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Dexter: Season One

SPOILER ALERT!

Dexter Morgan is a likable forensics expert for the Miami Metro Police Department by day. By night, he is a serial killer that hunts the dregs of society. He doesn’t feel emotions like a normal person, so his extracurricular activities come at the insistence of his foster father - a now-deceased former Miami Metro detective. Knowing young Dexter would be irrevocably damaged by traumatic incidents from his youth, Harry Morgan trained Dexter to become the perfect killer.

In the series opener, Dexter’s foster sister calls him to a crime scene after she discovers a body of a hooker she knows (from working undercover on vice). Dexter is intrigued by the presentation of the corpse, and by the fact that there was no blood on scene (as his specialty is blood spatter). Throughout the progression of the season, Dexter becomes increasingly involved with the Ice Truck Killer. The murderer gives Dexter specific clues hidden in his home and on various crime scenes that eventually lead Dexter to the truth - he’s biologically related to the killer.

The bloodbath in which Harry discovered Dexter wasn’t one that Dexter had faced alone - his older brother had been on the scene, trapped in a cargo container in blood 2 in. thick for days. Brian was not adopted, due to his age at the time of the trauma, and had grown up in institutions. He managed to blend in, and even got Deborah (Dexter’s foster sister) to fall in love with him. By the end of the season, the Ice Truck Killer is dead, Deborah has moved in with Dex, and a Sgt. Doakes believes Dex to have had a personal relationship with the killer.

The premise of this series is so wrong, it’s right. From the get-go, stellar cast performances and wonderful writing draw the viewer in, and leave them wanting more. The Ice Truck Killer is cleverly woven into the show’s relationships, and Dexter’s own compulsion seems normal and necessary. Aside from what some audiences may view as excessive language, sex and violence (expected from Showtime), this series hits the ground running.

Written by: Tracy Elledge

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