Dexter

I suspect that I have the writer's strike to thank for this, but one of the broadcast networks is showing the first season of Dexter. Edited, of course, from the original Showtime version. It's about a serial killer, who is very nearly a "good guy". It might be more accurate to say that he's about as close as a serial killer could ever come to being a good guy: he only goes after other killers, particularly ones the police are unable to prosecute. In fact, he works as a forensics expert with the police.

Funny thing is, the show works. It walks a very fine line, but it works. It's entertaining. In many aspects, it's funny. I wouldn't quite call it a black comedy, but there are certainly aspects of black comedy in it... like when, at his forensics job, Dexter expresses admiration for another killer's technique; or has to walk away because there is too little blood. And Dexter himself is quite interesting, and very nearly likeable.

As far as I can tell, he has nothing comparable to a moral compass. What he does have is something akin to a sense of honor, and perhaps loyalty to his foster parents. "Harry and Dorris Morgan did a wonderful job raising me. But they're both dead now. I didn't kill them. Honest." Essentially, he's worked out rules that allow him to function in the world, and follows them scrupulously. One of those rules is kill only other killers. The killing itself is just a chore that he has to do, like grocery shopping. "People fake a lot of human interactions, but I feel like I fake them all, and I fake them very well; that's my burden, I guess."

So if you've got a somewhat morbid sense of fun, this is a good show to try. I will say that I'm just as happy to be seeing it on broadcast tv rather than on Showtime. There was some obvious language editing (friggin'; motherlovin'), and I rather suspect that some of the gore was cut out, and likely some nude corpses as well. It's not so much that those things offend me as that they aren't really necessary to the show. 'Round these parts, it's showing on Sunday nights for anyone who wants to give it a try.