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[Blu-ray Review] ‘Dexter: The Sixth Season’ Is Good, Not Great
Some minor spoilers follow
When we last saw Dexter, he had an optimistic outlook on life even after the loss of his wife and partner-in-crime, and was seemingly content with raising his son and developing some sort of normalcy in his life. Well, normalcy aside from the fact that he moonlights as an avenging angel who takes down killers that have slipped through the cracks of the system.
The showrunners behind Dexter have given the blood splatter analyst a formidable opponent every season, to varying degrees of success. When Dexter was internally struggling to understand his father’s teachings and his family’s history, he was put up against his own brother, The Ice Truck Killer. When he was conflicted about whether his Dark Passenger would destroy his new “family,” he watched his worst case scenario play out before his eyes when he was taken in – in a sense – by Arthur Mitchell.
Considering the ethical and moral issues brought up every season, it’s almost a shock that it took six seasons to pit Dexter against a religious fanatic, but the circumstances have really never been better. Shocked by the physical and emotional loss of two companions, he’s faced with raising his son with the support of his sister and live-in babysitter instead of a mother and feels empty and hollow. From the beginning of the season, Dexter admits he believes in nothing while visiting a Catholic school for Harrison, but begins looking beyond his atheism when he meets Brother Sam, played by the always great Mos Def. His quest for something to believe in is juxtapositioned with the emergence of The Doomsday Killer (Edward James Olmos), a fanatical ex-professor who – along with an apprentice (Colin Hanks) – enacts signs of the apocalypse from the book of Revelation; doing awful things in the name of religion never goes out of style.
The sixth season stands tall among Dexter’s other escapades, with two reservations. The inclusion of Deborah’s incestuous dream, in which she sleeps with her brother, is brought up a handful of times during her psychiatric sessions and never stops feeling too bizarre and creepy for its own good. Dexter is inclined to believe in family over religious deities and since his sister is the only family he has left, the ties between the two siblings are as strong as they possibly can be when one of them is living a lie. The strength of the relationship is there, Deb’s daddy syndrome is there, but it just never works and as the season goes on, it’s almost like the producers realized they made a mistake and dialed it down severely. Whether those feelings will make a return next season due to what happens in the finale remains to be seen, but it wouldn’t be surprising.
Dexter also takes a detour in the middle of the season and investigates Arthur Mitchell’s son, who finds himself surrounded by death yet again. It’s relatively pointless within the context of the season and feels like lame filler; if it was cut out and the season was one episode less, no one would notice and the story arc would feel leaner. Still, the latest season of Dexter is good and gives fans a cliffhanger that’s been long overdue, but with one less episode and wet dream, it could have been great.
A/V
Showtime’s HD transfer for the sixth season of Dexter is on par with the other seasons released thus far. Shadow contrast is great, grain is a little heavy and splotchy in some scenes, and blacks are deep and varied. Sadly, the outdoor nighttime scenes are once again not up to snuff, but that can be attributed to the production value; they were a little murky during the Showtime HD airings, too. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track balances the sound effects and dialogue wonderfully, and gives Daniel Licht’s always top-notch score a nice robust presentation.
Special Features
There’s a collection of interviews with the cast and crew of Dexter and episodes from other Showtime shows that can streamed via BD-Live, but they did not work at the time of this review. Judging from the few minutes of the C.S. Lee interview that worked, they seem of the back patting, floating head variety. BD-Live will always be a joke because you have to have your player hooked up to the internet to watch special features you paid for, and if you don’t have that capability on your player then you’re out of luck. The Dexter sets have never had great special features; maybe we’ll finally get some once the big mega-deluxe box set comes out after the series finale.
Score: 3.5/5
Scream Factory brought Frank LaLoggia’s 1988 Halloween movie Lady in White to Blu-ray several years back, and now Vinegar Syndrome gives the film a 4K Ultra HD upgrade.
Vinegar Syndrome’s Lady in White 4K release is available now and shipping now!
Watch the trailer below and grab your copy from Vinegar Syndrome today.
This limited edition 4-disc 4K UHD/Blu-ray x 3 set comes with a spot gloss hard slipcase + slipcover combo (designed by Dylan Haley), includes a 40-page perfect bound book and is limited to 8,000 units. It is only available on their website and at select indie retailers.
