My thoughts on Dexter

I have just finished watching the first three seasons of the Showtime series Dexter,based on the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay (which I have not read). The story of the show is that Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) on the surface seems to be a normal, yet a little creepy, male who works as a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Police Force. He does the normal job of trying to find criminals of many kinds, but mainly cold blooded murders. This is only what the main characters see, but if a killer  gets past the legal system and walks away free to kill again, then Dexter's true side comes into the spot light. The truth is that Dexter is just as cold blooded as the killers because he is a serial killer as well, but his main targets are the killer that walk free. He does this for a number of reasons:
1) To feed his desires.
2) To not go to jail, as he makes every effort to hide it his crimes very well.
3) To find some kind of humanity in himself.
Dexter was taught a code when his adopted father discovered that Dexter was like this at an early age. Though out his childhood, his father had taught Dexter how to live in the real world and later help develop Dexter's code that he must not get caught at all costs and that he must only murder people that he knows for sure are murderers.
There are a number of subplots in the series, like his relationship with his girlfriend and how that develops overtime and how Dexter himself still sees the person that he is and how he tries to find true connections with people.
After watching three seasons in roughly two months time, it is safe to say that I am a fan of the show and hope to own the other dvd sets as well.
One reason I like the show is that the idea seems like a silver-lining fantasy that many people have thought of when the hear about real killers, the idea that there is a serial killer that can goes after other killers. Only a channel like Showtime could give us a show like this and it is all the better for it. I think that while this isn't really the best character study of someone who is a killer, it does bring up the ideas that could be thought about in cases like this, like could someone like this be fully functional in this world and could they change who they are as a person. If you really want to have some understanding of the tone of the show, think about this; Dexter through out  each episode speaks in internal monologue and it sounds like one of the characters in the Sin City film.
Other than that, the show is just a well done story. Each episode is part of a bigger story in the season, but it still has it's own story to watch. The characters are diverse, interesting, and have their own issues to deal with in the show.The stories in each season are nice as well. I think my favorite so far is season two where Dexter fears that his crimes maybe will be fully discovered by his own police department.
I also enjoy the way violence is handled. It both works well for the gorehound in me, but is also not so over the top that most other viewers can also enjoy the show.
Overall, I say give the show a watch.  

Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_(TV_series)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_C._Hall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showtime_(TV_network)