My New Addiction

After a long, long time spent circling it (months... years, even), I finally picked up the television series Dexter recently. This is the Showtime series starring Michael C. Hall (previously of Six Feet Under fame) as a serial killer who preys on murderers. I had long heard good things about the show. I'd been curious about it myself regardless. I just hadn't gotten around to it until about two weeks ago.

In that time, I've now completely devoured the first two seasons (all that's available on DVD to this point), and am now eager to get my hands on the recently completed season 3.

The first season, in my opinion, was very good, but not great. I certainly enjoyed the story, thought the acting was tremendous, and it kept pulling me along. But I did find things rather predictable overall. It didn't necessarily make me like the show less that I was able to guess all the major plot twists ahead of time, but it did keep me from completely falling in love with the show.

But then came season two. Man, did the show step up in year two. It was a compelling story full of great character moments and riveting tension. And now I'm completely in love with the show.

Dexter gets a lot of attention because it's a show about a "bad guy," and makes you sympathetic for him. And yes, it does a good job of that, but there's more to it than that. There was a time when a show about a villain was revolutionary, but that was a while ago now. No, Dexter is more than that because it understands good drama -- you care about many of the characters, not just Dexter himself. The characters have real relationships with each other that change over time. And the storylines always introduce new ways to shake up the character mix.

I'd rate that first season of the show a B+... well worth the time. But season two is an A. If you haven't watched Dexter, I highly recommend it.