I’m in love. And boy, is he something.

His name is Dexter and he’s handsome and charming, great with kids. He brings his coworkers donuts on a daily basis and he’s awesome at bowling. Even though he’s a man who lives on his own, his apartment is spic-and-span. Everyone who meets him instantly likes him. You should see him and his sister together; he really cares about his family. He works along side her for the Miami police department. She just got promoted to homicide and he’s a lab technician specializing in blood spatter analysis. He’s nearly flawless… nearly. I’m mean there’s just this one tiny thing:

In his spare time he likes to kill people.

……………………………………….

Ok, so I’m happily married to Mika-Mikeys and Dexter is a book/TV character; I admit I made that previous paragraph up. But I have found a new love in this particular TV/book series…

It all started a little while back when Brighthouse had the first season of the Showtime series, “Dexter” available. My husband read the description and thought it might be a cool thing to check out. Knowing that I’m a fan of movies like “American Psycho,” “Red Dragon,” “From Hell,” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” my husband suggested we give it a whirl. The premise is that Dexter, a young boy of about 3 years, is taken into foster care by Harry Morgan, a cop. Harry realizes early in Dexter’s life that he has all of the tell-tale signs of becoming a sociopath and potentially a serial killer (traumatic event, fascination with death and killing, etc.). Rather than punishing the boy or getting rid of him when he discovers these tendencies, Harry decides to raise Dexter so that he can be a “moral” killer–murdering only those who have committed the most heinous of acts of murder. Harry also decides to teach Dexter how not to get caught . . .

The television series is brilliantly constructed, focusing mainly on Dexter as an adult and how he survives on a day-to-day basis–literally faking every emotion and studying human behavior so that he can act accordingly. Ever so often, they’ll cut in a flashback of Dexter at a younger age, learning through Harry or other personal experiences how to become the monster he is at present.

I try to explain the series to people and they tell me it’s pretty far-fetched. To which I reply, “It’s a television show.”

So as long as you can let your imagination run around and have fun, this is a great series. My only problem is that I don’t have a Showtime subscription. And they’re already pretty far into the second season and I’m missing it all! I’ve been feeding my Dark Passenger (that’s what Dexter calls his urge to kill) with reading the book series that the TV show is based on by Jeff Lindsay.

As soon as I heard there was a book, I ran out and tried to buy it ASAP. I had a gift card from Barnes & Noble for about $11 from returning some school books I didn’t need. When I arrived at B&N, they had the second and third book, but not the first one. Dammit! A couple of days later I visited my parents’ area of the state and tried to find a B&N over that way, to no avail. They did have a Borders however. And lo and behold as I entered the “Mystery & Thriller” section of the store, they had loads of copies for all three books. Yay! Added bonus: half of them had been signed by the author! So perhaps it was fate that made the B&N out of stock that particular day when I went to purchase aforementioned novel.

A note to those willing to give the series/books a try: the difference between the books and the series is subtle, but different enough to confuse you if you try to mix and match (i.e. don’t read the first book and then assume that the second season of the TV series is going to match up with the events of the book–it won’t.). Try to take them one at a time. Read the books first, then see the series or vice versa. Assuming you like it as much as I do…

So on my 2007 Xmas list I have the third Dexter book (I went out and consumed the second one already) and the first season of the television series. My husband asked why the BBC’s “Coupling” series was not on my list as usual. The thing about “Coupling” is that I have the entire series already at my fingertips through Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature. Now wouldn’t that be loverly if Netflix also offered “Dexter” on Watch Instantly…. (hint, hint, guys).

 EDIT (2/20/08): Wow! I’m so flattered that “Dexter” read my blog about him!