With Weeds and Californication closed for the season, with a strike-prompted end of fresh episodes of The Office, and with Friday Night Lights treading water so far this year, by far my favorite current show is Dexter. Actually, it doesn’t matter what’s up with those other shows. After this week’s episode, Dexter’s gotta be the show whose writing I respect most, period*.

It’s definitely not my genre. No matter what I try to write, it comes out as comedy. If I tried to writer a murder scene, there would be jokes. They might not be funny, but they would be jokes.

If you’re a fan of The Shield (and you should be) you might recognize the accomplishments of Dexter’s writers: Get us to genuinely care about the fate of an anti-hero. Occasionally horrify us with the fact that we’re rooting for someone who is fundamentally horrid. And then subject him to worse and worse conflict as he tells one lie after another. At the climax of several episodes in a row now, I’ve all but said out loud, “How will Dexter get out of this?!” And then he does in the next episode, only to dig himself deeper. Good stuff.

I don’t watch a lot of heavy drama. I don’t usually enjoy anti-heroes. And I thought the first season of Dexter took far too many episodes to get interesting. But this year has blown me away. The creative team have really found some compelling story twists and turns. And it doesn’t hurt that Dexter’s new girlfriend this season has to be one of the sexiest women alive. So dangerous… So British…

Am I the only person out there following this show?

* Besides maybe Avatar, which continues to impress with it’s third season. Sophisticated, sophisticated story and character for a children’s show. But it’s not exactly fair to compare that to Dexter, is it?

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