Dexter is on the prowl in New York City in Resurrection series

Dexter Morgan has more lives than a cat.

We’re now up to the fourth Dexter show since the original series premiered almost two decades ago. He nearly died a bunch of times, faked his own death, then was seemingly permanently dispatched in the 2021 revival series New Blood, only to be revealed as not dead in the prequel show Origins.

You cannot kill that guy. And you cannot kill a franchise in this IP-driven era.

Michael C. Hall returns in the aptly named Dexter: Resurrection, a mostly silly little series of no real consequence, but one that actually manages to be pretty entertaining.

Call it an exercise in corporate cynicism that creativity and originality are too risky, but watching Dexter prowl around New York City is far more compelling than him being miserable in the woods.

It’s a whole new jungle with even more predators, some of whom are being played by a truly impressive recurring and guest cast including Uma Thurman, Peter Dinklage, Krysten Ritter, Neil Patrick Harris, David Dastmalchian and Eric Stonestreet.

Either someone called in a lot of favours or every actor wants to play a delicious villain or serial killer.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s rewind for a second. At the end of the original series, Dexter faked his death by heading into a hurricane, and then became a lumberjack somewhere. That was the closing shot. Viewers were not happy.

Eight years later, we catch up with Dexter in New Blood, living under the name Jim Lindsay (a nod to Jeff Lindsay, the author of the Dexter books upon which the series was based) in a small town in upstate New York.

His “dark passenger”, as in, his killer urges, have been dormant and he’s even in a relationship with the police chief. Then his son Harrison (Jack Alcott) shows up, which stirs not just his murderous instincts but drama.

It plodded away for a 10-episode season during which Harrison became Dexter’s apprentice in serial killing, culminating in some old-fashioned patricide.

Except the gunshot wound to the chest turned out to be not so fatal, and Dexter lives, albeit after a 10-day coma. Now we’re in Resurrection, both literally and legally with old Miami detective Angel Batista reversing Dexter’s death declaration in Florida.

Angel is also persuaded that Dexter was actually the Bay Harbour Butcher (because he is), so Dexter hightails it out of the hospital and legs it to New York City after he sees a report about a body found in nine pieces. It must be Harrison’s handiwork.

The pivot to the New York City setting is what gives this series at least something resembling new life. We know the city, at least through other TV shows and films, as somewhere full of every type of person, including other serial killers such as the man decapitating rideshare drivers.

The promos for the show have teased a murderers’ cabal, and they show up in the fourth episode, which is how many were made available for review. Dinklage plays a billionaire whose gruesome hobby is to collect not just mementos but people, hosting a social club for these self-appointed executioners.

Dexter has always explored the isolation of his life and urges, his inability to ever be honest with anyone since the death of his adopted father, Harry. In the original series, there were times when he thought he had found similar souls, people with whom he could share the particulars of his predilections.

It never ended well — just ask his sister Deb, or the characters played by Jimmy Smits, Julia Stiles and Yvonne Strahovski. They don’t always end up on Dexter’s table, but Dexter always ends up alone.

Falling in with a group of serial killers can only end one way, surely.

Does that bode well for the rest of the season? At this point, the show may not even need those emotional stakes because they’ve been so well-hashed already. Is Dexter even capable of actually evolving, which is different to just changing cities?

After 19 years, maybe all we want is to watch Dexter stalk and kill his prey with glee.

Dexter: Resurrection is streaming on Paramount+ with new episodes weekly