Attempting to recreate the entertaining appeal of Dexter, Netflix’s The Gardener is best left dead and buried. The unconvincing Spanish thriller follows the double life of Elmer (Alvaro Rico), a stolid gardener by day and contract killer by night who does his best to keep his secrets underground. Narrated through momentum-killing flashbacks by his mother, La China (Cecilia Suarez), what begins as a fairly intriguing thriller fizzles into a sappy romantic trifle with little redeeming value.
Between the silly premise that asks its audience to strain credibility, the lackluster lead performance that no one will ever put on par with Michael C. Hall, and an overly derivative plot that calls to mind much better television, The Gardener’s attempt to dig up Dexter’s bones has backfired with disappointing results. Beyond a slight diversion to kill time, The Gardener is dead on arrival.

The Gardener

Release Date

2025 – 2025-00-00

Network

Netflix

Directors

Mikel Rueda

Writers

Miguel Sáez Carral

Cecilia Suárez

La China Jurado

Catalina Sopelana

Violeta

‘The Gardener’s Rote Premise, Explained

The Gardener is billed as a Netflix Spanish romantic thriller that revolves around Elmer, a professional botanist and gardener who operates a secret contract-killing business with his mother, La China. From the get-go, the show asks its audience to identify, or at least sympathize with, Elmer despite his inability to emote.
Told through flashback narration by La China, viewers learn that, due to a car accident that resulted in severe head trauma, Elmer is an emotionless cipher who does not feel anything. An uphill climb for the writers and directors, it’s nearly impossible to feel or care for the lead character, who cannot feel or care for anyone else, himself included.
To combat Elmer’s blank facade and hollow shell, everything changes 30 minutes into the show with the arrival of Violeta (Catalina Sopelana), a kindergarten teacher whom Elmer is hired to murder. As soon as Violeta enters the scene, Elmer is suddenly flooded with romantic feelings for the stranger, putting him in a moral bind that makes him hesitate to pull the trigger, so to speak.
While Elmer and Violeta become closer, Elmer and La China drift further apart. This severely strains the mother-son contract-killing business, forcing Elmer to choose sides as he continues to balance his day job with his secret life as an assassin. Sadly, what promises to be a character-driven, provocatively gritty murder mystery ultimately reveals itself as a watered-down derivation of everything from Dexter and Bates Motel to Obituary and Grosse Pointe Garden Society.
How ‘The Gardener’ Fails To Recapture ‘Dexter’s Appeal

Several problems plague The Gardener from recreating Dexter’s entertainment level. The most glaring issue is the ludicrous plot and the inciting premise that asks far too much of its audience. Viewers are supposed to believe that, after years of icy detachment and psychological block due to severe brain damage, Elmer is suddenly cured once he falls in love with Violeta at first sight.
This basic conceit is impossible to accept, drastically dulling The Gardener’s shovel before it breaks ground. The jump from a detached automaton to a charming romantic is too unbelievable to buy, especially when the transformation occurs in the first half hour. Once the plot is dug deeper, The Gardener becomes more absurd and unoriginal.

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The rote storytelling tropes and trampled clichés wallow in La China’s attempt to break up Elmer and Violeta. Meanwhile, Elmer tries to leave his criminal past behind to pursue his newfound romance. Neither story is new, much less convincing, and adds nothing to the devious mother-son dynamic fans have seen countless times, notably in Bates Motel, where secret serial murder threatens their roadside hotel business.
As for positives, The Gardner rivals the allure of Dexter’s colorful Miami setting through its stunning floral displays. As Elmer and Violeta bury their victims beneath gorgeously ornate, multicolored flower gardens, the stark juxtaposition between life above ground and death beneath it stands out. But with the show lacking the psychological depth of Dexter, it’s hard to recommend The Gardener.
Better Alternatives to ‘The Gardener’ You Should Check Out

Although Dexter is notorious for its poorly received finale, the series remains head and shoulders above The Gardener. However, several similar psychological TV thrillers are circulating the airwaves in 2025 that are equally attractive alternatives. Although Bates Motel (Prime Video) ended in 2017, NBC’s Grosse Pointe Garden Society premiered in February 2025, and boasts a similar premise to The Gardener.
Grosse Pointe Garden Society (available on Peacock) concerns a quartet of tight-knit friends who run a gardening club, which becomes the burial ground for a person they collectively murdered months before. The network drama has a broad appeal and has been well-received by audiences and critics alike, earning a 71% Rotten Tomatoes rating and 88% audience score (The Gardener holds 50% and 74%, respectively).

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Speaking of psychological stories about gardeners, that brings us to Paul Schrader’s 2022 film Master Gardener (available on Hulu), starring Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver. The mysterious thriller tills similar territory as The Gardner, but does so with subtle intrigue and slow-building suspense that the Spanish TV show can’t contend with.
While more obscure, the 2023 Irish TV series Obituary (available on Hulu) also excels more than The Gardener in its Dexter derivation. With a darkly humorous bent, Obituary follows Elvira Clancy (Siobhán Cullen), a young woman obsessed with death who lands a dream job writing obituaries for her small Irish town of Kilraven. When Elvira is all but fired and told she must work on a freelance basis, she takes matters into her own hands by committing murders and writing obituaries for her victims. Obituary Season 2 is currently filming for an unspecified 2025 release.
Although The Gardener serves as a mild diversion, Dexter fans will be more satisfied with better, higher-quality murder mysteries that adopt a similar premise.
The Gardener is available to stream on Netflix.