Dexter

Hall, who invests strange, demented Dexter with real heart and humanity. It's a spooky tour de force.

This series has always handled the duality of his character with masterful strokes. And it has done viewers a favor by quickly setting up the seasonlong scenario.

From the brilliant performance by Michael C. Hall to the dryly witty scripting, Dexter secures a position near the top of another year's best list.

In the second season, some novelty has inevitably worn off, but Dexter is, if anything, more of a paradox and remains one of the most compelling characters on TV.

Dexter is a weekly marvel of writing, acting and conceit.

This season, having already offered up Lindsay's perhaps too-facile explanation for what makes Dexter tick, the writers seem to be digging deeper into Butcher Boy's psyche, even as his colleagues find themselves digging deeper into his after-hours work. And as his pretend life becomes more challenging, it can't help but become more real.

One magnificently chilling shot near the end of the season two's first episode shows us just how busy Dexter's been all these years. Rarely has an image of evil looked so delectably good.

it's the danger of Dexter being found out that permeates these episodes, upping the pressure and keeping the series as tense and twisted as it was in season one.

Because Dexter's victims are always so evil, we're inclined to root for him, but moments like that--or one in where Dexter admits he doesn't really care about saving innocents, just scratching his itch to kill--gives the show more moral complexity than you would expect, and it's the better for that.