Having just finished season 1 two days ago (I'm of the mind that Netflix is more worth the money than any channels outside of basic cable), I can easily say that Dexter rules!  Honestly, in general I don't think there is too much gore for network tv (mind, I am only going on season 1 here), but watching Dexter prepare his victims can at times be a little sickening.  By the end of the season, however, I felt that the sickening parts were few and far between, and the acting and plot were so good as to leave all other thoughts behind.

Somehow I doubt that it would retain the same level of quality if it were on network tv.

The cable company called a few years ago and offered Showtime for $5/month, forever, and like an idiot I said yes.  At the time I was interested in watching Queer as Folk; I didn't realize that show had jumped the shark years earlier.  Now, all Showtime is good for is the 1 good episode of "Weeds" per season.  Honestly, it's awful.  I remember when I lived in an apartment complex and got Showtime for free, plus, like, 5 other channels, and we always watched the other 5 channels.

And yes, I include Dexter.  How do I get to criticize Dexter?  I watched the pilot, and then maybe one and a half episodes after it.  In terms of Dexter knowledge I am nothing compared to some of the fans on this thread.  But that's how it works, I guess; unless your spouse forces you to watch, you aren't going to know much about the shows you hate.  (Don't ask me about "Gray's Anatomy"--ugh).

But yeah, I am not a fan.  It is not creative enough to warrant my attention.  Anti-hero criminals were old hat before "The Usual Suspects" (which, BTW, I also hate), and the whole I'm-a-criminal-who- kills-bad-guys-so-therefore-I-am- good-in-an-ambiguous-way thing is just not an original concept anymore: think Watchmen or Batman or Se7en any of the other zillion vigilante stories.

The actually killings are only a minor part of the show, so I doubt a PG version would detract all that much.  It's not the blood and gore of the killings, it's the fact that we know he is a serial killer and nobody else seems to notice, that gives the show it's pathos.  We expect (mostly based on movies/tv) serial killers to be strange, anti-social people with no friends, who live in decrepit surroundings.  But Dexter lives in a sunny well appointed condo, and is the type of guy you'd like to take home to mom.

What I find so interesting about Dexter is his inner struggle for normalcy.  Lacking any moral compass, or even the most basic of emotions, he acts the part of a good upstanding young man, becoming little more than an extremely accomplished mimic in his social life.  But he has this other side - a compulsion to kill, that he cannot ignore.  Somehow he manages to tame and control this urge enough to carry out a reasonably normal life and have a regular 9-5 job, and because his act is so good, he literally gets away with murder, sometimes recklessly tempting discovery.

And yet we wonder if the act could really be that good.  Dexter is a dutiful, and apparently loving brother to his sister.  He has a loving, if damaged girl-friend, and he's great with her kids.  Is he really as inhuman and emotionless as he thinks he is?  Does he kill only murderers and rapists because he's just following the rules his dad created in hopes of allowing his son to survive into adulthood?  Or does Dexter actually feel guilt for his killings, and realize that at least in killing the 'deserving', his sins will serve some greater moral good?

The story arc plays with this question, gradually revealing ever more evidence of Dexter's humanity.  I think this is the carrot that keeps us on Dexter's side.  We so want him to be human.  We want him to be healed of trauma that made his this way.  We want his feigned emotions to be real.  

I doubt there are any real serial killers like Dexter, but it makes for great TV.

Not much to add, but my wife and I think it's the best show on television right now.  We watched initially because we were six feet under fans.   Between the two shows, I think this really shows Micheal C. Hall's talents.  The characters he portrayed on the two shows are just about as different as could be, and he makes both absolutely convincing and compelling.

