Dexter

I finished watching the rest of this series over the weekend. What a remarkable show. Every episode I find myself rooting for Dexter. Hoping that no one becomes suspicious of him, waiting for him to catch the villain, and then I stop and realize that I'm rooting for a serial killer.

This show did such a good job of hooking me in quickly. Dexter is a guy who was orphaned at the age of three, a witness to a grisly crime. He gets adopted by the cop who found him and the smart cop discovered that his little warped Dexter was on his way to growing up to be a killer. So throughout the whole season we flashback quite a bit to see the unique father and son "bonding". Not really bonding, more like lessons. Officer dad is almost like Dr.Frankenstein. He instructs Dexter on how to blend in and act normal. If he has to kill then kill the murderers the cops try to catch.

Now the adult Dexter is working in forensics with the Miami police force, where his sister works as a cop- just like dear ol' dad. The season kicked off with a story arc about the gruesome Ice Pick Killer. The scenes are pretty nasty and to hear Dexter's narration of it as something of a "work of art" over these things is pretty disturbing stuff. At first I was uncomfortable about the show's subject matter. Serial Killer as the lead? But it quickly went away and a lot had to do with Dexter's relationship with his girlfriend Rita and her two kids. It's actually a very believable relationship thanks to Julie Benz [Darla!]. She pulls off emotionally fragile very well. I hope Rita never finds out what Dexter is really is, and I hope Dexter keeps "pretending to be normal' . Living that code that his father instilled in him.

For a show like this, of course the humor is gonna be daaaark. There's a wonderful bit where Dex is slinking around a shipyard stalking his prey. In the middle of his narration, he suddenly wants to plan a family type trip : " I wonder if Rita and kids will like fishing?...FOCUS!"
But my favorite bit is Det. Doakes, the only guy in the entire police force who has the correct cop 'gut instincts' and gets creeped out by Dexter. So every other line from his mouth is "Shut up you f***n weirdo" or "where's my report you f***n creep". He's great.

I hear it will be on dvd by August, and I think I'll be adding another series to my dvd collection.