As usual, you can never rely on positive reviews when trying to decide whether or not to watch a tv show. Review after review lauds this show as brilliant, groundbreaking, etc etc. I struggled with it immediately, finding the premise contrived to the point of being indigestible. Perhaps the books managed to fully develop the premise in a clever way that made it palatable, I don't know. But to basically say, with the use of Wonder Years-style voice-over and the odd flashback that this individual exhibited warning signs to his adoptive cop father by killing animals as a child, was then TRAINED by the father to channel his tendencies towards killing only "bad" people is a little half-arsed as far as telling a story goes. That "origin" story might have made for an interesting tv show, the path from child pet-killer to a serial killer trained to efficiently kill others of his kind, but this is not that story. This is your bog-standard soap opera recipe with the serial killer "twist" mixed in, just as Walking Dead is the same base recipe with a half-cup of zombie mix, add pouch and stir, voila, repeat season after season. As soon as I realised this, I pulled the plug. It didn't take long. I know that positive reviewers dismiss people like me for not giving shows a chance, but when the writing is so clearly on the wall so early on, I cannot justify wasting my time. The second time Dexter/psycho-Kevin Arnold prepped his little death table I sighed. I do not want to check in each episode and see him have his adventure, executing a bad person (he doesn't just kill serial killers, he kills drunk drivers too) while dealing with the day to day distractions of his personal relationships. There wasn't anything to keep me interested; if there had been some engaging dialogue or compelling actors to counter the formulaic episode structure, maybe I could've hung in for a third episode, but there was nothing. The lead actor was almost campy, it was distracting, and the actress playing his sister was comically bad. The other characters were the typical caricatures, angry black cop, colourful, fedora-sporting Hispanic cop, power-hungry female lieutenant, all very tired and uninspired. I noticed that this show lasted for 8 seasons, similar to Sons of Anarchy (same formula, different mix-pouch) yet another indicator that viewers need to be more discerning in what they will watch if the general standard of tv is going to improve.
Review of Dexter
