A Killer of a Show: A Review of "Dexter"

We learn early on that the character of Dexter Morgan had emotional problems from an early age. He was adopted by a man who was a cop and he immediately saw that Dexter's tendencies were going to lead to trouble. You see, Dexter killed the family dog and then when his father went digging around, he found that Dexter had been killing a lot more than the family dog. Dexter has a thing for blood, you see. He loves the stuff.

Dexter is a serial killer.

However, because his father was a cop, he saw what his boy was and he decided that something should be done with his adopted son's unique tendencies. "There are a lot of bad people in the world," he tells him one night after finding Dexter's collection of knives, "and the police can't catch all of them."

He wants to channel Dexters urges towards good. He then teaches Dexter how to track down killers. Yes, Dexter may like to take men, strap them down to a table and then dismember them while they're alive, but at least he only tracks down other killers. Dexter is a serial killer who kills other killers. At the same time, he is also a forensics expert for the local police department, with a specialty in blood spatter.

This is the televsion series that was brought to Showtime a couple of years back. Now, thanks, in part, to the writer's strike, the disturbing and very darkly comic story of Dexter Morgan has come to network television. The show is called simply "Dexter" and it stars Michael C. Hall (formerly of "Six Feet Under") in the titular role. He is remarkably good.

Hall does not do anything with his face. He is the exact same actor, looking exactly the same, as he did when he was on "Six Feet Under" and yet he is entirely Dexter Morgan. He is an amazingly talented young actor who can portray Dexter's madness with just a few blinks of his eye, or the strange falsness of his smile.