Dexter Season 9 (2021) Trailer - Reaction/Review

Every one's favorite vigilante (outside of DC comics) returns in the ninth season on Showtime channel.

 

Dexter is one of my all time favorite TV shows. Michael C. Hall was born to play the role of Dexter Morgan, the bloodstain specialist who moonlights as serial killer with a twist: he only targets killers/murderers and human beings of similar ilk.

 

Dexter and his sister, Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter) worked for the Miami Metro Police Department. Debra becomes aware of her brother's alter ego at the end of the sixth season.

 

Despite having a strong ensemble cast (led by the lead actor) and superb seasons initially, the show slowly started going downhill after the fourth season. The sixth and eighth season were among the weakest (in my opinion).

 

Now, after a lot of online speculation and fervent wishing by fans, we finally have the trailer for the next season.

 
Check out the official trailer from Showtime:

 

 

Dexter has assumed the alias of Jim Lindsay, a sales associate with Fred's Fish and Game store. This is a tribute to Jeff Lindsay, the author of the Dexter Morgan series of books.

 

We can see that though Jim/Dexter is seemingly leading a normal life, he is tempted by the Dark Passenger, who is clearly active and itching to get back into action. The small town settings did remind me a bit of Fargo. 

 

One of the strong points of the series has been the excellent casting of actors to play the series antagonists. As good as most of them were (except Colin Hanks), I especially enjoyed the performances by Christian Camargo (The Ice Truck Killer/Brian Moser), Jimmy Smits (Miguel Luis Prado), Jonny Lee Miller (Jordan Chase) and Ray Stevenson (Isaak Sirko). I actually liked Jonny Lee here better than as Sherlock Holmes in Elementary.

 

Continuing in the same vein, Clancy Brown has been cast as the main antagonist: Kurt Caldwell, the unofficial mayor of small town Iron Lake. Clancy has had a long career playing villains and would be a favorite among both DC and Marvel comic book fans, after voicing Lex Luthor in the DC Animated Universe and Surtur in Thor: Ragnarok.

I personally look forward to seeing the return of Dexter Morgan and his inevitable cat-and-mouse game with Kurt. Clancy has the physical presence and the gravitas to become a memorable entry to the illustrious rogues' gallery.

Image Sources: Showtime Networks, John Goldwyn Productions, The Colleton Company, Clyde Phillips Productions, Devilina Productions

You might also like:

Jurassic World - Review

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - Trailer Review

Elementary Season 3 Episode 21 "Under My Skin" – Recap and Review

At the alcoholics meeting, Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) notices another member, Lloyd (Michael McGlone) behaving suspiciously. “Lloyd” is actually a private detective who is keeping an eye on Sherlock's recovery sponsor, Alfredo Llamosa (Ato Essandoh).

Alfredo's former employer, Castle hired “Lloyd” to keep tabs on Alfredo. Alfredo had been fired by Castle after some disagreements he had with another employee. Sherlock tries to help Alfredo, but the latter refuses his offer by claiming they are not friends.

The episode's main mystery starts off with a Maggie Halpern (Sarah Bolt) being taken in an ambulance. Her ride comes to a halt when an unseen person shoots to death the accompanying EMT (Dana Berger). Then the person drives away, thus effectively kidnapping the woman.

The suspect is Wallace Turk (Terry Serpico) who has been using Maggie as a drug mule. Escanso, a doctor in Brazil was the one who planted the drugs inside Maggie.

Click on the image below to buy Season 3:

Detective Marcus Bell (Jon Michael Hill) and Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) question Dr Ward (Fisher Stevens). One of his patients, Janko Stepovic (Gene Farber) is a criminal mastermind who runs a drug smuggling syndicate.

Janko himself is killed outside his house. The very next day, Dr Ward's attorney, Sarah Penley (Natalie Gold) offers information in exchange for protection for her client.

Dr Ward provides the location where the dead bodies were buried. After taking a look at the corpse, Joan deduces that it is Dr Ward who is the killer.

Sherlock ends up firing Alfredo as his sponsor in order to be able to take an active part in his personal life.

Canonical References

Sherlock's comment about the perfume worn by the slain Janko - Sherlock Holmes states in The Hound of the Baskervilles: “There are seventy-five perfumes, which it is very necessary that a criminal expert should be able to distinguish from each other, and cases have more than once within my own experience depended upon their prompt recognition.”

This was an OK episode. No great performances or great moments of humor to leave an impression on one's mind.

Everyone's favorite turtle, Clyde makes his appearance in the scene, where Sherlock is trying to make sense of the Voynich manuscript.

Click here to read all my posts about CBS Elementary.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to this blog by email or RSS by clicking here.

Image Source: CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

You might also like:

Elementary Season 1 Review

Elementary - Cast Review

Elementary Season 3 Episode 20 "A Stitch in Time" – Recap and Review

In Arthur Conan Doyle's original story, The Adventure of the Red-Headed League (REDH), a cunning criminal (John Clay) digs a tunnel from the basement of his unsuspecting employer (Jabez Wilson) to a nearby bank to steal the cash. Sherlock Holmes of course, stops the theft and catches the robbers red handed.

Elementary writers offer us a modern take on REDH. Instead of Mr. Wilson, we have another simpleton, Claire Renziger (Anita Gillette).

The case starts with Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) investigating the murder of Garrison Boyd, a famous rationalist/atheist.

