When Dexter hunts down a new victim and accidentally kills another man, he finds he has to work hard to try and fit this death into the code handed to him by his foster father. But then again, after the revelations of last season, Dexter's desire to put Harry (James Remar) on the pedestal he had previously been on means that he becomes a bit more flexible with his sacred code.
So who is this new friend of Dexter's? Well, it turns out the man he killed's brother is an Assistant D.A. and when A.D.A. Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits) sees how much his younger brother Oscar's death is affecting Dexter, he quickly forms a bond with the blood-splatter expert. And as the pair get closer, Miguel gets more and more glimpses at Dexter's true nature, even assisting him in a kill. But since Dexter can never let someone in that close and be happy, Miguel and Dexter start to have a game of cat and mouse, that while not nearly as good as the one between him and Doakes (Erik King), or the Ice Truck Killer from past seasons, it is still good stuff.
Meanwhile, Dexter also has to work out his feelings about bringing a life into this world and the possibilities that the kid could turn out like him. Dexter's frequent mental conversations with Harry primarily deal with either Rita's pregnancy or the Miguel situation. But as always, Dexter's dilemmas take center stage, but other events take place throughout the season.
Dexter's sister, Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), has got a new partner in Joey Quinn (Desmond Harrington), and an I.A. investigator on her back about this new partner. But that isn't all as she once again falls for what seems like the wrong person. As the season progresses, Debra develops a relationship with a Confidential Informant who seems to somehow be connected to this season's new serial killer, a man who likes to skin his victims alive.
As always, support characters like Angel Batista (David Zayas), Lt. Laguerta (Lauren Velez), Masuka (C.S. Lee) and Rita's kids, Astor (Christina Robinson) and Cody (Preston Bailey) all do a great job of adding a lot of substance to the show. While Laguerta battles with her personal relationship with the Prado family, Masuka has a stint of respectfulness when no one reads his article in a forensics magazine and Angel gets a new girl in a vice detective that almost busts Angel in a compromising position.
While I don't think Season Three quite meets the high standards of the past two seasons of the show, it is still a really good season, and the introduction of Miguel adds a nice element to replace Doakes (though I do miss his character). While the box claims a multitude of special features, in a truly Showtime manner, none of them are actually on the disc. If you've bought their shows before, then you know all of their DVD special features are only available by connecting to the Internet on your PC, and the Blu-ray versions are all accessed via BD Live. At the time of this writing, none of the features were available to view and so, I can't really talk about their quality.
But at least the high definition quality of the show on Blu-ray is just as stunning as ever. While the show has a gory subject manner, it's ability to not be overly gruesome and needlessly graphic is always a plus, especially since the few scenes of gore shown (like when we see the Skinner's fresh victims) could be a lot worse in high definition if the creators decided to go with a more horror flick style. Instead, the clarity of the visual and audio aspects makes everything from Dexter's cling-wrapped kill rooms to the scenes where he is on his boat dropping off his latest victims come through simply stunningly.
Dexter: The Third Season is worth seeing to anyone who has watched the show before and loved it (which is hard not to do). The twist of introducing a Dexterling is sure to spice up the series (I can't wait for next season when the little tike is sure to be born), and the new serial killer that Dexter is trying to hunt down is even more menacing than those of the past. I would give the release a better score if the special features were actually on the disc, and something I could actually view and grade, but at least the episodes themselves are great on their own merit.
