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Love American Style (Dexter)
Encyclopedia
"Love American Style" is the fifth episode of the first season
of the American television drama series Dexter
, which first aired on October 29, 2006 on Showtime in the United States
. The episode was written by Melissa Rosenberg
and was directed by Robert Lieberman
. In the episode, Dexter Morgan
(Michael C. Hall
) hunts down Jorge Castillo (José Zúñiga
), a human trafficker and murderer. His sister, Ofr. Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter
), attempts to extract information from a security guard whose limbs were amputated by the "Ice Truck Killer".
The episode was the first to be written by Rosenberg; it was her first for a cable
show, and she finished writing the script five weeks early. Filming took place at numerous locations in and around Miami, Florida
and Los Angeles
, California
. The scenes filmed in Florida were shot in July 2006 and those in California were shot later. "Love American Style" received generally positive reviews from critics and was watched by 6.7 million people when it was broadcast by CBS
eighteen months after its Showtime premiere.
) strapped to a table for Dexter to kill. Instead, Dexter had reported the crime scene and Tucci had been hospitalized after the Killer had amputated his hand and leg. Debra and Sgt. James Doakes (Erik King
) question Tucci when he wakes up in hospital, but Doakes is unimpressed with Debra's ways of extracting information from Tucci. He disapproves of her suggestion to blindfold Tucci to help him to remember his encounter with the Killer, but after she confronts him about his attitude toward her, he agrees to blindfold Tucci, who remembers that the Killer used throat lozenges. They return to the crime scene and find a lozenge wrapper, on which forensics expert Vince Masuka (C.S. Lee
) finds a partial fingerprint.
Dexter's girlfriend Rita Bennett (Julie Benz
) comforts her upset co-worker, Yelina (Monique Curnen), and learns that Yelina's fiancé, who was immigrating from Cuba illegally with the help of a coyote
, is missing. Rita asks Dexter to look into the problem using his police connections, and he finds a list of subjects from a past police case. He investigates Jorge Castillo, a salvage yard owner, and after Yelina's fiancé washes up dead on a beach, he discovers that Castillo is murdering the smuggled immigrants who cannot pay for their freedom. Dexter leads Castillo into a trailer in his salvage yard, but as he prepares to kill him, Castillo's wife Valerie (Valerie Dillman) arrives. Dexter realizes that the couple is working together, and decides to kill both Jorge and Valerie in the trailer. After killing them, he dumps their bodies in the ocean and frees their Cuban prisoners, not noticing the person watching him from the trunk of a car in the yard.
In flashbacks, a teenage Dexter (Devon Graye
) learns how to fake a romantic relationship with a girl from his father Harry (James Remar
).
commercial networks—which typically have 22–26 episodes per season rather than 12, with a much tighter schedule—she finished writing the script five weeks before it was due for preparation. She said that "There was time to think about storytelling. I never had that on any show; it's just wonderful."
Filming took place in both Los Angeles
and Miami. The scenes filmed in Miami were shot in July 2006; those in Los Angeles were shot later. Scenes at the beach where Yelina talks with Rita and where her fiancé's body washes up were filmed at South Beach Park in Fort Lauderdale
, Florida
, north of Miami. A waterfront house on Hibiscus Island
in Biscayne Bay
, Florida
stood in for the Castillos' home. The abandoned hospital where Dexter and the police find Tucci was filmed at the former Linda Vista Community Hospital in East Los Angeles
, and Dexter's childhood home was filmed at a house in a residential neighborhood of Long Beach, California
, where Rita's house is also filmed. Scenes in the salvage yard were filmed at LA Japanese Auto Parts in Sun Valley
, California
. The Airstream
trailer in which Dexter commits the double murder was brought into the salvage yard for filming externally, but was assembled on a studio sound stage
for shooting scenes inside the trailer.
"Love American Style" attracted 6.7 million viewers when broadcast on CBS
in March 2008, 18 months after its original broadcast on Showtime.
