My wife can't stop watching Dexter

Several weeks ago, Dexter started on CBS. It was an unusual start date, but Wikipedia confirmed by suspicions that it was a midseason replacement caused by the writer's strike. I was immediately taken by the commercial which explained that Dexter was a serial murderer who worked for the police department. I thought he was a detective who specialized in serial murder cases and that he would be investigating his own crimes...

Of course, now that it was in my conciousness, I started noticing things, like it comes from the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, and the show is really a Showtime Original series. Although I've not done the follow-up research to confirm, it appears that Lindsay has written a few books about Dexter.

Back in the 90's I was very interested in books about characters who were "insane" or had a different slant on reality. This led me to read several books--only two of which I can recall at this time: The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson and By Reason of Insanity by Shane Stevens--which allowed me to pursue this interest for a while. It was a bit of a dark time in my reading...but I still remember Stevens character who escaped from a mental instution, after spending his entire life there believing that he was the son of a brutal serial rapist/murderer: a product of one of the attacks. (NOTE: The exact details may be hazy, as it's been 15 years since I read the book). However, the detailed descriptions of actions and motivations in that book have stuck with me through the years (many of which I would feel uncomfortable repeating in this forum.)

So, naturally, I was predisposed to being drawn in to Dexter. Once I found out it was a Showtime Original, I was even more interested, as I was a big fan of Dead Like Me, a show that went off the air way before it should have. I will save any further comment on that until I get to watch all the episodes on DVD, with the extras. I promptly put it on my calendar, and Mary-Rita and I planned to watch it.

It was just as wonderful as I had hoped--although my initial understanding of the character/story was off. Turns out he is a serial killer who works for the police force as a blood splatter expert. He has a fascination with a serial killer that just started, in that there is no blood, "It's so clean," I think is what was said. The show plays out as a mystery that needs to be solved (who is the new serial killer), and a character study of Dexter, and how he deals with what he perceives as a personal egagement with him by the new serial killer--does that make sense?

Two things that I find especially interesting about the show is how Dexter became a serial killer, and his relationship with his girlfriend. Dexter's history, and how he got that way, is told in flashbacks with scenes with his father, who was also a police officer. I won't give anything away here as I'm still not certain how it will all playout once the history is told...but this is key to the story.

Now, the girlfriend is a little bit different, as the intersting part of the story is not the relationship itself, but how the two characters interact. Dexter met his girlfriend through his father. The father was called to the house for a domestic disturbance call (husband/boyfriend beating woman). The father thought Dexter would like the woman so he set them up to meet. They have been dating, but there is no hanky panky. Being a serial killer, he's just emotionally detached, and would prefer not to complicate things, and she being emotionally scarred from her previous relationship. Throw in a child for the woman and you have a really interesting situation. There is some wonderful tension whenever they are together...obviously they want to fool around, but there is always something there...which is always just fine with Dexter. He knows its going to come, but he's willing to just avoid it for as long as needed, not only to avoid the emotional complications...but sincerely out of concern for the emotional well being of his girlfriend.

So my wife and I sit down every Sunday night now, and watch the show. Me totally engaged by everything and her fascinated with the fact that she is even watching a show with a premise that she would normally find just this side of offensive. Its important to note that she spend the whole show sitting on the bed with the blanket pulled up over her nose...just in case something she doesn't want to see pops up quickly. She doesn't want to waste one second pulling that blanket over her eyes that she doesn't have to.

This is a really good show, and it's got wonderful characters. It makes me think about getting Showtime again so that we can see them first run without the editing. Now that the writer's strike is over, I may just have to get the DVD's to watch it. I'm hooked, and will probably read the books as well. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone knows other books that might be similar to those discussed here.