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Years ago, I watched the first episode of Dexter, because it seemed like it could potentially be a fun show about murder. I didn't find it that memorable, though, and I didn't carry on with it.

Actually, that's not entirely true; I found one part of it very memorable. Early in the first episode of Dexter, there's a sequence where Dexter brings a box of doughnuts into work. He smiles and hands out doughnuts to his colleagues, internally monologuing the entire time about how broken and emotionless he is, and about how he fakes his way through every interaction.

After handing out the last doughnut, he looks into the box. There's a dramatic close-up on the bottom of his box of no doughnuts as he thinks, Just like me. Empty inside.

I absolutely lost it laughing. I laughed for about five minutes straight. No sitcom has made me laugh half as hard as this moment in ostensibly serious serial killer drama Dexter.

Recently, I saw Dexter listed on Netflix and thought I might give it another shot. It does sound like my sort of thing on paper, after all.

I gave the first episode another crack. (I still laughed at Dexter's box of no doughnuts.) However, I ran into a new problem I hadn't anticipated: presented with a show about a killer who kills killers, I found myself frustrated that the protagonist was not my beloved Light Yagami. I abandoned the episode partway through and concluded that Dexter was not for me.

A couple of weeks later, wolfy_writing started posting about the show, and... yeah, okay, it did sound sort of fun. In particular, Wolfy's posts reassured me that Dexter is not in fact as emotionless as he claims, which was good news; I can struggle to get invested in emotionless characters. Maybe I'd at least finish the first episode.

I've now seen the first three episodes of Dexter, and I'm having a good time so far! It's a little graphic for my tastes, but not unwatchably so. I'm not passionate about this show (yet?), but I'm definitely planning to keep watching for now.

Dexter inconsiderately continues not to be Light Yagami, though.

You know, Dexter, I'm not sure 'you are a Murder Child and you're inevitably going to murder a lot of people, we just have to accept that' is the stellar parenting you think it was.

Dexter certainly likes to think 'boy, if I could have feelings I'd probably be having this specific feeling right now; good thing I definitely don't have any feelings!' a lot.

Perhaps my favourite aspect of the show so far: Dexter tells us that he has no interest in sex and doesn't understand it, but then he thinks about how a corpse was beautifully drained of blood and it makes him really horny.

My other favourite aspect of the show so far is Dexter fucking up his murder attempt and nearly getting eaten by an alligator.