Dexter is about a killer, which means there’s a lot of blood and body parts. But it’s also a story that hadn’t really been told on TV at the time, and Michael C. Hall puts in a dynamic performance as the killer with something resembling a conscience.

Full Review | Jun 20, 2024

It looks amazing, the vivid colour grading and am-dram severed limbs are such a welcome reprieve from the serious grey sludge of modern prestige television.

Full Review | Mar 29, 2024

Dexter isn't just clever and original, it's also incredibly funny, which is quite an achievement given its gruesome subject matter.

Full Review | Apr 3, 2020

This is smart TV for a very select group of people, and though it's not nearly as refined as Showtime's other big gun ("Weeds"), it does have the potential to become the blossoming network's flagship program.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 3, 2020

Unlike many series, Dexter began pretty much fully-formed, with a clear sense of what a season feels like and of how it would approach characterization (cartoonish) and narrative (TENSE).

Full Review | Feb 5, 2019

Hooked in its audience perfectly with some clever writing and excellent plot twists.

Full Review | Jan 8, 2019

Remains a wonderful gift, containing all the initial elements of Dexter that hooked us while also, strangely, still remaining wonderfully sealed off.

Full Review | Jan 8, 2019

Everything is so heavily stylised, the emphasis is on irony rather than realism... Well it made me laugh.

Full Review | Jan 8, 2019

It's a bit like watching an episode of Scooby-Doo in which the lighthouse keeper who's disguised himself as a sea monster in order to scare people away from his gold spends half his screen time mulling over the philosophical meaning of masks.

Full Review | Jan 8, 2019

Maybe Dexter is the perfect anti-hero for these passionately morally relativistic times. Or maybe we're all just as brutal and misogynistic as the writers and as numb and sick in the frigging head as their creation is.

Full Review | Jan 8, 2019

The interminable voiceover shoehorns in plenty of tiresome exposition in language as awkward as the novel's.

Full Review | Jan 8, 2019

Serial killers are a familiar subject in fiction, but Dexter Morgan already has a spot right at the top of the most memorable.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Jan 8, 2019

Provides one of the small screen's most appealing antiheroes.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jan 8, 2019

Ultimately, the show becomes tethered to the unlikely relationship between Dexter and his girlfriend... It's here that "Dexter" rewards your patience, going from somewhat gratuitous psycho-killer riff to fully fledged relationship drama.

Full Review | Jan 8, 2019

Dexter, as superbly played by Hall, is such a compelling character that attempts to beef up the supporting cast with their own subplots just felt like a distraction.

Full Review | Jan 8, 2019

Every element expertly draws you into its protagonist's sordid world. The narration, a carryover from the novels, is indispensable and haunting.

Full Review | Jan 8, 2019

Starts with a juicily sick premise, and Michael C. Hall wrings out every viscous, unwholesome drop from it.

Full Review | Jan 8, 2019

The linchpin of the show, increasingly, is Dexter's relationship with his girlfriend, Rita... At such moments, the show finds its voice -- not as bleak police procedural but as black comedy.

Full Review | Jan 8, 2019

Those out there that enjoy having characters that aren't bad, but aren't totally good either, will completely (and morbidly) love this new Showtime series.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Jan 8, 2019

Indeed, you should give "Dexter" a shot because it has the potential to be one of the best new shows of the season. It's just not there yet.

Full Review | May 29, 2018