Dexter Showtime / CBS

[Duaneyo1]

Dexter is a forensic analyst who is also a serial killer. Although he exhibits the classical signs of someone with antisocial personality disorder, he tries to target murders, child molesters etc. that the police cannot catch. I watched this show for the first time last week ( never had showtime ) and it looks pretty good. What do you guys think?

[webgem]

It's very good, I like it a lot!

Edit: rented it from blockbuster and watched the whole series in a few days good

[kamikasei]

The first show is highly awesome. The second season, what I've seen of it so far, not so much. Probably because the first was based on the book while the second, I think, was not.

But yes. He is such a loveable hollow emotionless soulless murderous shell of a man.

[The Extinguisher]

I keep missing it :smallmad:

I may just borrow the DVDs from a friend.

[thubby]

sounds like deathnote, i'll have to check it out

[kamikasei]

sounds like deathnote, i'll have to check it out

Less machinating, more black humour.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Less machinating, more black humour.

Eating potatoe chips while kiling people doesn't count as black humour?

[factotum]

I watched the first episode and frankly wondered how I was supposed to sympathise with a character who proclaimed himself to have no emotion and not be a member of the human race...never watched it again.

[nothingclever]

Jeez do you really need to make a Death Note comparison? It's really nothing at all like Dexter. Yes people try to find out who the killer is in one of their cases and one guy highly suspects Dexter but it isn't 90% about that and having some antisocial kids give out percentages on the probability of outcomes with no actual proof for what they are saying.

Also using terms like black humor is strange because there was nothing funny about Death Note besides how bad it was.

Dexter is a great show that has a lot of cheesy humor coming from Dexter's internal monotone monologues/narrative but that's often what makes it so enjoyable to watch. There's also a ton of character development for everyone else working with Dexter.

[kamikasei]

I watched the first episode and frankly wondered how I was supposed to sympathise with a character who proclaimed himself to have no emotion and not be a member of the human race...never watched it again.

It's easier than you might imagine.

Actually, that's something that annoyed me about the show. He clearly does have emotion, and I've never heard that sociopaths lack it. What he doesn't have is empathy. At least, such is my understanding.

[BlackStaticWolf]

Dexter is absolutely nothing like Death Note. Death Note involves a teenager with a god complex who kills using magic and ridiculous plans that would never work, whereas Dexter is a mortal serial killer who kills not out of righteousness, but out of an actual stark NEED to do so. He was simply taught a victim preference by his foster father.

Also, Dexter doesn't just kill people the police can't catch. The second season makes it clear that he's actually intentionally sabotaged several investigations because he needed to kill the suspect.


It's easier than you might imagine.

Actually, that's something that annoyed me about the show. He clearly does have emotion, and I've never heard that sociopaths lack it. What he doesn't have is empathy. At least, such is my understanding.

It's actually not uncommon for a sociopath to describe themself the way Dexter does. You correctly noted that sociopaths do not lack emotion entirely. They do, however, experience many emotions in an extemely different way.

He lacks empathy because he DOESN'T know what the emotions other people have actually feel like. For example, he doesn't know how to empathize with grief because he's never experienced it the way that other people do. That doesn't mean he doesn't experience it... he just doesn't understand that it's grief that he's experiencing.

Because his reactions to the emotional stimulus is different, he mistakenly concludes that he doesn't have emotions. He gets extremely confused and frustrated when he actually DOES have reactions that other people do.


The second season, what I've seen of it so far, not so much. Probably because the first was based on the book while the second, I think, was not.

Keep watching. The second season gets better with every episode. You are correct though, the second season is not based on the books. The interplay between Dexter and Doakes is terrific. And Lila... well... she's a catalyst all right.

This is, however, a good thing. I've read all three (Darkly Dreaming Dexter is actually one of my favorite books and was before seeing the show), and the second and third books are nowhere near as good as the first. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the third book (Dexter in the Dark) is actually rather bad.

The direction the second season takes the story is significantly better than the direction that the books take it.

[Callos_DeTerran]

This is, however, a good thing. I've read all three (Darkly Dreaming Dexter is actually one of my favorite books and was before seeing the show), and the second and third books are nowhere near as good as the first. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the third book (Dexter in the Dark) is actually rather bad.

The direction the second season takes the story is significantly better than the direction that the books take it.

I'm not so sure about that. I enjoyed the second book and the path it goes much more then the second season. Of course now it's impossible to do a show based on the second book unless they...ehm...find somebody else to fill an important role.

[BlackStaticWolf]

I'm not so sure about that. I enjoyed the second book and the path it goes much more then the second season. Of course now it's impossible to do a show based on the second book unless they...ehm...find somebody else to fill an important role.

The second book was ok. But it was quite formulaic. It's essentially Dexter vs. Rival Killer all over again. And that's basically the path that the books are taking (and in the third book, we get a bunch of mystical poppycock shoved down our throats that is nothing short of stupid).

It does, however, do a great job of further developing Rita's children and I DO like the direction that Dearly Devoted took them.

The problem with the book though, is that Dexter doesn't develop as a character at all. Likewise, the secondary characters (with the exception of Doakes, Cody, and Aster) continue to be nothing more than nametags with no substance to them.

The series on the other hand, continues to develop the secondary characters in a fashion that made me actually care about them. Especially Deb, Doakes, and Angel.

[Seraph]

why is it that every time I come up with an idea for a novel, I find out ten minutes later that its been done already?

[North]

Yeah Dexters a pretty amazing show. But I dont know how its gonna work on CBS. They censors are gonna shread a huge amount of it out.:smallconfused:

[BlackStaticWolf]

why is it that every time I come up with an idea for a novel, I find out ten minutes later that its been done already?

Because every idea has already be imagined and probably written about.

[Premsyl]

I watched the first episode and frankly wondered how I was supposed to sympathise with a character who proclaimed himself to have no emotion and not be a member of the human race...never watched it again.

That's Dexter's impression of himself because he's convinced himself he's a monster. Throughout the show he begins to question that belief. I highly recommend this show. I thoroughly enjoyed both seasons, though I weep for any murder scenes cut short by broadcast television censors.