"My name is Dexter. Dexter Morgan.I'm a serial killer. Nice to meet you."
ITV1 launches the terrestrial airing of Dexter's first 12-part season on Wednesday 27 February. Rejoice!
It's the first US import the channel have aired in primetime since it purchased Millennium in '96 – which, ironically, focused on a hero who caught serial killers, whereas Dexter is actually a "heroic" serial killer. How times change, eh?
The show is one of my favourites, although it takes a few episodes for you to start empathizing with an anti-hero killer (even if he has a strict "only kill the bad guys" moral code.) It's like a pulp novel, with a dark vein of humour running through it, and a magnificent central performance from Six Feet Under's Michael C. Hall as Dexter.
I really hope it finds an audience for ITV1, as it's a brave decision by them to give something like this a chance. At face value, it doesn't seem the kind of thing a typical ITV audience would enjoy, but we forget that ITV gave us the likes of Cracker in the 90s.
There are positive signs already from a wonderful trailer ITV have been running to promote Dexter recently -- but how can ITV1 show the original 53-minute long episodes, being a commercial station? Are ITV1 going to show the 43-minute versions currently airing on CBS in the US -- who bought Dexter as a writers' strike contingency plan?
The edited versions on commercial US television have cut a few grisly shots, re-dubbed some f-words, and trimmed extraneous subplots – losing 10-minutes from each episode, so they can fit in adverts. Are these the versions ITV1 will air, with ITV4 perhaps showing the uncut versions later?
I guess we'll find out next week. If you have yet to see the show, I heartily recommend it -- in whatever edited form. The second season begins on the FX Channel in July, and it's even better.