IGN
's Eric Goldman felt that the episode's juggling of multiple storylines was "satisfying", and that the scene in which Dexter prepares to kill Castillo was "terrific". Though he praised Debra and Doakes' storyline with Tucci, he wrote that "it was a bit disappointing to then see Deb be a bit too quickly vindicated at the end". Paula Paige, writing for TV Guide
, said that the episode "will go down in cable history as Dexters finest [episode] to date". She was pleased with Debra's character development and the "downright stylish" cinematography, but thought that Jorge and Valerie's final, passionate words to each other were "too much for me". Ray Ellis of Blogcritics
believed that the episode "takes the series into a more three-dimensional direction". He described the episode's subplots and themes as what "make Dexter compelling", and wrote that Debra's character reached a more "empathic level" in the episode. TV Squad critic Keith McDuffee praised the increasing complexity of Dexter's relationship with his father through flashbacks, and thought that Dexter's voiceovers were "the best thing about this show". Jeff Lindsay
, author of Darkly Dreaming Dexter
upon which the show is based, was initially upset with the episode's plot. In an interview, he said that "I was about to be really unhappy with [the episode]. But the twist at the end", referring to the person watching Dexter from the car trunk, "That was wonderful."
Dexter (season 1)
The first season of Dexter is an adaptation of Jeff Lindsay's first novel in the Dexter series, Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Subsequent seasons have featured original storylines. This season aired from October 1, 2006 to December 17, 2006, and follows Dexter's investigation of "The Ice Truck Killer"...
of the American television drama series Dexter
Dexter (TV series)
Dexter is an American television drama series, which debuted on Showtime on October 1, 2006. The sixth season premiered on October 2, 2011. The series centers on Dexter Morgan , a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer...
, which first aired on October 29, 2006 on Showtime in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The episode was written by Melissa Rosenberg
Melissa Rosenberg
Melissa Anne Rosenberg is an American screenwriter. She has worked in both film and television and has been nominated for two Emmy Awards, and two Writers Guild of America Awards. She won a Peabody Award...
and was directed by Robert Lieberman
Robert Lieberman
Robert Lieberman is a Canadian director of movies and television series.-Biography:Lieberman was the founder of the legendary west coast commercial production company Harmony Pictures and has directed close to two thousand commercials, many of them winning awards. He has received countless Clio...
. In the episode, Dexter Morgan
Dexter Morgan
Dexter Morgan is a fictional character in a series of novels by Jeff Lindsay, including Darkly Dreaming Dexter , Dearly Devoted Dexter , Dexter in the Dark , Dexter by Design , Dexter is Delicious and Double Dexter...
(Michael C. Hall
Michael C. Hall
Michael Carlyle Hall is an American actor whose television roles include David Fisher on the HBO drama series Six Feet Under and Dexter Morgan on the Showtime series Dexter. In 2009, Hall won a Golden Globe award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his role in Dexter.-Early life:Hall was born in...
) hunts down Jorge Castillo (José Zúñiga
Jose Zuniga
José Zúñiga is an American actor.Zúñiga was born in Honduras. He is best known for his roles in films such as Alive, Ransom, Con Air, Fresh, Crooklyn, Next Stop Wonderland and Twilight...
), a human trafficker and murderer. His sister, Ofr. Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter
Jennifer Carpenter
Jennifer Leann Carpenter is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Emily Rose in The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Debra Morgan on Dexter, and the lead role in the 2008 horror movie Quarantine.-Early life:...
), attempts to extract information from a security guard whose limbs were amputated by the "Ice Truck Killer".
The episode was the first to be written by Rosenberg; it was her first for a cable
Cable network
A cable channel is a television channel available via cable television. Such channels are usually also available via satellite television, including direct broadcast satellite providers such as DirecTV, Dish Network and BSkyB...
show, and she finished writing the script five weeks early. Filming took place at numerous locations in and around Miami, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. The scenes filmed in Florida were shot in July 2006 and those in California were shot later. "Love American Style" received generally positive reviews from critics and was watched by 6.7 million people when it was broadcast by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
eighteen months after its Showtime premiere.