As a side note, the opening credits really are amazing.  They perfectly capture the mood and theme of the show, showing Dexter going through perfectly normal activities (getting dressed, making breakfast), but in a very sinister and ominous way that hints at the violence just beneath the surface.  The credits actually won an Emmy this year:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/59th_Primetime_Emmy_Awards#Outstanding_Main_Title_Design

Only one episode left for the season. :(

    As should be very clear from the write up, I haven't seen a single episode of the show, just some of the snippets that are on Youtube. Whether or not I ever will is up in the air; gruesome images, especially in film or TV, have a bad tendency to stick vividly in my memory for years, decades even, which has provoked a certain caution when it comes to horror and gore flicks. I have enough trouble falling asleep as it is-- seeing Dexter with a saw as my eyes close for the next couple years is unappealing, to say the least.
    What interested me about the show, though, especially when it turned out* that there's talk of it going to network television, was just how well or poorly the sociopath in Dexter matches (or doesn't) the expectations of the genre and the medium. It's no big secret that the police procedural genre has a strong moralistic element to it, and television in general usually has only very fake moral ambiguity when the shows try to go beyond two dimensional characters. The feedback so far has been mixed, with some of you seeing more of the same, and some a definite change.
    One thing that interests me most of all is a character barely dealt with in any of the reviews: Harry Morgan. If the guy was so moral, so talented at getting away with crime, and so confident Dexter was beyond redemption, why not kill the kid and avoid potential disaster if the moral training didn't take? The idea of a cop sending a perfectly trained killer out to snuff the criminals the police would have trouble catching is very, very dark when you think about it (or at least when I do), but I could see it being overlooked by writers intent on capturing a tone, or in perfecting bon mots about human behavior. But I guess the second season will be out on DVD before too long, and I could find out for my own damn self.

    *The hook about the show moving to CBS was a complete fluke. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, eh?

Ex ignorantia ad sapientiam; e luce ad tenebras

I saw Season 1 when it first came out and although the supporting actors skills are a bit weak in parts, the great, wonderful thing about Dexter is that it had a coherent story line. Unlike say "Lost" or "Heroes" or even (blasphemy) "Battlestar Galactica" each episode went somewhere and built upon the prior one.  

The only thing which strikes me as a bit weak is that (at least in season 1) all he kills are serial killers. I'm not sure if there are THAT many serial killers in Florida (although to be fair the show does address this in the pilot).

It is some of the best stuff on tv. That said -- its dark, twisted and just slightly horrifying.

[Mild Spoiler]
In one episode he kills a married couple inside a trailer after interrogating them about what makes their relationship worked. The scene achieved a surrealness so pervasive that the horror of it just came bubbling

[End spoiler]

As for rating it PG -- I've never understood how the standards for these things are set, judged by themes and content I'd want to slap an R rating on this were I inclined to favor 'ratings'

Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.

Meta, I originally posted this in the subq, not realizing what you have to do to viewsubq comments.

NO SPOILERS! NO SPOILERS!

I'm putting off reading the book until the series has run its course.

Look, if we can root for Tony Soprano what's so different about Dexter Morgan? Tony robbed and killed friends, family and anyone else got in his way or threatened his income stream. He was completely amoral and either didn't know or didn't care. Dexter is aware that his lack of empathy is a huge problem and latched onto a moral code given to him by the one person he respected: his stepfather. Dexter is aware that he's virtually amoral and grapples with that every episode, which is part of the attraction of the show.
(POSSIBLE SPOILER IF YOU AREN'T UP TO DATE)

This season's big conflict for Dexter is his realization that his Dad wasn't the bastion of morality he appeared to be, leaving Dex staring into a moral abyss at the exact moment he needs a moral compass to help him deal with the Doakes situation.

(END SPOILER)

If anyone is offended by Dexter, they are free to not watch or to protest by canceling their subscription to Showtime. As usual with moral panics over media, no one will because someone who would be offended by the show (as opposed to just not liking it) wouldn't have a subscription to Showtime to begin with. As far as a CBS version is concerned, I don't see it happening. A TV-MA version would be so cleaned-up and dumbed-down that it would be unwatchable.

-=Logan
Research, facts, a Republican needs not these things.