Dexter is an Emmy and Golden-Globe award winning television series that airs on Showtime . Brilliantly crafted along with superlative performance from the starcast, it is set at the scenic locales of Florida coast. The series is about Dexter Morgan ( Michael C. Hall ), a serial killer who doubles up as a blood spatter analyst (forensics) in Miami Metro Homicide. Nobody has the faintest idea that this shy and soft-spoken lab geek is the kind of monster that he is. The show is based on characters created by Jeff Lindsay for his series of Dexter novels. It was adapted for television by Emmy Award-winning screenwriter James Manos, Jr. , who wrote the pilot episode.
On October 21, 2008, Showtime renewed the series for a fourth and fifth season, each consisting of twelve episodes. Season 4 aired its season finale on December 13, 2009 to a record-breaking audience of 2.6 million viewers , making it the most-watched original series episode ever on Showtime.
Dexter was adopted by a Police Officer, Harry Morgan (James Remar), who picked him up from a gruesome and bloody murder site. As a child Dexter was abnormal, unable to feel normal human emotions and unable to control his urge to kill. His foster father Harry, trying to protect the child, took the only way possible under circumstances. He taught him how to pose as a normal human so as not to attract attention and how to cleanly commit a murder. He also laid down a code for him to follow while choosing his victims. This code required him to kill only hardcore murderers!
Dexter brings up this age-old debate on what is right and what is wrong! Is it correct to sympathize with a serial killer, even though he might be killing ’bad’ people? This is all the more relevant when Dexter doesn’t really care about whom he kills. The first rule of his ’code’ is "Don’t get caught!". When hardened criminals disappear, people don’t suspect any serious foul play. But coming to the debate again, didn’t those bad people deserve it? And isn’t the world a better place without some of those sickos that Dexter did get his hands on? He’s a criminal from the legal viewpoint. But he is certainly doing humanity a favor!
Dexter is undoubtedly a disturbing watch, and not because of the blood and gore! Although there is a fair bit of it thrown in throughout the length of the series, it’s quite normal for a story focusing on a serial killer. The appeal (or the said disturbing influence) lies in the glimpse that it provides of the thinking processes of a Killer! There have been a few instances where people have actually tried to imitate Dexter in real life! Some people I know have recoiled badly after watching a few episodes and stopped watching! And the reason is that this series is so well made, that it actually has the viewer believing in the reality of what’s happening on the screen. For some it’s too much to take!