Jigsaw and Amanda's Favourite TV - Dexter.

Well, there are so many TV shows on at the moment that it is hard to decide what to watch. We watch a lot of TV and some of the shows are crap and others are very good. I like a good story and good characters. The first show that we like is Dexter. It is based on a series of books by Jeff Lindsay and it began in 2006. There have been seven seasons so far and the final season begins soon.

The main character is Dexter Morgan played by Michael C Hall who is a bloodstain pattern analyst who works for Miami Metro Police. He is very good at his job and very clever. He was adopted by a cop called Harry Morgan(James Remar) who found him at the scene of his mother's murder and took him in. He still talks to Harry who appears as an advisor throughout the series even though he is dead.His sister is Debra Morgan played by Jennifer Carpenter and she is a cop too. She is foul mouthed and is a tomboy. She dresses like a guy most of the time and can be tough when she wants to be. The only gripe I would have about her is that Carpenter is way too skinny but that's just my opinion. Dexter works with another analyst Vince Masuka played by C.S.Lee. He is a pervert and is always talking about sex but is harmless. Angel Batista is played by David Zayas and he is a detective at Miami Metro. He is a good cop and he is good friends with Dexter and Debra. He is divorced and he misses the company of women and confesses to be lonely.Lieutenant LaGuerta is played by Lauren Velez is a no nonsense woman who will do anything to further her career. She does not like Debra and wants to keep her down. She likes Dexter.

The first season, Dexter is working away at his job but we find out that he is a serial killer who disposes of those evil people who the police cannot get. He takes them and secures them to a table with plastic wrap and then stabs them through the chest with a knife. He disposes of them in the sea. He
has a boat and that comes in handy for his dumping of bodies.He chops the victims up and throws their bodies in the water thus getting rid of the evidence. Of course, the bodies are found and the cops have an investigation on their hands. Dexter has a girlfriend called Rita(Julie Benz) and she has two children, Cody and Astor who Dexter gets on well with. He is with her in the beginning as a front. He needs to appear normal to the outside world. He has little feelings for her but after a while, he begins to like her and they marry. She is totally oblivious to his serial killing and she never discovers it. She wonders where he goes off to at night when he is hunting victims, but she is never suspicious of him killing.

The series always has one bad guy who Dexter is trying to get. In season 1, it is The Ice Truck Killer who turns out to be Dexter's brother and whom he kills. The cops find his bodies in the second season and they begin the search for the Bay Harbour Butcher, not knowing that Dexter is him! Dexter has a nemesis at the police station called James Doakes(Erik King) and he suspects that Dexter is not as innocent as he seems. He follows him around and eventually discovers the truth. Dexter has to get rid of him so he makes Doakes look like he is the Bay Harbour Butcher and he gets killed in an explosion so nobody learns about Dexter's secret. Season Three,Dexter finds a friend Miguel Prado(Jimmy Smits) who is an assistant DA and who shares Dexter's dark impulses. He wants to kill bad guys too. Dexter and Miguel become close friends until he crosses him and Dexter murders him. He also gets married to Rita in this season.

Season Four starred John Lithgow as serial killer Trinity. He was really good in the part as the creepy Arthur Mitchell. He has a family who he terrorises and he meets Dexter and they become pals until he realises that Dexter is out to get him. He kills Rita as revenge and Dexter murders Arthur. Arthur was a very clever man and it was hard for Dexter to get him. He was an even match for him and it was a very good season with the cat and mouse games they played with each other. Lithgow played the part very well. Rita had a baby with Dexter called Harrison and now Dexter has to be a single father to him and Rita's other two children.They eventually leave to live with their grandparents. Season Five finds Dexter rescuing a woman called Lumen(Julia Stiles) from a group of rapists. He finds her when he murders a man and she is his captive. She thinks that he is out to hurt her, but he doesn't kill her. He takes her away from there and she tells him what happened to her. She was a victim of rape by a group of men who like to film their antics. Then they give the women to a creepy sanitation worker who kills them. Dexter kills him and then he and Lumen get the other guys in the group one by one. The hardest one to get is a guy called Jordan Chase(Jonny Lee Miller) who is the head of the rape ring. Dexter and Lumen become very close and he is sorry when she leaves after killing all of the men who hurt her.

Season Six was very good and it revolved around killers called the Doomsday Killers. They are two guys who kill to bring about the Apocalypse. They are Travis Marshall(Colin Hanks) and Professor Gellar (Edward James Olmos) and they work together creating scenes from the Bible.Dexter finds Travis and he tries to get him to turn against Gellar as he thinks that Gellar is the brains of the outfit. He doesn't realise that Travis has killed Gellar and has been seeing him in hallucinations and he believes that he is still alive. He kills Travis but is caught by Debra who cannot believe what she is seeing..Season Seven sees Debra struggling with the news that her brother is a serial killer. She helps him cover up the murder of Travis Marshall but LaGuerta is suspicious and starts investigations. She is also trying to bring up the Doakes case to prove his innocence. Dexter meets a woman called Hannah McKay(Yvonne Strahovski) who has a dodgy past and they become lovers. She tries to poison Debra though and that is the end of their relationship as Dexter gets her put in prison. She escapes though and he whereabouts are unknown.Laguerta discovers the truth about Dexter and wants Debra to kill him but Debra shoots her instead. That brings us to the 8th season which will be starting the end of June. It should be a great finale I hope.

The series is very good and Hall is great as the main character. I like Dexter and his double life is interesting. He is a clever guy who takes care of the baddies who the cops can't touch. I like his sense of justice and he has had some close shaves where he got into trouble. I think that he will have to be found out sometime and I am not sure if they will end the series with him going to prison but I think that it would be better if he continues on his path. There were some really good actors in this. I liked Jimmy Smits, John Lithgow and Colin Hanks not to mention Jonny Lee Miller as the creepy Jordan Chase. It is a great TV series and I recommend it to anyone. I am just waiting for the next season! I hope you liked my quick synopsis of the show. Obviously, I don't have time to go into every storyline so this is just a fraction of what happens! Watch the series if you haven't seen it and you will enjoy it...