I Heart Dexter (from a writer’s point of view, of course)

While LOST is on hiatus (only for another week and a half!), some well-meaning friends put Showtime’s Dexter in my hands.  So, I dutifully lost sleep while visually binging on the first two seasons of the show as quickly as possible.  The show is fantastic. 

It’s based on the novel “Darkly Dreaming Dexter” by Jeff Lindsay (which I own, but haven’t read yet), about a man who is a blood spatter technician for the Miami police department by day and a serial killer who takes out murderers the system let loose by night.  The premise alone should give you an idea of the wonderful characterization in this series.  The main character, the protagonist, is a killer who has some serious issues.  But you like him because he’s charming and does a lot of good things (although you’re often left to wonder how much of it is an act and how much he’s sincere about…you’ll have to watch it to really get that).  But Dexter isn’t the only complex character.  Nearly all the characters have their sympathetic moment and the moments you want to see them go down (or get killed by Dexter, despite his moral code).   Even the characters who are portrayed as almost all “good” still have depth and their goodness is important to Dexter’s character, which makes it significant.  This show is an excellent example of how to create balanced characters. 

 And it’s fun to watch.