James Manos Jr. can make a dangerous protagonist engaging company, with humour that leaves us uneasy about our enjoyment. We value that instinct in Dexter, though the writing too often explains what the actor has already shown us.
Fi1m perspective
In Dexter (2006), Michael C. Hall makes a serial killer interesting before the voiceover has finished explaining him. James Manos Jr.'s premise puts Dexter Morgan on both sides of a crime story: he tracks criminals by day and kills people who have escaped justice. The humour makes him engaging company, and the choice of victims makes that company easier to accept. We recommend the programme with reservations, particularly about its eagerness to reassure us. Manos helps create the discomfort, but the writing sometimes takes it away again.
Before that came writing and co-producing on the first season of The Sopranos (1999), including co-writing College. He then contributed stories and served as consulting producer on the first two seasons of The Shield (2002). Neither credit makes him responsible for everything that works in those programmes. Developing Dexter and writing its pilot gave him greater responsibility for the central character. Establishing the killer's humanity and humour from the start was a strong basis for a series, even if the reassurances went too far.
The writing credits also include Melissa Rosenberg, and our complaint about Dexter belongs to the programme rather than to Manos alone. Voiceover and flashbacks repeatedly tell us things before we have had time to wonder about them. We were frustrated by those interruptions because Hall had already given us enough reason to keep watching. Editors including Elena Maganini and Scott K. Wallace give the crime plotting a firmer pace than the explanations. The narration's interest in the character's private observations is understandable; the difficulty is knowing when to leave him quiet.
Manos was an executive producer on Dexter's first season and then departed, so later developments are a poor test of his writing. His subsequent executive producer credits include South of Hell (2015) and Ice (2016–2018), while Dexter: Original Sin (2024) credits him as original series creator. Those credits tell us little about individual scenes, and we would not pretend otherwise. Start with Dexter for the clearest view of his work, with some patience for a voiceover that gets ahead of our curiosity.
Biography
James Manos Jr. is an American screenwriter and television producer. He co-wrote the episode 'College' of the first season of The Sopranos (1999) with series creator David Chase, for which they received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.
Manos developed the Showtime series Dexter (2006–2013) for television, adapting Jeff Lindsay's novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter, and wrote the pilot episode. He later served as consulting producer on The Shield (2002–2003). His other credits include producing the television films The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993) and The Ditchdigger's Daughters (1997).
A trained theatre director, Manos holds a degree in English and theatre from Colgate University and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
