I'm not taking about the cartoon "Dexter's Laboratory", I'm talking about the Showtime TV series based on the novel "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" by Jeff Lindsay.

This show is for more mature audiences. I don't mean "adult entertainment" as in the porn industry I mean the subject matter of the show is intended for an adult or non-children audience. Please keep that in mind if you choose to continue reading in this thread.

I've complained several times in these forums, that I have almost no interest in current TV shows. I watch little TV and when I do watch, it's usually Star Trek (any of the series) reruns, something cool on the Science Channel, or documentary-style detective shows (not dramas, real-life accounts documentary-style).

Most TV today seems to be the same cookie-cutter crap IMO. Every once in a while though, some creative minds come up with something unique and new, in terms of what is available to watch out there.

Dexter is like a breath of fresh air to the stale, moldy state that is modern television.

I would have never heard about it if a co-worker hadn't told me about how cool and twisted the show is, and offered to let me borrow a DVD with 4 episodes on it.

I love things with a twisted angle to them. Dexter really appeals to that side of me in a way that no TV show has in a long, long time.

In a nutshell, Dexter is a show about a guy named "Dexter" (go figure). He works for the Miami murder investigation unit as a blood spatter specialist. His sister is a cop, as was his father. There are many interesting characters in the show, but Dexter is by far the most interesting. He's very good at his work in blood spatter forensics and often has a very good sense about how the murders went down. You see, Dexter is also an active serial killer. That really cracks me up! I'm laughing as I type this - seriously!

The show is a drama, not a comedy, but there is plenty of humorous moments in it. And no, Dexter does not end up trying to solve or mislead the police about his own handy work, shall we say. He lives his life and takes care of his serial killing by the "Code of Harry". Harry was his adoptive father - a cop who was aware of his adopted son's need to kill. Harry teaches Dexter how to be neat about his craft, cover his tracks, and not get caught.

Sound sick and twisted? It is. Not sick and twisted bad, sick and twisted good. VERY good, in fact. To understand what I mean, you really need to watch it. The premise of the show could never exist in reality, but it's not about that. The suspension of believe in the show holds up pretty well I think.

The wife and I just watched episode 3 of the 4-show DVD tonight. Only one show left. We both fell in love with the show from the first episode. It was an instant addiction - very uncommon for us as we usually have very different tastes in television. Earlier tonight, I ordered the first season on DVD. For just under $30, that's a hell of a great deal for some seriously awesome entertainment!

Dexter is in its second season on Showtime, which I don't have (nor will I get any time soon). The first season just started airing on CBS. They're broadcasting a slightly watered down version of it though. They replaced all the swearing (which there is a good chunk of) with broadcast-friendly words. I can live with that. But they also trimmed much of the gruesome imagery out, leaving in only quick shots of some of the more graphic items. This is why I won't watch it on CBS and would rather pick up the DVD's. I think the disturbing images of body parts are needed for the show to properly work. It's supposed to be disturbing (at times, anyway). This might make more sense if you have watched it.

There is some controversy about the show, obviously some groups (or at least one group) is very against it being shown on broadcast TV, but there's always someone trying to snuff out the enjoyment<

MutoidMan Wrote:Sounds very efin sick! I've never heard of this show either, but I think I'm going to set up my DVR to tape an episode so I can check it out. Thanks for the recommendation!

You're welcome. I hope you enjoy.

I was just poking around the net to see when it aired. It airs Sundays @10PM (EST). I stumbled upon an actual video of the the first episode.

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/dexter/video/video.php?cid=627732877&cc=0
I do recommend watching the first episode first if possible. It really sets up the character of Dexter, the Miami homicide unit blood spatter analyst who also happens to be a serial killer.

I watched about 6 minutes of it. The video quality is pretty good, but there is no full screen option that I could find.

As I feared, CBS chopped this thing up more than Dexter does one of his victims! Without giving away too much, there is some violent content early on in the first episode. The initial "capture" part of it (as in capturing the prey) was chopped down to a fraction of how it played out on the DVD. It didn't seem all that violent post-censoring. The whole mood and feel of the moment was really not there. Having seen the un-censored version of it, it really felt less like it should have. In the lost footage is the part where Dexter says "You're mine.", which seems to be the first thing he says to his victims upon initial capture. His trademark two-word phrase is lost. I wonder if this is cut from all the episodes, or just cut as a result of how Dexter was treating the victim at the time he says it, which was pretty rough.

They even cut out the showing of a man being cut. (no pun intended) The cut shown was nothing more graphic than when Warf would cut his hand in ST:TNG or DS9, if you ask me. They chopped it just after the blade starts to move across the skin. The point of showing the cut in the first place is to help the audience experience the disturbing feeling of the scene.

