Back when Dexter first released, I was a big fan. I even wrote a review about the first season, which was phenomenal and probably one of the best seasons of television I’ve seen, thanks to its plot twists. That was 18 years ago!

I continued to watch new seasons of Dexter as they aired, but as we probably all know, the show sadly experienced a massive decline in quality over the years. For me personally, S1 still remains the best and cannot be topped in the severity of its mind-blowing plot twists. Season 2-3 were also generally good, and while most people praise S4 (with the Trinity killer) as the best, I wasn’t so much into it when it aired, probably because John Lithgow was too intense for me.

I have to admit I barely remember what came after that. Admiral Adama and Tom Hanks son as some religious dudes, that Julia Stiles in a weird role, and later Yvonne Strahovski in a very good role. But the writing became worse and worse, and the eight and final season was a bit of a cringefest, especially that whole plot with Deb.

And of course the ending. Dexter is one of the most often mentioned TV shows with the absolute worst endings whenever somebody asks this question on reddit. Rarely have I seen such an anticlimatic ending as Dexter becoming a lumberjack. I think he should have been held accountable for his crimes by the law, in whatever way. Instead, we got a lumberjack.

The only ‘good’ thing that came out of that ending, was perhaps the follow up miniseries Dexter: New Blood from 2021. This sequel to the original show shows us Dexter living a quiet life in a small town. But very soon, weird things start happening there, especially as Dexter’s now almost-grown-up son Harrison arrives and tries to question him.

When I first heard about this sequel, I was like “More Dexter? Jeez they’re milking this IP dry”. But I was actually pleasantly surprised. Contrary to most people’s opinions, I actually thought Dexter: New Blood was a really good murder mystery, which was great at building suspense and had a great conclusion. The only problem I had with it was that Dexter should have just god damn communicated with his son, because then a lot of problems would never even have arisen. But altogether a fun sequel!

If you thought that’s all the Dexter you’d ever seen, you’re wrong! Apparently the success of New Blood has sparked the writer to milk the cash cow even more, and they now decided to also do a prequel to Dexter, which is titled Dexter: Original Sin. I went into this again with super low expectations because really, how good could a prequel with a whole cast of different actors really ever be?

The answer is: This is how you do a perfect prequel with different actors! I’m honestly blown away by how good the first season of Original Sin was. The actors are phenomenal, and it’s uncanny how well Patrick Gibson channels Michael C. Hall in this role. I’m really 100% looking at the same character here, and not even once did I have any doubt about this. And to complete the picture, Michael C. Hall narrates Dexter’s inner voice in this show, making it feel instantly familiar.

The same goes for the characters of Debra, LaGuerta, Angel and Masuka – all expertly channeled to an uncanny degree that sometimes I asked myself if this is the same actor as in the original show (but that can’t be, it’s been almost 20 years).

Aside from the the acting, the mysteries of this season are also great. While in the present (which in this case is the early 90s) we are confronted with a bunch of murders that Dexter-as-intern has to assist in solving while also trying to deal with his dark urges, the show also jumps back to tell more of the backstory of Dexter’s origin.

If at some point in your life you enjoyed watching Dexter, I think you would greatly enjoy Original Sin as well. Amazing acting, fun 90s nostalgia, and a good mystery!