Backstage With… Michael C Hall on bringing Dexter back: ‘I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ve missed him’
When Dexter ended after eight series in 2016 it suggested a new start for its protagonist – so perhaps it was always inevitable that the serial killer with a conscience would return to our screens one day.
Michael C Hall, who plays the killer, told Sky News’ Backstage podcast that it took the right opportunity for him to return to the beloved – if somewhat controversial – character.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that I’ve missed him, but I have periodically considered him and periodically considered him in part because the possibility of returning to the character and the show has been presented over the years,” he said.
The series picks up the serial killer’s story after five years off our screens. Pic: Sky UK
“I think now is the right time… with as much time having passed since we last saw Dexter, we’re afforded certain storytelling opportunities that we weren’t until now.
“So that was a big part of it and also just having had some time so that the revisitation of the character doesn’t feel fraught with the residue of whatever the old experience was, enough time has passed, enough experience has been had in my own life that there feels adequate distance between me and him, and now and then.”
That residue may in part be to do with the reaction to the final series, and episode, which wasn’t overwhelmingly positive.
But this new season sees the killer in a whole new place – both literally and metaphorically, as he’s now living in a small, snowy town in New York State and has settled in to a murder-free lifestyle.
Hall says returning to the part was like shrugging on an old jacket. “I remember how this fits and, oh yeah, like I never even noticed there was a pocket there,” he said.
“Like maybe, hopefully discovering new things that you hadn’t discovered and being reminded of things that you’d forgotten.
“But I did find that the character, you know, I spent a long time with him and considering him and playing him and living in that imaginative place, so there was a lot that was still very much there – just add water, you know?”
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With Dexter choosing his victims based on their failings, he could perhaps be interpreted as being the ultimate posterboy for cancel culture.
Hall says it’s not a comparison he’s drawn before.
“I mean, Dexter certainly isn’t choosing as his victims, nor did he ever choose people as his victims, people who 15 years ago said something unsavoury in passing.
“I think the people who fit the bill for him are maybe a little more deserving of cancellation, however you land on serial murder, which is another question entirely.
“I suppose he is cancelling or has cancelled a number of people, but I think his motivations are a bit a bit less motivated by any prevailing trends.”
It’s not just Hall returning for the new series, as Jennifer Carpenter is back as the killer’s sister – though this time in a more spiritual advisory role – and original showrunner Clyde Phillips and other behind-the-camera talent also on board.
Hall says getting the band back together certainly has its benefits.
“On the creative side, you know, as far as Clyde Phillips’ involvement and Scott Reynolds, who wrote throughout the course of the eight seasons and was back in this case, and Marcos Sieaga, who was our main director and sort of executive producing director, that just gave a sense of assurance that there was a collective sense of the fundamental DNA or connective tissue that we needed to maintain in spite of the fact that we were doing something very different and telling a different story, contextualised totally differently.”
Dexter: New Blood is coming to Sky Atlantic and NOW on 8 November – hear our review in the latest episode of Backstage, the film and TV podcast from Sky News
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Om Fahad: Iraqi social media influencer shot dead by gunman on motorbike who posed as food delivery rider – report
A well-known Iraqi social media influencer has reportedly been shot dead in her car by a gunman on a motorbike.
Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed outside her home in Baghdad’s Zayouna district on Friday, according to the AFP news agency, citing security officials.
It appears the unidentified attacker pretended to be delivering food to the victim, one security source said.
Om Fahad, who has nearly half a million TikTok followers, became famous for posting light-hearted videos where she dances to Iraqi music.
Six days ago, she shared footage of herself driving in a car and also posing in front of a mirror. They have each been watched hundreds of thousands of times.
The influencer was sentenced to six months in prison in February last year for sharing videos that a court ruled contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality”.
A campaign was launched in 2023 by the Iraqi government to clamp down on social media content which broke the country’s “morals and traditions”.
The interior ministry set up a committee to look for “offensive” clips on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, with several influencers being arrested.
“This type of content is no less dangerous than organised crime,” the ministry declared in a promotional video which asked the public to help by reporting such content.
“It is one of the causes of the destruction of the Iraqi family and society.”
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Speaking last year, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan argued the morality campaign has “nothing to do with freedom of expression”.
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In 2018, gunmen in Baghdad shot dead Tara Fares, who was a model and influencer.
After years of war and sectarian conflict following the 2003 US invasion that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normality despite sporadic violence, political instability and corruption.
But civil liberties, particularly among women and sexual minorities, are still constrained in a conservative and male-dominated society.
R Kelly’s challenge against a 20-year sentence for child sex convictions has been quashed by an appeals court.
The singer was correctly sentenced to 20 years in prison, a Chicago court ruled on Friday.
He was convicted in 2022 on three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex.
In his appeal, Kelly, 57, argued Illinois’ old statute of limitations – which required prosecution of child sex crime charges within 10 years – should have applied, rather than the current law permitting charges while an accuser is still alive.
The appeals court rejected this, labelling it an attempt by Kelly to elude the charges entirely after “employing a complex scheme to keep victims quiet”.
He also argued that charges involving one accuser should have been tried separately from the charges tied to three other accusers due to video evidence that became a focal point of the Chicago trial.
Prosecutors have said the video showed Kelly abusing a girl. The accuser, only identified as Jane, testified for the first time that she was 14 when the video was taken.
The three-judge panel from the appeals court noted jurors acquitted Kelly on seven of the 13 counts against him “even after viewing those abhorrent tapes”.
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In a written statement, Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean said they plan to seek a US Supreme Court review of the decision and “pursue all of his appellate remedies until we free R Kelly”.
“We are disappointed in the ruling, but our fight is far from over,” she said.
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