Dogmatic

Now this one looks real interesting. The by-line says it all… “He’s smart, good looking, and he’s got a great sense of humor. He’s Dexter, everyone’s favorite serial killer,” the series, according to Showtime, revolves around a “highly respected lab technician specializing in blood spatter for the Miami Dade Police Department. He’s also a sociopathic serial killer whose ‘Dark Passenger’ drives him to commit the occasional dismemberment. Adopted at the age of 4 after an unnamed tragedy left him orphaned, Dexter learned, with help from his pragmatic policeman father, to channel his ‘gift’, killing only those who deal in death themselves.

“But when a new serial killer starts working in Miami, staging elaborately grisly scenes that are, to Dexter, an obvious attempt at communication from one monster to another, [Dexter] finds himself at a loss. Should he help his policewoman sister earn a promotion to the Homicide desk by finding the fiend? Or should he locate this new killer himself, so he can express his admiration for the other’s ‘art’? Or is it possible that psycho Dexter himself, admittedly not the most balanced of fellows, is finally going completely insane and committing these messy crimes himself?”

The character first surfaced in a terrific series of novels by Jeff Lindsay, with titles like “Darkly Dreaming Dexter” and “Dearly Devoted Dexter.” Played with unexpected charisma by Six Feet Under’s Michael C. Hall, who is almost unrecognizable here, Dexter is damaged goods. Luckily for society, his sociopathic and murderous leanings were discovered at an early age by his foster father, a policeman, who urged Dexter to channel his dark urges for good.

STOP PRESS: I received an email from Showtime informing that you can view the entire first episode online. (If you are a US resident as for some bizarre reason, the Showtime website is not available to non US residents. So for US readers of this blog:

Follow this link to watch now!
The password is: sneakpeek

And some YouTube clips the rest of us can watch.