Every now and then, a successful TV show creates a spinoff that fans fall in love with (Frasier, Daria, even The Simpsons, believe it or not). Unfortunately, these gems are heavily overshadowed by the worst of the worst (Joey, Joanie Loves Chachi, Saved by the Bell: The College years). The term “spinoff” is now met with rolling eyes and groans, when its full potential hasn’t even been tapped. In the new Golden age of television, the fields are ripe for harvest! Sick of waiting for Hollywood to hurry the hell up, we’re just going to do it ourselves. Your favorite shows are about to be Spun.
The late 90’s/early 2000’s gave birth to televisions age of the anti-hero. Sure, they were around way before then, but we're talking about a time when they dominated television. Tony Soprano, Don Draper, Walter White, Ben Linus…they certainly brought a new, interesting element to serialized tv. But there was always one that pushed those boundaries between anti-hero and villain to new limits, and it remains one of the most beloved and memorable shows in recent memory. Dexter.
Weeks ago, some fan art for a new (fake) Season 9 of Dexter hit the internet. A fake poster that surprisingly generated quite a bit of excitement from die hard fans. I remember seeing it, and being surprised that friends of mine (fellow movie buffs) thought that this was a real thing. Does no one have a trained eye anymore??
The word going around the webs is that in response to this unexpected buzz and excitement, Showtime is scrambling for new Dexter ideas. Spinoffs of other characters, sequels, prequels, what have you. Luckily for Showtime, I make a living (part-time) obsessively watching what networks do right and do wrong with their programs. Since we’re always more than happy to lend a hand, let’s dive right in. How do you recreate a serial killer?
Title: Dexter: Restored
The Pitch: Dexter’s past was highlighted quite a few times in the original series, with flashbacks showing the shipping yard massacre, the beginnings of his dark passenger, being born in blood, all that jazz. There was even an animated web series focused his earliest murders, appropriately titled “Early Cuts”. Pair this origin story with the overall dissatisfaction of the stories ending (no more inner monologue & no more human connections = self imposed prison while working at a lumber yard). What we end up with is something similar to Better Call Saul. Try this:
After an “accident” involving a chainsaw at the Lumber yard leaves the foreman of the site absolutely butchered, cries for help are heard. Dexter and other workers rush to scene to find the foreman’s young son (there to learn the family business) crying in a pool of his fathers own blood, and swearing that this couldn't have beenan accident. His father was too experienced, and someone must have done this. Arriving on the scene triggers something inside our titular character, as he hears his own inner monologue for the first time in nearly a decade whisper “Does this look familiar?” Glimmers of his dark passenger start to resurface in the present (black & white if you want). Meanwhile, the bulk of the series focuses on a younger Dexter (maybe even playing off of some of the Early Cuts) as the events of the present parallel events from his past. Dexter is reawakening.
The Characters:
Dexter. Duh.
Michael C. Hall would need to return for this one, but in a lesser role. I’m sure he’s proud of his time on this program that garnered so much attention for him and Showtime, but I’m also fairly certain it’s not all that he wants to do as an actor. He could come back to this, showing up only a handful of times each season. We’d also need to see a younger version of Dexter in his early twenties, after his time killing animals to satisfy his urges, but before his job with Miami Homicide. Right around the time Harry Morgan tells Dexter to Kill the “first nurse”, who herself is a serial killer attempting to put Harry out of his misery. This is incidentally Dexter’s first victim, which cross cuts to present day Dexter catching up to the man responsible for killing the lumber yard foreman. You can see where it goes from here. So we would need a younger Dexter. Who's young, looking for a new franchise, and can pull off that hair…
Perfect
Since this show takes place in the pacific northwest, we wouldn’t see many of the long time favorites from the original series (if they’re still alive). But here’s who we would see: Harry Morgan, teaching his son how to deal with his dark side, and how to cover his own tracks. A younger Debra Morgan, seeing nothing but perfection in her brother and trying her best to make her dad proud.
Plan B Pitch:
Season 4 of Dexter is arguably (who the hell would argue with that?) the best season the show had to offer. The season won Hall his first Golden Globe for Best Actor, and earned another Globe for Best Supporting Performance in a Series. That award went to John Lithgow, who played season 4’s big bad, the Trinity Killer (he also earned an Emmy for the same performance). His performance was terrifying. Unfortunately for my wife, it was the first time she had ever seen John Lithgow. So she’ll never see the humor in “3rd Rock From The Sun”, she’ll never see Winston Churchill for the historic figure he was in “The Crown”. She’ll only see the Trinity Killer, who she swears is coming to get her next.
As a character, Trinity was the ultimate bad. No villain from any other season could compare. Out of all of Dexter’s nemeses, Trinity also had the highest body count at roughly 264 victims, killing 4 victims, twice a year for 30 years. Not to mention the random victims that didn’t fit into what he considered “God’s Plan”, Dexters own wife being one of them. But out of those roughly 264 kills, we only got to see 5 of them. Dexter wasn’t the first person on Trinity’s trail. The first one that we know of was FBI agent Frank Lundy, who came out of retirement to track down Trinity, the one case he could never solve. Here’s your spinoff:
Trinity focuses on Arthur Mitchell (the Trinity Killer), right around the time the FBI catches wind of this pattern of killings taking place across the country. Frank Lundy is assigned to assist the case under a veteran detective, which will take them to a new city every season, trying to find Trinity before his cycle is complete. Meanwhile, Arthur Mitchell has to be at the top of his game to evade them (occasionally assisted with this by his daughter Christine), and simultaneously appear as if all is well to his wife, as they prepare to raise their first son.
Sound off schmoes! Do you want to see Dexter come back? If not Dexter, what about Trinity? Anything else from this universe of Serial Killers that could be revisited? Let us know in the comments!