Could this be the final season of Dexter?

Deadline released a news report today regarding one of my favorite shows "Dexter". Apparently contract negotiations between Michael C. Hall and Showtime broke down regarding his pay for the next two seasons. Hall is asking for $24 million and Showtime is offering $20 million. This of course puts the status of a seventh or eighth season in jeopardy if an agreement can't be made. Michael C. Hall's contract with showtime is up after the sixth season and the producers are hopeful that an agreement can be made for at least one more season. Dexter's ratings have increased year over by about 18% which in the tv industry is stellar.

Dexter is about a blood spatter analyst working for the Miami Dade Police Department in the Crime Lab who also happens to be a serial killer. His job is just as it sounds, he responds to crime scenes, analyzes blood spatter and droplets to identify directional patterns, type of weapon used, etc. As a serial killer, he finds, for lack of a better term "evil" people and satisfies his need to kill by executing them and keeping a drop of their blood on a microscope slide as a trophy. His life is complicated by a sister, a girlfriend (and later wife) who is psychologically scarred much like him, and her children. Balancing out his need to kill and need to appear normal to the officers that he works with also presents a significant challenge.

Each season of the show focuses on a theme of Dexter and his life. Season one explores Dexter learning how to be an efficient killer without revealing himself to the people in his life. Learning how to be a good brother, son, boyfriend, employee and killer are the challenges he faces. As a child he was witness to his mothers brutal slaying with a chainsaw in a cargo container and left to soak in his mothers blood for days. Though young, the event scarred Dexter in a profound way that left his adoptive father, the officer who found him in the container, struggling to help his new son deal with strange urges to kill. This leads to his father teaching him a set of "rules" that harness his need to kill and direct it so he doesn't senselessly murder, but instead eliminates criminals who slip through the cracks of the justice system. Such deep psychological trauma only adds to the challenge of learning how to be a good person to others as he simply lacks the emotional knowledge most people accept as common.

Nope, not really no. Its a Showtime show, so there is free use of adult language, sex, violence, and scenes of a grotesque nature. Every parent is different and I won't infringe on anyone or their rights to show their kids what they want, but I will simply say that this show is geared and intended for adults. Is it going to scar your kids for life to see whats going on? Well, depends on how well you communicate with your kids, how old they are, what kind of relationship you have, etc. etc. You may want to watch a few episodes and decide for yourself. Personally I think it covers things that most kids despite their parents best efforts already deal with in day to day life. Most video games, news programs, movies, music and whatever expose them to the themes that they would see in a regular episode of Dexter, just not in the empathize with the killer method with which Dexter deals with it. Again, your own judgement will rule here.

This is one of the most high quality programs I can find on tv. I work for a cable tv company and though I don't watch a ton of tv, I see more than a few programs and this one is the best. The writing is superb, I say this because its not limited to "tv talk" like most shows are. I define tv talk as language that is modified to be "similar" to what you hear in your day to day but is still off enough that you realize its all not quite how things really work. As its a showtime show, any language goes. This opens up the ability for the writers to convey a larger sense of realism. People get surprised and cuss, they use dirty language when having sex (I'm being pc here with my own language as I have NO idea who will end up reading this), and it just immerses you in the experience of the moment.

The acting by everyone is amazing. Again, the fact that its not a regular cable program allows it the ability to create a more realistic show. The actors are not limited in their performances, so a rape looks like a rape, a brutal murder looks and sounds like a brutal murder, witnesses will use colorful language to tell the officers to leave, the mundane parts of the job are seen and look mundane and so on and so forth. Each actor and actress embrace their role with a rare quality that you don't really see on network tv. The seasons are 12 episodes long and don't aim to wrap up storylines in an hour but instead keep some mysteries alive through the whole season while wrapping up some smaller ones along the way.

I usually don't think too much of music. Typically I can "sense" the music in whatever I'm watching, and if done well, you don't really notice it but instead it enhances the scene without drawing too much attention to it. The music in Dexter is very much like that. It draws you into the scene but doesn't force you to focus on it. That to me is a huge win as it brings the scenes to life.

The show Dexter on Showtime is a truly amazing and unique show well worth watching. Don't watch it on network television, its just a disservice to you and the show. Will they come to an agreement and get a seventh season and an eighth? I really hope so. Michael C. Hall from what I've seen in interviews and read in publications seems like a pretty straightforward guy. He tells it like it is and doesn't really cave on too many things. Commonly I will look down on actors and actresses that ask for more money doing the same things they have done, but I can't do that here. Most tv shows begin with a good size audience, slim down some over a couple of seasons, then the regular watchers begin to pick up until it hits a few more seasons down the road and then dwindles off when the writing gets poor and the show finally ends.

With Dexter, the writing has remained strong (due in part because each season is 12 episodes and not the usual 20+) the cast definitely shows a very tight knit familiar family quality of people who genuinely like and work together alot, and Michael C. Hall delivers on the goods of brilliantly portraying a serial killer in a very unique position. So in this case, with the immense success that showtime has gotten from Dexter, I think he should get the extra $4 million he's asking for. In all reality Michael C. Hall has expressed that he wants to do Broadway and some other projects so Dexter probably won't continue beyond another season or two, but I think with the quality of work overall and the incredible talent he brings to the role that he should get his just desserts before the end. He is also an executive producer on the show which keeps him quite busy on and off the camera, again, give the man his due and finish the show the way it deserves. Dexter airs on Showtime Sunday Nights at 9pm et/pt and I think everyone should be checking it out.