Dexter

I loved Michael C. Hall on "Six Feet Under", so when I saw that he was on "Dexter", I was intrigued. I read a couple of the books: Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter. (The new one Dexter in the Dark isn't out yet, but I'm looking forward to reading the next installment.)

A couple of my friends had told me how good it was, but it wasn't until I was able to see a few of the episodes that I fell in love. The producers, writers and directors had a difficult act with this show. They had to show a psychopath as sympathetic and managed to pull it off. They took the characters and plots from two books and both stayed close to the cannon and expanded it for dramatic purposes thanks to a stellar cast.

The first thing that they did was throw out the standard view of compacting things down. They took the story of the first book and stretched it. They kept the wonderful scenes and inventions from the book and gave us more of the day to day in between scenes from the book. Secondly, they decided to fluff up the secondary characters that were given short shrift in the books where the main attention is rightfully on Dexter himself. With flashbacks to Dexter's foster-father, Harry, and his interactions with the younger Dexter (with his horrible haircuts), they have given even more depth to young Dexter, so that we can see how he came to be what he is today and how the lessons have strengthened him.

While this isn't an ensemble series, such as "Lost" or "Six Feet Under", the juicier secondary roles have gotten a handful of good actors that bring the series up to be something special.

I just wish that broadcast TV would learn that lesson. Personally, I'm getting sick and tired of all the best shows being on cable.

That said, I recommend this show highly.