This was an awesome book, it's now a series on Showtime, couldn't find another thread on it...
www.sho.com/site/dexter/home.do
McCollum: Meet 'Dexter,' a crime fighter and serial killer
By Charlie McCollum
Mercury News
For a few brief moments during the premiere of Showtime's new ``Dexter'' (10 p.m. Sunday), Dexter Morgan, the series' central figure, gives the impression of being just another one of those blood-splattered geeks who populate all the ``CSI'' shows.
That impression doesn't last long.
Drawn from the recent novels of Florida-based mystery writer Jeff Lindsay, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is a rather charming, if unassuming, forensics expert by day -- and a serial killer by night. He was born with murderous impulses but his cop father (played in flashback by James Remar of ``Sex and the City'') taught him to channel his instincts into a productive pursuit.
Dexter, you see, is a murderer who slays only those who really deserve to die: pedophiles, rapists, other serial killers. ``It's an awful burden,'' our hero says in the opening episode, ``but it's who I am, what I do.''
It is a provocative premise for a TV series, and as executed in the first few episodes, ``Dexter'' is a challenging and thoroughly gripping exercise in moral relativism. There are no easy answers to the questions posed by the show: Do these people really deserve to die? Is Dexter a hero or a homicidal maniac in the style of Dr. Hannibal Lecter?
In Lindsay's first Dexter Morgan novel -- 2004's ``Darkly Dreaming Dexter'' -- Dexter describes himself as ``above suspicion, beyond reproach and beneath contempt. A neat and polite monster, the boy next door.'' For even the best actor, trying to create such a complicated and contradictory figure would have been an open invitation to thespian excess.
But Hall -- so good as undertaker David Fisher on ``Six Feet Under'' -- is brilliant in the way he brings creepy understatement to the role.
While Hall is the best part of ``Dexter,'' he gets a ton of help. The writing in the early episodes -- by, among others, James Manos Jr., an Emmy winner for ``The Sopranos'' -- is sharp and flecked with a measure of wit.
The supporting cast -- particularly Julie Benz (``Buffy the Vampire Slayer'') as Dexter's girlfriend -- is perfect in the way it fills out Dexter's world. Director Michael Cuesta (``Six Feet Under'' and the film ``Twelve and Holding'') gives the show's setting in Miami a seductive feel and a violent undertone.
I won't pretend ``Dexter'' is for everybody. If you wince during scenes on ``CSI,'' the series isn't for you. If you find the whole concept of a murderous vigilante being the hero of a TV show remotely repugnant, the series definitely isn't for you.
But if you like the idea of a very good show that wrestles each week with moral dilemmas and the nature of good and evil, ``Dexter'' is just the thing.
Title edirts only AND with permisssion if not encouragement from SpidersFromMars. I'm going retro for the time being.
The original title for over two years?
(Darkly Dreaming) Dexter
This was one of the best threadstarts in modern history, it should be noted.
www.sho.com/site/dexter/home.do
McCollum: Meet 'Dexter,' a crime fighter and serial killer
By Charlie McCollum
Mercury News
For a few brief moments during the premiere of Showtime's new ``Dexter'' (10 p.m. Sunday), Dexter Morgan, the series' central figure, gives the impression of being just another one of those blood-splattered geeks who populate all the ``CSI'' shows.
That impression doesn't last long.
Drawn from the recent novels of Florida-based mystery writer Jeff Lindsay, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is a rather charming, if unassuming, forensics expert by day -- and a serial killer by night. He was born with murderous impulses but his cop father (played in flashback by James Remar of ``Sex and the City'') taught him to channel his instincts into a productive pursuit.
Dexter, you see, is a murderer who slays only those who really deserve to die: pedophiles, rapists, other serial killers. ``It's an awful burden,'' our hero says in the opening episode, ``but it's who I am, what I do.''
It is a provocative premise for a TV series, and as executed in the first few episodes, ``Dexter'' is a challenging and thoroughly gripping exercise in moral relativism. There are no easy answers to the questions posed by the show: Do these people really deserve to die? Is Dexter a hero or a homicidal maniac in the style of Dr. Hannibal Lecter?
In Lindsay's first Dexter Morgan novel -- 2004's ``Darkly Dreaming Dexter'' -- Dexter describes himself as ``above suspicion, beyond reproach and beneath contempt. A neat and polite monster, the boy next door.'' For even the best actor, trying to create such a complicated and contradictory figure would have been an open invitation to thespian excess.
But Hall -- so good as undertaker David Fisher on ``Six Feet Under'' -- is brilliant in the way he brings creepy understatement to the role.
While Hall is the best part of ``Dexter,'' he gets a ton of help. The writing in the early episodes -- by, among others, James Manos Jr., an Emmy winner for ``The Sopranos'' -- is sharp and flecked with a measure of wit.
The supporting cast -- particularly Julie Benz (``Buffy the Vampire Slayer'') as Dexter's girlfriend -- is perfect in the way it fills out Dexter's world. Director Michael Cuesta (``Six Feet Under'' and the film ``Twelve and Holding'') gives the show's setting in Miami a seductive feel and a violent undertone.
I won't pretend ``Dexter'' is for everybody. If you wince during scenes on ``CSI,'' the series isn't for you. If you find the whole concept of a murderous vigilante being the hero of a TV show remotely repugnant, the series definitely isn't for you.
But if you like the idea of a very good show that wrestles each week with moral dilemmas and the nature of good and evil, ``Dexter'' is just the thing.
Title edirts only AND with permisssion if not encouragement from SpidersFromMars. I'm going retro for the time being.
The original title for over two years?
(Darkly Dreaming) Dexter
This was one of the best threadstarts in modern history, it should be noted.
