Great TV While High: Dexter

This iteration of great stoned television is all about Dexter.

When Dexter (based on 2004’s Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay) first premiered in 2006 on Showtime I largely ignored it. I had heard the premise, that it was a show about a serial killer, and I pretty much just wrote it off because I don’t generally enjoy serial killer type stuff (Silence of the Lambs is a phenomenal movie, but I won’t ever watch it again). Then I began dating the woman who would eventually become my wife, and she was really into Dexter. Here the unwritten laws of not looking like a pussy in front of the ladies kicked in and I nutted up enough to give it an honest watch.

By the time I finished the pilot episode I was hooked. The show is about a serial killer, yes, but the titular character, Dexter (played by Six Feet Under’s Michael C. Hall), is a serial killer who only kills bad guys. Dexter works as a blood spatter analyst for Miami Metro police as his day job. He uses the resources of the police department to hunt down killers who have slipped through the system.

But Dexter is not just a twist on the super hero genre. He is a genuine psychopathic serial killer and the series delves into the psychology of his need to kill and illustrates how he learned to channel those urges toward a person who deserves it. Dexter must kill, he calls this urge the “dark passenger,” but he has learned a “code” of sorts by which he judges potential targets. If they don’t fit the code, he won’t kill them. The show is also about Dexter’s attempt to mask his true self by hiding within the pseudo-humanity he has learned to mimic.

Season 8 just began a few weeks ago and will be the final season of the show. The show is suspenseful, action packed, and strangely deep. Yet it is also witty and at times you will laugh audibly. I don’t want to ruin too much with plot reveals, so do yourself a favor. Smoke a fat bowl and slip into Dexter’s world.

Check out other posts from Weedist’s Great TV While High series!