Ahoy, squirts! Quint here making a quick trip into Coax territory. I’ve heard nothing but great things about Showtime’s series, DEXTER, so when I was offered the chance to review Season 2 early, I took it. I was also able to weasel a copy of Season 1 out of the deal, so over the last few days I’ve had a bit of a Dexter marathon starting with 1.1 and ending with 2.12, some 24 hours of television.

If you’re not familiar with the concept of the show, we follow a blood-spatter expert in a Miami forensics lab (the titular Dexter, played by Michael C. Hall) who also happens to be a serial killer, but a good one.

Turns out he was rescued from a bloody crime scene as a young child by one of the responding officers who raises the kid as his own. We learn in flashbacks early on in the first season that young Dexter showed the tell-tale signs of a serial killer, something that didn’t go unnoticed by his adoptive cop daddy.

Instead of ditching the kid, Harry (fuckin’ Ajax! James Remar) instills a strict moral code in the boy, teaching him that there is a way to focus the monster inside him for the overall good of society.

So, he teaches him to hunt serial killers, essentially. Murderers who escape justice. Harry also teaches him to avoid getting caught and, probably most importantly, how to be meticulous and precise in his work. This way he’s just as thorough as any detective and more precise than a DA.

In short, it’s a show starring an anti-hero, which put it right up my alley.

And because it’s on Showtime we get boobies, tons of gore and lots of f-bombs, so quadruple bonus.

Michael C. Hall (SIX FEET UNDER) leads the show and leads it well. It’s a tough mix, keeping someone that dark likable. Of course, everybody loves a good vigilante, so it’s not exactly like we’re expected to like a guy that kicks puppies and murders children. The people he’s after deserve what they’re getting.

Know what this show reminded me of? It’s like a lighter THE SHIELD without the documentary aspect. In both shows you’re following people who aren’t good guys, but work for the common good… occasionally doing something immoral to cover their own asses, but on the whole they have a strict moral code they live by. That said, I believe Vic Mackey would be on Dexter’s ass in a heartbeat.

In fact there’s a character very much like Michael Chiklis in DEXTER, Sgt. Doakes played by Erik King. King is the only guy in the whole precinct who can smell something off about Dexter. What’s great about Doakes is that he has no filter, he doesn’t play politics. If he doesn’t like you, you know it. And King says “motherfucker” with an almost Sam Jackson level zest.

In fact all the character casting is spot in. I take a special notice of Dexter’s sister, Deb, played by Jennifer Carpenter, my new crush. I know I seem to develop these on a weekly basis, but gimme a break. She’s hot.

I couldn’t place where I saw Carpenter before, but I had seen her in THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE (she played the title character). She was cute there, but she’s smokin’ hot in this show and adorably vulgar to boot.

Julie Benz plays Dexter’s love interest, an abused mother of two who Dexter points out is just as messed up as he is, which is why they’re such a good pair. Now, I thought Julie Benz was fucking awful in RAMBO. Really horrible. That didn’t stop my enjoyment of the flick at all, mind you, but she was horrible in the film, but she’s actually quite charming on Dexter, which was a relief because she’s in just about every episode.

The police station is filled with sharply written characters, from Dexter’s sex-obsessed lab partner Masuka (CS Lee) to the ball-busting and manipulating, but still somehow nice Lt. Laguerta (Lauren Velez) to (my favorite) suave Cubano Angel Batista (David Zayas) the showrunners ensure that even when we’re not focused on Dexter we’re still being entertained as an audience.

This is another way DEXTER reminds me of THE SHIELD, another wonderfully cast show.

Anyway, it’s important to have characters to believe in, characters you like to watch to hold up the interesting arcs of both seasons.

In Season 1 we have a the emergence of a real deal professional serial killer who somehow knows Dexter’s secret life and seems to want to play, leaving clues only Dexter will pick up, communicating with bloodless corpses.

Dexter is in awe of this killer, viewing the bodies like an artist would view a masterpiece at a museum, appreciating it on a whole other level than most.

The whole season is aiming Dexter and “the Ice Truck Killer” towards each other. In an interesting approach, the creators show us who the Ice Truck Killer is more than a few episodes before Dexter figures it out, so when he meets with this character there’s a whole different perspective for us.

I can’t say it was a shocking twist who it was… anyone used to watching mysteries will probably figure out who the Ice Truck Killer is before they tell us, but that doesn’t make the character any less interesting.

Season 2 has Dexter taken completely out of his safe zone. His dumping ground is stumbled upon by a team of scuba divers and suddenly he’s thrust into investigating himself. At this point, Doakes knows something’s up and is tailing Dexter. Dexter’s relationship with Benz and the kids, where he’s really finding his humanity, is torn apart by the introduction of Lila, Jaime Murray, who peeks behind Dex’s mask and accepts who he is (or who she thinks he is). She’s a dark character herself. And she gets naked a lot and is really, really hot. Of course Dex is tempted and that throws his humanity in jeopardy.

She really is the devil… or the snake, tempting him to throw away all the goodness in his life, confusing his moral code and making it hard for him to focus as the noose is drawn tighter and tighter as the FBI and his friends come closer and closer to finding out his secret.

Without treading too deeply into spoiler territory I will say that even though I loved the second season (especially the heightened Doakes/Dexter cat and mouse game) I prefer the first season for its simplicity. Introducing us to Dexter and his habits meant a little bit of a pattern. Every episode would shed a little more light on Dexter’s past, give us a little more info on the Ice Truck Killer and give us a B storyline where Dexter would find some murdering asshole and wipe him out.

In the second season things become a little complicated, a little muddled. I’m kind of glad it did, actually, because there’s nothing I hate more than seeing a TV show hit the rinse-wash-repeat button on their second season (I’m looking at you, Heroes).

However I will say that things felt a little less convenient in the first season and Dexter felt a little more in control of his destiny, which I like.

I have no idea where they’re heading for Season 3, but I will be tuning in every week (or at least setting the DVR so I make sure not to miss an episode). I hope it stays as strong as it is in its first two seasons.

Season 2 comes out tomorrow and Season 1 is out now. In terms of special features… well, there aren’t any of note on Season 2… you get a few episodes of another show, but no commentaries or anything special actually relating to Dexter, which sucks. But the show itself is worth it, so I’m not going to complain.

That’s it for my thoughts on Dexter. What do you folks think of the show? Let me know in the talkback below!

-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com