The subject of this week’s ‘Blogger Beat Down’ is… Newsweek writer Joshua Alston who included DEXTER in its list of “Five Failing TV Shows We Should Take Off the Respirator”
Our Take: Had this article been written last season —where Dexter learning about friendship had us learning about our PVR’s fast-forward capabilities — we’d be in total agreement. Unfortunately for the subject of this week’s ‘Blogger Beat Down,’ (and fortunately for us DEXTER fans) four episodes into the season have found ourselves rekindling our love affair with America’s favorite serial killer. Not only has saddling Dexter in suburbia with Rita, two tweens and a baby revitalized the show’s once trademark brand of dark humour, the lack of sleep facing the show’s titular character as he struggles to balance his job and family with his dark passenger has finally seemed to have caught up with him. Raising the stakes, and bringing with it two key components that have been missing from the show since Dexter took down Doakes in season two: A genuine sense of urgency and fear that Dexter might actually get caught. Plus, John Lithgow is such utter perfection as the creepy-beyond-description, seemingly amoral Trinity Killer that it more than makes up for the fact that his character’s shelf life will most likely expire by season’s end. 
GLEE’s Jane Lynch, for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. In the hand of almost any other actor, an ultra-competitive cheerleading coach whose win-at-any-cost attitude compels her to not only separate the GLEE Club into competing factions based on the color of their skin, but ‘out’ a pregnant student’s ‘secret life’ would be both horrific and offensive. Yet in the hands of Jane Lynch, it’s funny. Really funny.
MODERN FAMILY’s Ed O’Neill, for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series. Now that William Shatner is no longer eligible for his annual Emmy nod, voters are going to need another rich old white guy they can shower with praise. Enter Ed O’Neill, who in MODERN FAMILY’s fourth outing of the season continued to set the perfect tone for the craziness that goes down in the Dunphey-Pritchett abode. With bonus points for his faux outrage towards son Mitchell upon ‘discovering’ that ex-wife Dede was a surprise Sunday-night dinner guest.