Dexter, Season 1, Episode 1, “Dexter”

Dexter is the first show, as far as I know, that has been syndicated to prime-time network television during its continuing run on premium cable. (Sex and the City, the Sopranos and The Wire have also been syndicated, but to basic cable channels like TBS.) The drama about a forensic scientist-slash-serial killer who murders other serial killers premiered on Showtime back in 2006. But due to a dearth of new programming – thanks to the late writers’ strike – CBS decided to broadcast the entire first season of Dexter beginning last Sunday. The actors had already been overdubbing their lines with sanitized dialogue in expectation that they would one day be syndicated, and the show’s producer said there was actually very little in terms of violence to cut. But that didn’t stop the Parents Television Council from issuing a knee-jerk condemnation of the show’s network debut.

If you haven’t heard of them, the Parents Television Council is, in short, the enemy. This is the organization that sponsors letter-writing drives to the FCC or advertiser boycotts when, say, someone blurts out a four-letter word during a morning show, or flashes a bit of hiney on a police procedural. They are part of the engine driving the culture of outrage and apology that pretends to shield the supposedly eggshell-like psyches of American children. But how many young children, really, are watching CBS at 10 p.m. on a Sunday? Blocking a show like Dexter wouldn’t help kids – instead, it prevents educated, informed viewers like you and me from watching a potentially enlightening and fascinating series. In reality, these morality campaigns are less about kids and more about forcing a specific viewpoint and infantilizing adults.

But the PTC isn’t without a sense of humor. At least, I have to assume that they’re joking when they not only regularly declare a “Worst TV Show of the Week,” but actually post a video clip of the most offensive scene in said show. It even has the come-hither boiler plate warning of “Graphic Content!!!” – shorthand for “fun sexy times ahead.” This week’s winner was a show that no one watched called Paradise Hotel 2, featuring a brief scene where twentysomethings dance stiffly in a well lit room before stripping down to their underwear (the horror!) and giving awkward lapdances. Not titillating enough for you? Don’t worry, the PTC will post more soft-core porn on their site next week.

Luckily, CBS ignored the Parents Television Council and aired a somewhat-edited Dexter. We meet the title character, played deftly by Michael C. Hall of Six Feet Under, as he prepares to dismember alive a 40-something man who has been murdering children in his spare time. The scene is really no more gruesome than CBS’s long-running forensics show CSI, but it’s certainly more chilling than anything that series could conjure up. After the opening credits, we learn that Dexter is, in fact, a crime scene analyst for the Miami police department known for having an uncanny instinct for understanding blood spatter and the mind of murderers. His cheerful, witty voiceover narration reveals the character’s other handy talent: the ability to come off as a mostly normal guy.

Dexter also has a sister, Debra, a vice cop. (Aren’t all Miami police in vice?) Deb is tired of posing undercover as a hooker and wants to break into homicide, but ironically she seems clueless about her brother’s extracurricular killing. And there's one cop – aggressively profane on Showtime, but simply awkwardly overdubbed on CBS – who is creeped out by Dexter and may be on the verge of discovering the fox in the police hen house. To top it off, Dexter hates sex, but he’s dating Darla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer – in this show she's a single, conveniently sexless mother.

Throughout the episode, Dexter explains via a series of flashbacks how his father, another cop, learned of his son’s proclivity toward brutal violence and managed to steer the boy’s urges into something productive. Dexter calls this “the code.” The code his father laid out not only seems to determine the rules for selecting Dexter’s victims – serial killers who slip through the cracks in the legal system – but also the steps Dexter must take in his own murder rituals to ensure that he never gets caught. As he says, “I’m a very neat monster.” I found myself wondering how great it would be if my worst vices could somehow be turned to good. Is there some way to save the world while scouring the internet for funny videos and entertainment news? Could procrastination somehow slow global warming? In a way, I’m almost envious of Dexter.

This is, in fact, just what the PTC predicted. “The biggest problem with the series is something that no amount of editing can get around: the series compels viewers to empathize with a serial killer, to root for him to prevail, to hope he doesn’t get discovered,” PTC president Tim Winter said in a press release. But it’s tough to see how this could be any justification for keeping this show off the networks. Sure, you empathize with Dexter’s efforts to put a pleasant public mask over his gruesome inner thoughts, but do you really want to be him? He’s charming and likeable, but unlike the hip, unflappable cast of CSI, Dexter doesn’t make his work look very fun.

Over 8 million people watched Dexter dispense with two victims on Sunday – about six times the series' usual Showtime audience. That means we’re almost guaranteed to finish out the first season, and might even get to see other HBO and Showtime series as well. This can’t be bad for television. The more people who tune in to sharply scripted premium cable shows, the more the rest of network TV will attempt to reach the same level of excellence.

Either that, or we get more Paradise Hotels. I’m sure the PTC will find something to bitch about no matter what.