Dexter: Original Sin - Season 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Dexter: Original Sin - Season 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 21, 2025

We reviewers can be a particularly peculiar bunch. Some how, some way, our minds are often circling back around to upcoming reviews and such, even at the weirdest of moments. Case in point: some manual labor and time in relative quiet brought to mind this review of Dexter: Original Sin as well as the full span of Dexter on Blu-ray. Dexter has not been a part of Blu-ray from the beginning, but it's been there from nearly the beginning. 2006's first season made its 1080p disc debut all the way back in 2009, and the series has since seen individual season releases, full series value collections, some unique packaging collections, and even the special "10 years later" continuation series New Blood. Dexter has long been welcome on Blu-ray, and it's only fitting to see Dexter: Original Sin drop onto the format as well.

Original Sin's plot may not be all that original. It's an origins story filling in back content from a long established, and beloved, character, so the show starts from a place of preexisting expectations and a basic arc towards which it must move towards and adhere to. So in some ways the show lacks spontaneity, but it does work to bring to the screen a little more depth and insight into the mind of the title character. The show begins all the way back in 1991 and follows a much younger Dexter Morgan (Patrick Gibson) and his evolution to, well, Dexter Morgan. Working as an intern for the Miami Metro Police Department, the series follows his burgeoning love affair with vigilantism and dismemberment and hiding his own crimes. It follows his early days in both trades and explores the split personas that he will have to bring together if he's to successfully navigate the very dangerous worlds of "justifiable homicide" and "crime scene investigation," both of which are often interconnected with a common denominator: himself.

Rather than set 10 years after the final season, as was the case with Dexter: New Blood, Dexter: Original Sin is set 15 years before the first frame of the first season. Fans will find some things that are very familiar -- key sets have been painstakingly recreated, for example, but of course altered here and there as necessary to reflect the early 90s setting. There are also returning characters (beyond the title character) who are...familiar...yet at the same time not familiar. But the show meshes old and new together quite well, building on future events through past explorations. The show has some limitations, of course, meaning that there's that necessary place it's got to work towards in order to take things to the pre-established world introduced in the original show's first season, so some of the "intense moments" lose a little bit of intensity simply because, well, future events tend to lessen the dramatic value of prequel content, especially concerning a main character. But the show works through it well enough, navigating its necessary, predetermined trajectory by blending together familiarity with a few new twists and turns that dig deep into the character's psyche and magnify the essence of what makes Dexter Dexter.

The acting is great across the board, too. One of the big traps that is always of concern in a "prequel" type film or TV series is if the cast will simply fall into the trap of imitation rather than inhabitation. Well, that happens a little here, and one gets the feeling that Gibson studied up to master the external quirks of his character, but there's also the feeling that the young actor understands the character beyond the externalities. And that's what really matters. Sure, one must look and act the part, but one must feel it, too, and Patrick Gibson really seems to feel it. He understands the psychology, especially here as it's being formed and developed. We know where it is going, but Gibson plays it here more with a sense of raw awe and discovery. We see the crafting of ideas and the developing of details we know are to come as Gibson does a really solid job of working towards and working in the character as much as just working with the character. Slater, as always, is terrific in his role. He's really gotten better with age; this and Mr. Robot really see him shine in these twilight years of his career.

Dexter: Original Sin - Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Paramount releases Dexter: Original Sin to Blu-ray with a 1080p transfer, framed at 2.00:1, which has become something of a de facto TV aspect ratio. The image is best described as "solid," delivering clean and efficient visuals all the way around. Clarity is good, perhaps lacking the intimate razor-sharpness of the best of modern TV outings, but definitely yielding dependably reliable and decently intricate definition to faces, period clothes, and early 90s settings and props. There's never a real "wow" factor at work here, but it does satisfy the baseline demands for a good 1080p image. Colors are fine, though there is a fluctuation between overcooked warm tones and more normalized, if not slightly cooler, colors as well. The heavily saturated warms really stand apart and help add some intensity and dramatic flavor to the proceedings (as well as identify their setting), while the less sensationalized tones of the "here and now" are nicely saturated and appropriately vivid, especially the blues around the police station interiors and, needless to say, blood (and lots of it). Skin tones look good, black levels could maybe stand to be a shade deeper, and white balance is nice, especially on crisp white shirts and clean white police file papers. There is a little aliasing and noise, especially evident in those overcooked warm scenes, but overall such issues are not too bothersome.

Dexter: Original Sin - Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Paramount's standard Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack is at play here, and like the video I'd ay it sounds "fine" but doesn't really set the blood pumping (or flowing, as the case may be). It's mostly front heavy, with nice width to music and suitable clarity to boot. Rear bleed is not steady, but the surrounds do carry mild atmosphere and the occasional charge that spices things up a bit. There is not a bevy of high impact content, but when the track gets to one of those instances it's appropriately deep and delightful. Dialogue is the primary sound element here, and it plays with natural clarity and steady front-center placement.

Dexter: Original Sin - Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Dexter: Original Sin contains only one supplement, found on disc three. Dissecting 'Dexter: Original Sin' (1080p, 9:33) looks at the Dexter character, the setting, casting, making the kill scenes, the 90s setting, support characters, and more. This extra includes a spoiler warning, though I would not label it as offering "heavy spoilers."

Dexter: Original Sin - Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Dexter learns his trade by adhering to three simple words: "never get caught." Be that as it may, fans will want to get caught up in this new season. It's far from perfect, but it does do a great job of hitting the rewind button and introducing audiences to what was within the context of what has been. It's well produced, nicely polished, well acted, and maneuvers through familiar paces while at the same time finding a few intriguing elements that make this its own entity. The three-disc Blu-ray collection is solid, too, offering good (not great) quality video and audio. Supplements are thin, limited to a single bonus feature that runs less than 10 minutes in length. What's here should be enough for fans to take the plunge, and super fans can spend a few dollars more for a concurrently released SteelBook packaging variant.