Dexter, Season 2

We finished watching the second season of Dexter last night. We got it about a week ago on DVD. I think we were both kinda down because it’s over. No more Dexter? The third season is coming up, but we don’t have Showtime and don’t want to subscribe to it just to get Dexter. But we also don’t want to wait until it comes out on DVD. What to do? What to do?
I thought the second season was weaker than the first. But that’s mostly because Dexter got the Hollywood treatment, I think. The first season stuck pretty close to the book. With the second season the producers and writers set off in their own direction. Sometimes it was pretty obvious that someone thought they’d figured out the characters and concluded that they knew what we, the audience, wanted. Sometimes the writing was pretty lame. The overall story arc was fine, but some of the details were painfully … well, silly.
All in all, though, I still like the Dexter character, and I’m looking forward to another season. Hopefully the Hollywood types won’t keep approaching Dexter from the same Yuppie-fied perspective (which seems to be that he’s just a guy with urges, instead of a bonafide monster). What made the first season so compelling was that Dexter knew what he was, in spite of having issues with some of the details of the why. In the second season it was like the writers tried too hard to make Dexter more lovable. It took the edge off of the show.
Oh, well. We’ll see. I suppose I should thank Victoria for a rather pleasant addiction. Somehow it makes sense that the story of a serial killer would turn out to be one that appeals to me.