19/09/2025

LYFE FRIDAY | SEPT 19, 2025

25

Dinklage (left) and Thurman are the tip of the iceberg for the big names that appear in Resurrection .

Harrison is further developed to draw a distinction between him and his father Dexter.

TV SHOW REVIEW

Blood runs fresh o Dexter: Resurrection breaks from old formulas

decisions made on those seasons is a welcome one and certainly something fans have always been asking for, particularly when it comes to Dexter’s growth as a character. This is most evident with Dexter ’s final scenes with Leon Prater (Peter Dinklage), where he acknowledges that his homicidal urge to kill other serial killers and his need for bringing justice and protecting the weak are not mutually exclusive, or the monologue at the end of the season, where he admits that his connection with loved ones will help him be more human. Even Harrison is fleshed out as a proper character, with an actual direction on where the franchise will take him, rather than being the uneven oddity he was in New Blood . Additionally, related to that, Angel’s pointless cameo from the limited series has brought him back in an expanded capacity for an emotional reunion with Dexter. Ambitious world-building It also has to be pointed out that Resurrection might be the first season in the totality of the franchise to completely shake up the standard Dexter storytelling formula. The season starts with a rapist being

In New York, Harrison’s new life as a hotel bellhop is compromised when the “dark urges” inherited from Dexter causes him to stop a woman from being raped, which spirals out of control when he kills and dismembers the rapist. The hastily discarded body parts eventually end up being discovered at a trash dump site, making not only the regional news, but also placing Harrison in the crosshairs of the New York Police Department’s best detectives. Realising the danger Harrison has put himself in, Dexter makes his way to New York City to save his son, with Angel hot on his heels. However, once in The Big Apple, Dexter realises he is not the only serial killer in the city. Sharper writing, bolder choices A return to form for the series, Resurrection is a well-thought out course correction for where Dexter ’s original run and 2022’s New Blood took its characters. Their mishandling and odd creative choices is largely absent from the revived series. Showrunner Clyde Phillips’s choice to reverse the creative

N OW 19 years old, the Dexter television franchise has gone through five great early seasons and three progressively terrible ones in its original run from 2006 to 2013, one middling “miniseries” in 2022, one now-cancelled prequel season from earlier this year and the latest entry, Dexter: Resurrection that is certainly a resurrection, in more ways than one. After being shot by his son and slipping into a coma in Iron Lake, Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) awakes several weeks later to find Harrison (Jake Alcott) has left the town. In the middle of physical rehab, former colleague and Miami Metro Police Department Homicide Captain Angel Batista (David Zayaz) appears, carrying with him a strong suspicion that Dexter is the infamous serial killer, the Bay Harbour Butcher. Ű BY MARK MATHEN VICTOR

Harry (left) returns to the franchise as the manifestation of Dexter’s moral compass. – PICS FROM SHOWTIME

chopped into nine parts and ends with a secret killer cabal bankrolled by a billionaire being dismantled. Though there are no details on the budget for the new season, it has to be monumental due how said cabal comprises of characters played by Krysten Ritter, David Dastmalchian, Neil Patrick Harris, Marc Menchaca and Eric Stonestreet. Not to mention all the cameos of actors reprising their roles from the original eight seasons. Cameos are typically distracting, but Phillips somehow pulled it off by sensibly inserting the minor

appearances in small sections while giving bigger screentimes to the more important new characters, which in turn expanded the world of Dexter . Refreshing at multiple levels, Resurrection is a much needed revitalisation of a franchise that began in the mid-2000s and has appropriately adapted to the tastes of an audience who are just as similarly two decades older. Like its titular character, the show proves to be a police-evading, serial killer-killing beast that has grown not only older but more complex with the passage of time.

Demon Slayer dominates Japan’s box-office rankings THE latest iteration of anime blockbuster Demon Slayer has become Japan’s second highest-grossing film ever, data showed Tuesday, meaning the mega-franchise now dominates the top two spots in the country’s all-time box office rankings. movie sales tracker Kogyo Tsushinsha. The feat came after the 155-minute film took first place in the North American box office this weekend with a genre-record US$70 million (RM294 million) debut. “We hope that the Demon Slayer fandom will expand more,” distributor Aniplex said. Koyoharu Gotouge and then animated by studio Ufotable, Demon Slayer is often lauded for setting a new standard for anime cinematography. Dazzling visual effects permeate the latest movie featuring acrobatic, lightning-fast battles with demons at a kaleidoscopic castle with an infinite array of floors.

With the latest milestone, the series now has only itself to outrank, after its first film in 2020 bagged a whopping 40.7 billion yen. The latest movie – the first of a series capping trilogy – is hyped everywhere in Japan from giant train station adverts to endless TV commercials and even rice paddy art starring Tanjiro. “I cry each time,” Yuri Kamada, 22, said at Grand Cinema Sunshine in Tokyo’s anime hub Ikebukuro, after her third viewing of the film. Not only humans but their enemies are depicted so thoughtfully that “I can easily sympathise with demons too”, she said, describing “nothing but pride” in the movie as a Japanese citizen. Originally penned by comic book artist

Demon Slayer ’s relative accessibility also sets it apart from other manga juggernauts like One Piece , which spans over 100 volumes. “Unlike One Piece or Dragon Ball , it’s a rather short series of around 20 volumes, and I appreciate its simple, easy-to-understand plot,” Reo Takagi, a 19-year-old Tokyo student, said after his second viewing. Anime dominates in Japan, where only two of the 10 highest-grossing films are live-action – namely Titanic and the first of the Harry Potter series. Partly buoyed by the indoor entertainment boom during the Covid-19 pandemic, anime’s popularity has exploded globally in recent years, with streaming giants like Netflix rushing to capitalise. – AFP

Demon Slayer – the tale of adolescent swordsman Tanjiro Kamado and his comrades on a quest to kill human-devouring demons – is wildly popular both at home and abroad for its breathtaking animation and relatable themes such as friendship and family bonds. Within 60 days of its release, the movie hauled in 33 billion yen (RM940 million) in ticket sales domestically, distributors said Tuesday. This means it has now overtaken Studio Ghibli’s 2001

masterpiece Spirited Away – which grossed 31.6 billion yen – as the second biggest box-office hit, according to

A statue of Tanjiro Kamado, the title character in the Japanese anime film Demon Slayer , on display at a cinema in the Ikebukuro area of Tokyo. – AFPPIC