Dexter-Complete First Season (Blu Ray) (3discs) (2007)

Ultimate DVD
5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]his is fascinating television....As Dexter, Hall is phenomenal -- somehow likeable despite his appalling deeds..." 10/01/2007 p.116

Variety 9 of 10
Based on Jeff Lindsay's novel "Darkly Dreaming Dexter," the series focuses on a Miami forensics expert who finds the town -- characterized as it is by a low murder-solving rate -- "a great place for me to hone my craft." Alas, said "craft" is ritual murder, though thanks to his foster father (James Remar, very effective in flashback sequences), Dexter (Hall) has learned to put his homicidal impulses to good use, hunting down and eliminating killers and miscreants who have skirted justice or otherwise gamed the system...Dexter is close only with his foster sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), a cop toiling in vice who yearns to transfer into homicide. He also has an emotionally damaged girlfriend (Julie Benz) who, mercifully, is as uninterested in sex as he is. Meanwhile, one co-worker, Sgt. Doakes (Erik King), can sense there's something seriously off about the guy -- an intuition Dexter actually admires...Diving headlong into the black humor, Hall quickly dispatches any thoughts of his "Six Feet" character, which, by itself, represents quite an accomplishment...In their desire to be provocative, however, the producers, director Michael Cuesta and writer James Manos Jr. approach the line between "edgy" and "distasteful" and, at least at times, drift across it, despite their relative restraint in terms of excessive gore. Dexter is meant to be more acceptable because he slays only those who deserve it, but the relish with which he pursues his work -- wrapped in cellophane and coolly wielding an electric saw -- feels plucked from a Stanley Kubrick outtake reel...Granted, some of Showtime's recent series have been a little squishy conceptually ("Huff" comes to mind), and no one can accuse "Dexter" of such wishy-washiness. So if brilliant, psychotic lunatics are your bag, by all means, climb aboard. - Brian Lowry
 
The Onion A.V. Club 8 of 10
The Showtime series Dexter has an irresistible hook: The eponymous hero, a "blood-spatter analyst" for a Miami homicide unit, is a serial killer, but he reserves this inclination for scum-of-the-earth types -- murderers, pedophiles, rapists -- who've beat the system. What makes his "code" fascinating, at least in the first several episodes, is the implication that he needs to kill, and that the code is just the most constructive way to channel his aggression. Unlike a garden-variety vigilante, he doesn't really care about justice, which makes him a different kind of monster, one whose sense of right and wrong is programmed, not instinctive. Throughout the engrossing, tightly plotted first season, the code gradually starts to rewire his twisted circuitry, and he shows signs of making a Pinocchio-like journey toward becoming a real boy...Though it has the veneer of an "edgy" TV show, Dexter at its worst isn't far removed from a standard-issue police procedural, cursed further by crappier production values than network hits like CSI. As Dexter becomes more human -- though that's still relative -- the show loses some of its initial energy, making the mistake of softening a character distinguished by his blackened soul. But even when it sinks too far into conventionality, it's still riveting television, thanks to superb thriller plotting (the cat-and-mouse game between Dexter and the Ice Truck Killer is particularly gripping), well-employed flashbacks, and a leading man whose charisma holds his psychosis in check. - Scott Tobias