrection is full of old as well as new characters, and has multiple murder investigations going on at once. The narrative is as interwoven and complicated as a DNA strand, and relies on the acceptance of quite a few major coincidences — but it all works. Dexter is back, and Michael C. Hall is better than ever. Come for the party. Stay for the murders, and the murderers.