by Vickie Britton

Created on: March 20, 2009   Last Updated: March 21, 2009

Dexter TV Series Review

A psychopathic serial killer does not a very sympathetic character make. At least that's what I thought before I started watching Dexter.

The TV series is derived from a series of books by author Jeff Lindsay. The first season follows fairly closely the first book Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the rest is only loosely based on the book series.

The main characters in this Showtime series include Dexter Morgan, played by Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter who plays his vice squad sister, Dexter's girlfriend Rita Bennet, played by Julie Bentz. All of the characters on Dexter, even the minor ones, such as co-worker Angel Batista,are well-developed and well-portrayed.

Season One is devoted to the Ice Truck Killer and Sgt. Doake's suspicions of Dexer. In Season Two, Dexter imprisons his nemesis Doakes, and meets up with Lila, a pyromaniac who is enjoys killing almost as much as he does. In the third season, district attorney Miguel Prada befriends Dexter, not knowing he has killed his brother Oscar who he mistook for a dope dealer named Freebo. The series keeps you wondering how many seasons are going to follow and what will happen next.

The hero as serial killer/murderer is not an entirely new concept. In the 1950s, Patricia Highsmith created Tom Ripley (best known from them movie The Talented Mr. Ripley.) He, too, was a man with no conscience. However, Dexter breaks new grown by exploring even more forbidden territory.

One has to wonder, is this a good role model for our children? Despite that harrowing question, Dexter does have a certain code he lives by. After all, he only kills those deserving of such a fate - pedophiles, murderers, and other low-lives whose profiles he comes across in his job as blood-spatter expert. His foster father, realizing his sickness, taught Dexter to select victims deserving of their fate. But the way he murders them is brutal and shows the savage side of him that is just short of being out of control. In fact, he spends most of his time at work as a blood spatter expert, trying to cover up the evidence that links him to murders he himself committed.

What makes the series so compelling is that at some point in the series Dexter becomes akin to a remorseful vampire, or everyman, seeking the questions we all seek. What makes a good life? What is justice? This touch of irony makes him somewhat redeemable. Heck, we even begin to LIKE him and hope he does get married, have that baby, and that things turn out well for him.

Is Dexter a true psychopath? In the book, yes. In the series, for a psychopath he spends quite a bit of his time wondering what people think of him. If he were really capable of emotion, he wouldn't care. But maybe that's the point. Whatever the case, the TV series has turned Dexter into a rather likeable monster.

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