Plot
Dexter is called to a crime scene at the abandoned hospital where, last night, the Ice Truck Killer left security guard Tony Tucci (Brad William HenkeBrad William Henke
Brad William Henke is an American actor.-Biography:Henke was born in Columbus, Nebraska. He starred in October Road and in the movies Around June with Samaire Armstrong and Jon Gries, The Amateurs with Jeff Bridges and Tim Blake Nelson, In the Valley of Elah with Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize...
) strapped to a table for Dexter to kill. Instead, Dexter had reported the crime scene and Tucci had been hospitalized after the Killer had amputated his hand and leg. Debra and Sgt. James Doakes (Erik King
Erik King
Erik King is an American actor, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Sgt. Doakes on Showtime's television series Dexter.-Early life:King attended Morehouse College, where he won a varsity letter in track and field and graduated summa cum laude. For his honors thesis, he adapted the 1985 film...
) question Tucci when he wakes up in hospital, but Doakes is unimpressed with Debra's ways of extracting information from Tucci. He disapproves of her suggestion to blindfold Tucci to help him to remember his encounter with the Killer, but after she confronts him about his attitude toward her, he agrees to blindfold Tucci, who remembers that the Killer used throat lozenges. They return to the crime scene and find a lozenge wrapper, on which forensics expert Vince Masuka (C.S. Lee
C.S. Lee
Charles S. "Charlie" Lee , known professionally as C.S. Lee, is a Korean American actor, most notably known for playing Vince Masuka on the Showtime series Dexter.-Personal life:...
) finds a partial fingerprint.
Dexter's girlfriend Rita Bennett (Julie Benz
Julie Benz
Julie M. Benz is an American actress, best known for her roles as Darla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and as Rita Bennett on Dexter, for which she won the 2006 Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television...
) comforts her upset co-worker, Yelina (Monique Curnen), and learns that Yelina's fiancé, who was immigrating from Cuba illegally with the help of a coyote
People smuggling
People smuggling is defined as "the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person or persons across an international border, in violation of one or more countries laws, either clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents"...
, is missing. Rita asks Dexter to look into the problem using his police connections, and he finds a list of subjects from a past police case. He investigates Jorge Castillo, a salvage yard owner, and after Yelina's fiancé washes up dead on a beach, he discovers that Castillo is murdering the smuggled immigrants who cannot pay for their freedom. Dexter leads Castillo into a trailer in his salvage yard, but as he prepares to kill him, Castillo's wife Valerie (Valerie Dillman) arrives. Dexter realizes that the couple is working together, and decides to kill both Jorge and Valerie in the trailer. After killing them, he dumps their bodies in the ocean and frees their Cuban prisoners, not noticing the person watching him from the trunk of a car in the yard.
In flashbacks, a teenage Dexter (Devon Graye
Devon Graye
Devon Graye is an American actor.-Biography:He is best known for his role as Teenage Dexter in the American television drama series Dexter airing on Showtime and the lead role Scott in After Dark Original's Husk.and as the role of Marco in the movie adaption of Meg Cabot's Avalon...
) learns how to fake a romantic relationship with a girl from his father Harry (James Remar
James Remar
James Remar is an American actor and voice artist. He has appeared in movies, video games, and TV shows. He is perhaps best known as Richard, the on-off tycoon boyfriend of Kim Cattrall's character in Sex and the City, as Ajax in The Warriors, as the homicidal maniac Albert Ganz in the 1982...
).
Production
"Love American Style" was written by Melissa Rosenberg and directed by Robert Lieberman. The episode was Rosenberg's first for the series and her first on a show written for a premium network. Having had over 10 years' experience in writing for free-to-airFree-to-air
Free-to-air describes television and radio services broadcast in clear form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription or one-off fee...
commercial networks—which typically have 22–26 episodes per season rather than 12, with a much tighter schedule—she finished writing the script five weeks before it was due for preparation. She said that "There was time to think about storytelling. I never had that on any show; it's just wonderful."
