Michael C. Hall is back as the sympathetic serial killer in Showtime’s Dexter, which is entering its fifth season. A lot of changes are in store for his character: “Everything we’d seen him build up is now gone,” he said.

Michael C. Hall plays a character who has, by his own count, murdered more than 60 people. He has also done battle, in a kind of Ultimate Serial Killing Championship, with a succession of bloodthirsty adversaries, one of whom turned out to be his own brother.

So when Mr. Hall announced in January that he was undergoing chemotherapy for Hodgkin’s lymphoma — shortly before accepting trophies in January at the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild award ceremonies wearing a knit cap on his bald head — it was hard not to feel a shiver at the coincidence: the star of the Showtime series Dexter, the most death-obsessed show on television, contracting a potentially fatal disease at 38.

This post may contain spoilers for readers still catching up on DVD.

Q. Are there some key themes or narrative arcs threading through Dexter this season?

A. We’re primarily dealing with the blowback from Rita’s death and the fact that Dexter is culpable. In a way, discovering his infant son in that pool of blood is a new origin story. We’re familiar with the original origin story, where Dexter is an innocent baby, but now his son is that baby and Dexter is not so innocent. So he’s carrying around a heavy dose of guilt and is motivated to atone for the responsibility he feels for his wife’s death.

If you’re waiting to watch season four of Dexter on DVD, don’t read this interview yet. The ending of last season was so shocking, we’ve got to talk about it with Michael C. Hall. Season five will pick up right after the death of, uh, that person we’re trying not to spoil. Hall did a good job teasing a group of reporters from the Television Critics Association, so all he spoiled was the fourth season, which most of us are already caught up on.

CraveOnline: How is Dexter dealing with remorse, if he has any?

Michael C. Hall: I think it’s sublimated. I don’t know if he’s consciously aware of it and yet I think a lot of the things he does and doesn’t do at the outset of the fifth season and throughout it are motivated by some sort of subterranean sense of remorse that he can’t even quite consciously be aware of but I think he does want to atone.

Finally got the time to add the latest Michael events. This update includes pictures from the 62nd Annual Emmy Awards, The Toronto International Film Festival premiere of Peep World (as well as photoshoot portraits) and Stand Up To Cancer. Enjoy!

GALLERY LINKS:
- Public Events: Last Uploads
- Photoshoots: 2010 – Toronto International Film Festival

Ultimate Dexter Fan Pack Contest

This doesn’t need a lot of explanation. Latina Magazine is giving out this absolutely killer gift pack which includes Seasons 1 to 4, autographed script, and other goodies to one lucky fan! You can enter until October 22nd.  Good luck everyone!! I hope one of you wins this.  I already entered.

Check out this review of Peep World from the Toronto Film Festival.

A big-name cast wearily goes through the motions in helmer Barry W. Blaustein’s hackneyed black comedy “Peep World.” This tale of a dysfunctional Jewish family celebrating the 70th birthday of its nasty patriarch (Ron Rifkin) is so lame that it barely gets a rise out of permanent erection jokes. Pic is unlikely to make much of a peep in theatrical (IFC picked up U.S. rights at Toronto), but ancillary beckons.

Speaking in the solemn tones of a trailer voiceover, an unseen narrator (Lewis Black) introduces the four messed-up Meyerowitz siblings, all farcical caricatures. The youngest, condescending Nathan (Ben Schwartz), has penned the eponymous bestselling roman a clef, leading bitchy, struggling actress sister Cheri (Sarah Silverman) to sue him for libel. Cheri’s grudge is aggravated by the fact that the movie version of the book is shooting outside her window, and her father’s young girlfriend (Alicia Witt) is playing her.

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In a new People Magazine interview, Michael C. Hall opened up and said that his own father died of prostate cancer at age 38, and at the age of 11 he always wondered if he would live to age 39.  At age 38 he was also diagnosed with cancer, but he has made it past age 39!  Dexter is premiering in just 6 days.  Rachel at The Avid Appetite has a great Dexter cupcake recipe and a giveaway so please check it out!

Hi all Michael fans! Are you excited for the premier of Dexter Season 5 in just about 2 weeks? I really can’t wait.Only 16 days are left! If you are into the origins of Dexter, you should be aware that the show is based on a series of novels by Jeff Lindsay. The first season is pretty much based off of Darkly Dreaming Dexter, and if you watch it again you will notice all the alliterative things Dexter says. Anyway, the newest book is the fifth in the series and is called Dexter is Delicious and was just released this week. It deals with Dexter trying to be a new man and stop his killing spree and also some teenage “vampires”.  Don’t worry though, this is not some Twilight ripoff.  Will the writers at Showtime incorporate this? I have no idea, but no matter what the writers do, I’m sure Michael will do a superb job portraying the character.

Meanwhile, Showtime has released a new promo clip with Julia Stiles where she talks about how great an actor Michael is.