DEXTER. AND NO, NOT DEXTER'S LAB.

Dexter is an American television drama series based on the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay and adapted for television by Emmy Award-winning screenwriter James Manos, Jr., who wrote the pilot episode. Set in Miami, the series centers on Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a serial killer governed by a moral code who works for the Miami Metro Police Department as a blood spatter analyst.

The series premiered on the premium cable network Showtime on October 1, 2006. Dexter has received considerable critical acclaim and has won two Emmys in technical categories, and has also generated public controversies concerning its content and promotion. An edited version of the series began airing on CBS on February 17, 2008 to make up for the shortage of new content caused by the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike. Canada's CTV simulcasts episodes along with CBS, and is also airing the edited version in order to follow Canadian cable simultaneous substitution rules.

If you haven't heard of this show yet, let me fill you in; Dexter is the shit. The plot revolves around Dexter Morgan, as outlined above, who works for the Miami Police Department as a blood splatter analyst who moonlights as a serial killer. However, the character is so interesting (and likable) because he only kills the absolute scum of society, while using what he knows from his profession to do an impeccable job and not leaving anything behind.

His drive to kill isn't because he likes taking lives, but an insatiable hunger that drives him and that he hates about himself. As a 'side effect', this hunger has robbed him of expressing (and feeling, or so he thinks) of normal human emotion, and with the exception of his sister, and a few others, he has to fake being a 'normal guy' to his sister, coworkers, and his girlfriend and her (not his) kids. His character progression, and the events that threaten his balance between his job and his 'other job' are what makes the show.

My roommate got me into this show last year, and at first I was reluctant because of the nature of the show, it's episodic and it's plot based, so you have to start from the beginning of the first episode of the first season to get any lead on the show. At the time the show was at the 2nd season, so I didn't want to sit through more than a dozen episodes the catch up. However, the show is so addictive that I can't just watch one episode, I have to watch one episode after another, many episodes end on a cliffhanger with a preview of the next one.

However, given the nature of the show, and the fact that you HAVE to start from the beginning, makes watching it rather tricky. The best bet is to see if you can download the older episodes and seasons somewhere, and start from there. Has anyone heard of this or began watching it? I definitely recommend it.