Filming took place in both Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Miami. The scenes filmed in Miami were shot in July 2006; those in Los Angeles were shot later. Scenes at the beach where Yelina talks with Rita and where her fiancé's body washes up were filmed at South Beach Park in Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, north of Miami. A waterfront house on Hibiscus Island
Hibiscus Island
Hibiscus Island is a neighborhood on an man-made island located in Biscayne Bay, in the city of Miami Beach, Florida, United States. Hibiscus Island lies just north of Palm Island. It is an exclusive residential neighborhood with relatively high property values...
in Biscayne Bay
Biscayne Bay
Biscayne Bay is a lagoon that is approximately 35 miles long and up to 8 miles wide located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida, United States. It is usually divided for purposes of discussion and analysis into three parts: North Bay, Central Bay, and South Bay. Its area is...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
stood in for the Castillos' home. The abandoned hospital where Dexter and the police find Tucci was filmed at the former Linda Vista Community Hospital in East Los Angeles
East Los Angeles, California
East Los Angeles is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States...
, and Dexter's childhood home was filmed at a house in a residential neighborhood of Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, where Rita's house is also filmed. Scenes in the salvage yard were filmed at LA Japanese Auto Parts in Sun Valley
Sun Valley, Los Angeles, California
Sun Valley is a district in the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California, about 15 miles away from Downtown Los Angeles....
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. The Airstream
Airstream
Airstream is a brand of luxury recreational vehicle manufactured in Jackson Center, Ohio, USA. It is currently a division of Thor Industries. The company, which now employs fewer than 400, is the oldest in the industry. Airstream trailers are easily recognized for their distinctive rounded...
trailer in which Dexter commits the double murder was brought into the salvage yard for filming externally, but was assembled on a studio sound stage
Sound stage
In common usage, a sound stage is a soundproof, hangar-like structure, building, or room, used for the production of theatrical filmmaking and television production, usually located on a secure movie studio property.-Overview:...
for shooting scenes inside the trailer.
Reception
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
in March 2008, 18 months after its original broadcast on Showtime.
IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Eric Goldman felt that the episode's juggling of multiple storylines was "satisfying", and that the scene in which Dexter prepares to kill Castillo was "terrific". Though he praised Debra and Doakes' storyline with Tucci, he wrote that "it was a bit disappointing to then see Deb be a bit too quickly vindicated at the end". Paula Paige, writing for TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
, said that the episode "will go down in cable history as Dexters finest [episode] to date". She was pleased with Debra's character development and the "downright stylish" cinematography, but thought that Jorge and Valerie's final, passionate words to each other were "too much for me". Ray Ellis of Blogcritics
Blogcritics
Blogcritics is a blog network and online magazine of news and opinion. The site—a self-proclaimed "sinister cabal of superior writers"—was founded in 2002 by Eric Olsen and Phillip Winn...
believed that the episode "takes the series into a more three-dimensional direction". He described the episode's subplots and themes as what "make Dexter compelling", and wrote that Debra's character reached a more "empathic level" in the episode. TV Squad critic Keith McDuffee praised the increasing complexity of Dexter's relationship with his father through flashbacks, and thought that Dexter's voiceovers were "the best thing about this show". Jeff Lindsay
Jeff Lindsay (writer)
Jeff Lindsay is the pen name of American playwright and crime novelist Jeffry P. Freundlich , best known for his novels about sociopathic vigilante Dexter Morgan. Many of his earlier published works include his wife Hilary Hemingway as a co-author. His wife is the niece of Ernest Hemingway and an...
, author of Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Darkly Dreaming Dexter is a 2004 novel by Jeff Lindsay, the first in his series about serial killer Dexter Morgan. It has formed the basis of the Showtime television series Dexter and won the 2005 Dilys Award and the 2007 'Book to TV' award....
upon which the show is based, was initially upset with the episode's plot. In an interview, he said that "I was about to be really unhappy with [the episode]. But the twist at the end", referring to the person watching Dexter from the car trunk, "That was wonderful."