Summer can mean a slow death for those of us who are still awesome and like sports and television. Thankfully, Al Gore invented the DVD. Throughout the summer we’ll be running a series of DVD binge recommendations to help you claw your way to football season. Now up: Dexter.

Airs: On Showtime in the Fall. Currently two seasons in.

Genre: A rare mix of crime thriller dramedy with psychopathic tendencies.

Number of Episodes: 24 over 2 seasons. Season 3 starts this fall.

Estimated Viewing Time: If you’re single and love the couch you can knock out the first two seasons over a long weekend. If the ball and chain makes most of your decisions for you you’re looking at three weeks to a month.

What to Anticipate:

• Blood.
• Violence.
• Serial Killing.
• A surprisingly lighthearted tone despite all the blood and all the violence and all the serial killing.
• Lots of Miami.
• Crawling inside the mind of a sociopath.
• Finding a serial killer to be surprisingly likable.

Actors You’ve Heard Of:

• Michael C. Hall (Dexter) played one of the brothers on Six Feet Under (the gay one, we think), but we don’t know anyone who’s ever watched an episode of Six Feet Under so that probably doesn’t matter. Guy looks familiar though.

• Julie Benz plays Dexter’s girlfriend. You may recognize her from guest appearances on shows like Law & Order and CSI, but you probably remember her most from Steve Irony’s Rambo review. Last we check she was still his computer’s desktop wallpaper.

• James Remar plays Dexter’s adopted father in flashbacks. He’s a classic in-everything-but-couldn’t-tell-you-his-name actor.

Coolest & Toughest Character: Doakes. Dexter is kind of awesome, but Sergeant Doakes is hands down the coolest and toughest character on the show. The guy is a no bullshit hard ass who you find yourself respecting even more for his ability to seamlessly work in “mother fucker” to every other sentence.

Gratuitous Eye Candy: Limited. Julie Benz is the hottest chick on the show but she’s dressed like a substitute teacher most of the time. The chick who plays Dexter’s sister is a bit of a toothy beanpole, but she might do it for some people. A gothy British chick enters the scene in Season 2 and she’s not terrible, especially if you’re into necrophilia.Interesting Side Notes:

• The show is based on the 2004 novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter but contains a lot of plot dissimilarities.

• James Remar was Ajax in The Warriors and the bad guy in the first 48 Hrs., two roles that kind of offset his multiple Sex and the City appearances.

• Kids whose parents thought they were renting Dexter’s Laboratory have been in for a bit of a shock.

Most Common Side Effects of Binge:

• Coming to the conclusion that you could off someone with relative ease and without repercussions.

• Making the people in your life uncomfortable with your Doakes impersonation.

• Wanting to have a beer with Michael C. Hall.

• Feeling a little weird about how actively you root for a serial killer.

Binge Addiction Level:

• High…if you like psychological thrillers and can handle things getting graphic and morbid.
• Low…if you were a big Touched by an Angel fan.

NextRound’s 1-10 Recommendation : 9 out of 10 (Superior to spending your weeknights watching the Food Network).

[Sources: IMDb, Wikipedia]

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