Sherlock and Detective Marcus Bell (Jon Michael Hill) question Finn (Andrew Rothenberg), who has had some unfriendly exchanges with Boyd just days before his death.

A suspect emerges in the form of one Collin Eisely (Eric Bogosian). Collin is a businessman who owns a few buildings . But he seems to have an alibi. He directs Sherlock to the aforementioned Mrs. Renziger, one of his tenants.

Click on the image below to buy Season 3:

Claire believes that her husband Harry's ghost is trying to communicate with her. Claire seems to be of the opinion that Harry has discovered about her extra-marital affair with a certain Jim Harmon. She is of the strong opinion that her husband's ghost is uttering “Jim Harmon” as he goes around terrorizing her.

Sherlock however does not buy into her theory and deduces that something more logical is afoot. He infers that the supposed voice of Harry was actually some human being uttering some similar sounding Arabic term “Im Haram”.

Sherlock works his way to figure out the apartment of Nadim Al-Haj (Lohrasp Kansara), by tracking down his fellow tenant, Yolanda Massee  (Marcy Harriell). Coincidentally, Nadim stays in one of the buildings owned by Collin.

Piecing together the pieces of the puzzle, Sherlock finally deduces that Collin's plan was to delay some electronically transmitted financial information by a few milliseconds and make millions of dollars in the process.

The secondary subplot involved Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) helping Captain Thomas Gregson (Aidan Quinn)'s daughter and NYPD Detective Hannah Gregson (Liza J. Bennett) on a case involving a series of thefts. Hannah seeks Joan's help, as the officer in charge of that particular case is held up with some other work.

Sherlock warns Joan that Hannah is only a mediocre detective, but Joan believes in Hannah. Joan solves the mystery behind the thefts, but is surprised when Hannah takes all the credit instead of passing the information to the concerned officer. Captain Gregson advises Joan to stop helping his daughter any further.

The plot was OK. The acting was adequate.

I did like the opening scene, which has Sherlock Holmes wearing the beekeeping suit as he examines his bee colony inside the brownstone. His investigation reveals infestation of the colony by the parasitic species of Varroa mites.

The Irregular, Mason (Robert Capron) made his customary appearance due to the electronic nature of the case.

Click here to read all my posts about CBS Elementary.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to this blog by email or RSS by clicking here.

Image Source: CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

© 2019 - www.buddy2blogger.blogspot.com. All rights reserved. No part of the content or the blog may be reproduced without prior written permission.

You might also like:

Elementary Season 1 Review

Elementary - Cast Review

Elementary Season 3 Episode 16 "For All You Know" – Recap and Review

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) finds himself as the main suspect for the murder of Maria Gutierrez (Jessica Diaz). Detective Demps (Richard Brooks) and Detective McShane (Aaron Serotsky) are handling the investigation. They have a handwritten note from Sherlock that sets him up for a meeting with Maria on the day she disappeared.

Sherlock confesses to Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) that he was heavily addicted to drugs three years back after the supposed death of Irene Adler (Natalie Dormer). Sherlock reaches out to one of his former acquaintances, Oscar Rankin (Michael Weston). Oscar used to supply drugs to Sherlock during the period Maria was murdered.

Oscar believes that Sherlock had killed Maria and warns him to stay away. Joan tries to get some information from Maria's family members, but receives no help.

Sherlock meanwhile gets beaten up badly by two unidentified men on the street near his brownstone. Sherlock pickpockets the wallet of one of his attackers. The wallet identifies the man as Prentice Gutierrez (Felix Solis) who is the brother of the deceased Maria.

Click on the image below to buy Season 3:

Sherlock and Joan visit Prentice at his workplace. He is not co-operative at first, but Sherlock convinces him of his innocence. Prentice informs him that Maria was being harassed by a man just before her death.

Sherlock and Joan next talk to Councilman Robert Barclay (Gary Wilmes), at whose office Maria was working around the time of her death. He claims to be a fan of Sherlock's work and offers his complete assistance to the two detectives.

In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, Sherlock gets arrested. In desperation, Joan reaches out to Oscar. He shows Joan a blood stained shirt that was supposedly worn by Sherlock after killing Maria.

Sherlock deduces the identity of the killer based on the aforementioned shirt.

Canonical References

1. Elementary Sherlock uses the following famous quote from The Sign of the Four: “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? ”

2. Sherlock getting attacked and beaten up severely by two men on the street - This is a bit tenuous, but reminded me of the original story: The Adventure of the Illustrious Client. In this story, Sherlock Holmes is physically assaulted by two men on the orders of Baron Adelbert Gruner. Stuart Townsend portrayed Del Gruner in the show.

This was an OK episode. The resolution to the mystery was very weak.

Miller's Sherlock once again proves why he is so different from the Canonical Version. While talking to Oscar, he reveals that he used to have a lover. Of course, now and then we would have a scene showing Elementary Sherlock in bed with random women. The Canonical Holmes is very averse to the company of women.

Another point of interest: In the opening scene of the episode, Joan receives her client - a guitar player (Keira Keeley) who claims that someone has stolen her musical tune and composed a jingle out of it. This consulting session is interrupted by Sherlock's antics upstairs.

We never hear about this case or the client again in the episode. Some kind of resolution would have been great. 

Guest star Michael Weston however makes an impression as the quick talking Oscar Rankin. May be we will see more of Oscar in later episodes.

Click here to read all my posts about CBS Elementary.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to this blog by clicking here.

Image Source: CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

You might also like:

Elementary Season 1 Review

Elementary - Cast Review