Dexter

Now, we're only two discs deep into the first season, so bear with me here, but this is the best new TV show I've seen since Lost. Dexter is about a blood specialist with the Miami police. He tracks killers by day, and is, oh yeah, a mass murderer by night. Dexter stars Michael C. Hall of Six Feet Under fame. It's incredible how different the two characters he's played are, and how he manages to pull of both in such a believable way.

Dexter doesn't kill just to kill (although he really likes it). His adoptive father, a police officer, recognized his sociopathic tendencies as a child, and pushed him to punish wicked people, instead of murdering innocent victims. He teaches him how to avoid getting caught, which is how Dexter racks up so many kills. His little sister is also a cop, struggling to make her mark as a homicide detective. Dexter also has a personal life, dating a woman his sister set him up with. But he has absolutely no interest in her, other than a desire to appear normal. But the ongoing plot, at least so far, is Dexter's pursuit of the "Ice Truck Killer," a serial killer who has also figured out Dexter's secret.

The real thrill of this show is the "whodunit" nature of each episode, following Dexter as he tries to decipher the Ice Truck Killer's latest clues, or avoid capture. But the show has a genuine soft side as well. It's interesting to watch Dexter learn how to simulate normal human emotion. We see flashbacks of his dad teaching him how to act normal, and watch as he tries to figure out how to appear responsive to his girlfriend's problems. The show pulls off the impossible: making a serial killer sympathetic. Hell, you downright root for him. If we could get our goddamn Netflix queue straight, we would have probably finished the season already, but que sera sera.

I give Dexter one severed Barbie. You'll get the reference if you watch the show.