The full Special Features package includes…
- 4-disc Set: 1x 4K Ultra HD (High Bitrate BD100) / 3x Region A Blu-ray
- 4K UHD presented in Dolby Vision High-Dynamic-Range
- Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative
- Presented in three versions: 126-min Pre-Release Director’s Cut (UHD+BD), the 118-min Extended Home Video Cut (BD), and the 113-min Theatrical Cut (BD)
- New group commentary track with writer/director Frank LaLoggia, alongside actors Lukas Haas, Joelle Jacobi, and Len Cariou for the Pre-Release Director’s Cut
- New commentary track with Frank LaLoggia, moderated by Scott Neumyer for the Extended Home Video Cut
- New commentary track with authors Emma Westwood and Stephen A. Russell for the Extended Home Video Cut
- Archival commentary track with Frank LaLoggia for the Extended Home Video Cut
- “Learning How to Fly” (10 min) – an interview with actress Karen Powell
- “A Snapshot in Time” (9 min) – an interview with actress Lisa Taylor
- “Human Touches” (6 min) – an interview with actress Lucy Lee Flippin
- “Still Relevant” (16 min) – an interview with actress Rose Weaver
- “75% Listening, 25% Editing” (9 min) – an interview with editor Steve Mann
- “Welcome to Willowpoint Falls” (6 min) – a location featurette hosted by Benjamin Scrivens, founder of Fright-Rags
- “Dream Talking: Looking Back” – a visual group commentary for the Pre-Release Director’s Cut with Frank LaLoggia, and actors Lukas Haas, Joelle Jacobi, and Len Cariou (103 min)
- Deleted Scenes with introduction and optional commentary by writer/director Frank LaLoggia (36 min)
- Behind-the-scenes footage with introduction and optional commentary by writer/director Frank LaLoggia (16 min)
- Extended behind-the-scenes footage (73 min)
- Introduction from the 20th anniversary dvd release
- Promotional ‘industry sales’ trailer (7 min)
- 40-page perfect bound book with essays by film historians Molly Henery, Mark H. Harris, and Heidi Honeycutt (limited edition only)
- Multiple radio spots
- Theatrical trailer
- Multiple TV spots
- Workprint trailers (7 min)
- Still gallery
- Reversible sleeve artwork
- English SDH subtitles
1962. Nine-year-old Frankie Scarlatti enjoys a homespun childhood in a rustic Western New York town. The entire community gets into the spirit of Halloween, but then two bullies prank Frankie by locking him in his school cloakroom, leaving him trapped for the night. Alone and afraid, his slumber is interrupted when the ghost of a little girl appears, and Frankie witnesses the specter of her murder by an unseen assailant. Later, while recovering at home, the girl’s ghost appears to him again. With help from his older brother, Frankie begins investigating the circumstances of her death. He soon discovers that her murder was one of several unsolved crimes connected to a local child-killer. As the town’s bucolic veneer fades and long-buried secrets and tensions bubble to the surface, all of the clues to the mystery seem to point towards a huge mansion inhabited by a reclusive woman known as “The Lady in White.”
A nostalgia-driven ghost story wrapped within an intricate murder mystery and coming-of-age drama, writer-director-composer Frank LaLoggia’s passion project Lady in White remains one of the most beautiful and original American horror films of the 1980s. Featuring acclaimed actors Alex Rocco (The Godfather), Len Cariou (Executive Decision), and Sydney Lassick (Carrie, The Unseen), it boasts the first starring role by Lukas Haas (Mars Attacks, Inception) as well as breathtaking photography by Academy Award® winner Russell Carpenter (True Lies, The Lawnmower Man). Vinegar Syndrome is honored to bring this genre masterpiece to 4K UHD, newly restored from its original 35mm camera negative and presented in three versions: its pre-release director’s cut, its extended home-video version, and its original theatrical version, along with an abundance of both new and archival extras.
Paul Lê wrote here on Bloody Disgusting back in 2023, “Over the years, fans have described this film as gateway horror, but they liken it more to The Watcher in the Woods than, say, Hocus Pocus or Casper. There are chilling moments that warrant its PG-13 rating.”
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