"Based upon the highly successful Jeff Lindsay novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Showtime and FX's Dexter continues to raise the bar on the television drama, as it chronicles the grisly exploits of a blood spatter expert who moonlights as a serial killer (or vice versa). Unlike other serial killers, however, Dexter, dutifully following the code of his foster father Harry, only kills other killers, a distinction that sets up one of the primary ethical conflicts of the show, for Dexter as well as for the viewer." "Bringing together an international group of critics and scholars, this book takes the first critical journey through the show's various issues, contexts, and complexities and considers on the way topics that include Dexter as vigilante hero, serial narrative, Dexter and psychoanalysis, film noir, the politics of Dexter, and the "art of sp(l)atter." The book also contains a complete episode guide to the first three seasons, a Dexter novel guide, and exclusive interviews with Darkly Dreaming Dexter author Jeff Lindsay and Dexter writer and producer James Manos, Jr."--Jacket.