TV Preview
'Dexter,' a killer drama strikingly done
By Diego Vasquez
Feb 14, 2008 - 1:05:47 AM

This is one in a series of Media Life previews of those programs.


 
Name of show 
“Dexter”
 
Timeslot 
CBS, Sunday 10 p.m.
 
Plot synopsis 
A gory, unflinching crime drama based on the Jeff Lindsay novel “Darkly Dreaming Dexter,” “Dexter” originally aired on Showtime and has been heavily edited to air on sister network CBS, giving the network some original content during the writers’ strike.

The show follows Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a Miami Metro Police Department forensics expert who moonlights as a serial killer.
 
Dexter doesn’t kill just anybody. Living out a code passed down to him by his foster father, Harry, he goes after murderers who otherwise would not be brought to justice.
 
Hall has been nominated for two Golden Globes for his portrayal of the lead character, and he’s joined in the cast by Julie Benz as Dexter's girlfriend Rita Bennett, Jennifer Carpenter as Dexter’s cop sister, Erik King as the veteran policeman Sgt. Doakes, and Lauren Velez as Lt. Maria Laguerta, a leader of the homicide division who also has a personal interest in Dexter.
 
Outlook 
“Dexter” is Showtime’s top program, but that's no guarantee it will become a hit for CBS.

It has several things working against it, and one is the editing required to make it broadcast friendly. The very thing that makes the show unique, the dry humor Dexter exhibits in the face of extreme violence, has been scaled back considerably.

It also likely won't get a huge boost from its lead-in, an original of “Cold Case.” That show has averaged just a 3.1 this season among viewers 18-49, though it's a top-25 show among households, with an 8.0 season-to-date average rating.  

Plus the competition is fairly stiff. ABC this Sunday airs an original “Brothers & Sisters,” which is averaging a solid 4.2 rating among 18-49s for ABC, and next week it goes against ABC's highly anticipated Academy Awards special.
 
On NBC, "Dexter" this Sunday faces a “Knight Rider” TV movie, and that should do decently, boosted by the extensive promotion it's gotten and a strong lead-in audience from the season finale of the hit “American Gladiators.”  The following week, "Dexter" goes against a repeat of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” which is taking over the slot. 
 
The buzz 
Media people regard “Dexter” as a quality program, and they see it as a good fit for CBS in the vein of “CSI,” “Cold Case” and “Without a Trace.” But they also point out that its reach has been limited, which means it has a small fan base to follow it to CBS. Showtime has just 15 million subscribers, and an average “Dexter” episode pulls around 1 million viewers.

A similar cable-to-broadcast move for USA's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" has not produced great ratings on NBC, and that's a well-established franchise.
 
“Viewers are starving for entertainment shows, and this certainly fits the bill,” says Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director at Horizon Media. “But clearly this is just another Band-Aid for the writers’ strike, kind of like ‘Big Brother.’ It’s something they wouldn’t necessarily be doing if it wasn’t for the strike.”
 
There's also the problem of the show airing against the Oscars its second week. That show will draw a huge audience, as it always does, and there's the risk it will deflate what momentum "Dexter" gained from its initial airing this weekend.
 
Another issue, media people note, is just how much the show has been edited down to make it fit for broadcast. Too much editing would likely destroy the show’s flow and dark humor.
 
What critics are saying 
“Can a pay-cable serial killer find happiness after being nipped and tucked to occupy a strike-opened hole on CBS? The answer is yes and no, more due to tone than gore or language. Michael C. Hall’s award-worthy performance in the title role makes ‘Dexter’ eminently watchable, but the series is still an uncomfortable fit alongside CBS’ crime procedurals, inasmuch as the good guys don’t commit a lot of ritual murders on ‘Cold Case’ or ‘Without a Trace.’ If there’s a winner here, it’s strictly Showtime, whose series should marginally benefit from the additional exposure.” – Brian Lowry, Variety
 
“Yes, ‘Dexter’ is disturbing. That’s the point. It’s a study of one weird, twisted dude that’s slick enough to mess with our heads, and -- imagine the horror -- make us think. The one thing it doesn’t allow is ‘indifference,’ one of the accusations in the activist Parents Television Council's anti-‘Dexter’ news release, which alleges the show glorifies ‘vigilante justice by celebrating graphic, premeditated murder.’
 
“There’s no ‘celebrating’ here. We’re meant to be horrified by what Dexter does, despite his victims’ well-detailed villainy, and despite his determined efforts to stalk, torture, dismember and neatly dispose of uncaught killers. (Usually depicted less luridly than the misogyny central to CBS’ ‘Criminal Minds’ or ‘CSI’).” – Diane Werts, Newsday
 
“Even though Showtime shot alternative dialogue and will snip out some of the gruesomeness, the point is not that a series can move from pay cable to broadcast and pass the standards test. The point is that ‘Dexter’ was made for grown-ups and, as a work of both fiction and art, the producers, writers and actors meant for it to be seen one way, the way you see it on Showtime. Is ‘watering down’ akin to censorship? Probably. But that’s a pretty heavy term to sling around.” – Tim Goodman, San Francisco Chronicle