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The Showtime Channel’s new series “Dexter” is a forensics/police procedural about a serial killer; but the twist is that the serial killer is also the show’s hero. Or anti-hero, I guess you’d call him. He’s a guy named Dexter, who works in the police labs as their blood specialist, and who goes after people he knows for sure are guilty, but for various reasons (police incompetence, a really good and expensive defense attorney, etc) aren’t properly punished, thus justice goes unserved. Enter Dexter.

You gotta admit, that’s a damn fine premise for a TV show!

So how is the show itself? The pilot runs short of an hour and sets up the world according to Dexter like no one’s business. This guy isn’t really evil, he’s just kinda sick, and his weakness is that he likes to kill things. In flashbacks to his younger days, we see Dexter fighting with his urges, as his cop dad played by James Remar tries to slow him down. Eventually, the dad (who is actually Dexter’s foster father, and who Dexter swears he didn’t kill) comes to accept Dexter’s “oddities” and instead of tossing his foster kid in the joint, decides to help Dexter become a vigilante by teaching him how to get away with murder. Literally.

The pilot introduces us to our affable serial killer (everyone’s wild about him at work, including his female Lieutenant, who keeps coming on to him), his police officer sister (who works in Vice but wants to move to Homicide, although she doesn’t seem to have the brains for the job), and his kinda girlfriend played by Julie Benz of “Angel”. And oh yeah, there is a foulmouth black Sergeant in the precinct who hates Dexter’s guts, and doesn’t miss a chance (which is everytime we see the douche bag onscreen) to curse him out. What an asshole. Maybe Dexter should take him out, too. I’d go for it.

The show gets off to a good start, with Dexter taking down a child killer by slicing him up and saving his blood on a microscope slide as a trophy. We see that Dexter already has a healthy stack of slides back in his apartment. The episode also introduces us to a serial killer going around town chopping up girls and leaving them without their heads. The gag? The girls were all left bloodless. The pilot’s last minute conjures up ideas of an ongoing rivalry between our sorta-good serial killer and our really-bad serial killer.

This is one damn good show, owed in no small part to a deadpan performance by Michael C. Hall in the lead. The supporting cast are nothing to brag about, but they don’t bring the show down either. Although Erik King, as the asshole police Sergeant, goes a bit overboard. Who would talk like this to a fellow co-worker, even one they didn’t like? Especially cops. The Sergeant Doakes character is way overboard, and it’s not like the actor is really that good. “Odious” would be the word I would use.

Despite its Showtime roots and premise, the pilot isn’t really that gruesome. At least, it’s nothing you haven’t seen on network with “CSI” and their ilk. The storylines are incredibly adult and, shall we say, morally ambiguous, but what the hey, it works.

“Dexter” is my kind of serial killer.