** sigh **

I'd say they chopped out about 30 to 40 seconds within the first 6 minutes alone. To see this on CBS would be comparable to watching Blazing Saddles with the fart scene cut out... which is exactly what I witnessed back in the mid 80's on network TV.

Oh well. I guess it's better than nothing. But to be honest, had I seen the censored version first, I would not have been as impressed with the show as I was.

BTW - Before I sound like I'm just craving bloody, gory, gross imagery, that is NOT what this is about. The show is not a great show because of the gruesome imagery. It is a great show because of the twisted and unique premise they have created. "Premise" isn't really the best word for what I'm trying to convey, but I'm having trouble finding better at the moment. By cutting out the graphic imagery, they have removed some of the ingredients in the stew, so to say, thus changing its flavor. In this case, the stew tastes watered down.

Man - enough with the long posts already!

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MutoidMan Wrote:Just saw the second episode on CBS and I definitely got into it. Dexter is now set to record on my DVR. This is not the kind of boring crud that the networks usually produce, that's for sure. Oops, Robot Chichen is on, gotta go!

Glad to hear you enjoyed the show.

No, it's not the kind of boring crud that the networks usually produce - probably because it's not a network show. It's a Showtime show that has been watered down for network broadcast. Even watered down, it still works pretty well, or so I gather by the fact that you really dug it. You can watch the 1st episode online in the above link if you want (previous post).

The wife and I already burned through the 4 episodes we had on DVD. Now we'll be going through Dexter withdrawal until the 1st season DVD set arrives in the next week or two. Man - that 4th episode just left us both wanting more!

I hope the show continues to rock. Sometimes an awesome show like this starts out strong and then the producers loose sight of what they started out with. LOST is a fairly good example of this, IMO.

MutoidMan Wrote:Last night's episode continued to rock. It's getting very interesting, and the preview for next week's episode seems to indicate that they've ratchetted up the suspense and tension a few notches. And the final fate of Tasha Yar has been revealed!

You know - I enjoy pretty much anything that Tasha Yar gets killed off in. As long as she gets killed, I'm good. I really didn't like that character on ST:TNG.

Yeah - that was a cool episode.

The first season Dexter DVD set I ordered came last Friday. The wife and I already watched two more episodes (saw the first 4 episodes on a borrowed DVD). That puts us 6 episodes in to the show. And only 6 more to go before we must wait for season 2 on DVD. I will definitely be watching these again though. There are so many subtle things in there you don't always catch. The producers of this show do amazing symbolic foreshadowing that you really don't pick up on until later.

This show has so far just gotten better as it goes a long. It is not very formulaic and changes things up pretty good while at the same time sticking to the premise of the show and developing the characters.

Without giving anything away, episode 6 had both the wife and I sitting on the edge of our seats. It's been many years since a TV show (or movie for that matter) has been able to affect me like that. Not often do I forget that I'm watching a production and find myself lost in the unfolding story of the characters I'm looking in upon.

I'd better stop before I start gushing again. So many great things to say about it. I can't believe more people haven't discovered it.


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KiaPurity Wrote:My fiance got the dvd set as a christmas present since he loves the show. I've actually read the three books but I really do think this show is a great idea! Something different and re-freshing. Most of the controversy seems to be in my home town because a serial killer (the kind Dexter would *definitely* go after) was caught few years ago. They're complaining about the "glorifying serial killers" but I'm like, "Yeah, he's a serial killer who goes AFTER SERIAL KILLERS." Pfft, people! It's just entertaining fiction! If you want to read up on the episode summaries, Television Without Pity (www.televisionwithoutpity.com) has ones for the first and second season. (With snarky commentaries in it) Even then, I've still wanted to see the show because the recaps made it sound very good.

Yes, the show is definitely something different and refreshing. A guy at work read the first Darkly Dreaming Dexter book and saw the first 4 episodes of the show. He said the book has many things in it that the show does not, but the show is not disappointing to him at all. He said that the shows he saw do seem to follow the book, though there are some differences (subtle changes) that don't affect the bigger picture much.

There was a group of people protesting CBS airing the show because they felt that it "glorified serial killers" and put the audience in a role where they would sympathize with a serial killer. As you pointed out, this is totally FICTION (come on idiot groups - STOP attacking FICTION and start dealing with REAL problems). This could never happen in real life, but if there ever were a serial killer that went after the bad guys and ONLY the bad guys, I doubt many people would mind much.

You really should check out the show. I've never read the books, but the guy at work seems to think the show holds up to the quality of the book, even with the changes.

It would be interesting to hear your take on the show, having read all three books.