TV’s Most Infamous Serial Killer Is Officially Back on Streaming Charts

Lade Omotade is a News and Features Author at Collider, covering everything from casting announcements and streaming trends to behind-the-scenes stories and the cultural impact of today’s biggest film and TV franchises. Since joining the team in 2024, she has written more than 1,000 news stories, with her work also cited by outlets like AOL and IMDb.

In the late 2000s, one of Hollywood’s darkest antiheroes came to life on television; a forensic technician who works for the Miami Metro PD but also leads a secret life as a vigilante serial killer. The mystery favorite premiered on October 1, 2006, to critical acclaim, and its first season currently boasts a Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it “a compelling, elegantly crafted horror-drama.” After eight seasons and 96 episodes, the show ended on September 22, 2013.

Over the years since its series finale aired, the crime drama has found new audiences on streaming, especially with the popularity of its spin-off series, one of which still airs. Dexter is back in the streaming spotlight, particularly in international regions, thirteen years later, indicating its lasting impact despite the divisive Season 8. As of this writing, the police procedural has ranked among the top 10 shows on Paramount+ globally this week, with viewership gradually rising in anticipation of Dexter: Resurrection‘s Season 2 premiere in a few days.

Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours.
Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from
the encounter.

Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you
completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the
conversation is.

• Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He
  never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
• You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve
  is exactly the door he would knock on.
• The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence.
  It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
• He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.

Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is
after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.

• The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence
  against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
• He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool
  you would normally reach for.
• His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend
  the rest of your life proving him wrong.
• He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.

Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work
out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.

• Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from:
  a mind the equal of the hero’s, pointed the wrong way.
• You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he
  has already built the room.
• This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs
  the game to be worth playing.
• It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.

Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that
is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.

• Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the
  answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
• You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no
  interest in how capable you are.
• No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences
  quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
• Call it. He will wait.

‘Dexter’ Is a Crime Masterpiece Worth Watching

• Image via Showtime

• Image via Showtime

• Image via Showtime

• Image via Showtime

• Image via Showtime

Image via Showtime

Image via Showtime

Image via Showtime

Image via Showtime

Image via Showtime

• Image via Showtime

• Image via Showtime

• Image via Showtime

• Image via Showtime

• Image via Showtime

Image via Showtime

Image via Showtime

Image via Showtime

Image via Showtime

Image via Showtime

Set in Miami, Dexter began as an adaptation of Jeff Lindsay‘s 2004 novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter. James Manos Jr., who wrote the pilot episode, adapted the book for TV. In this psychological thriller, viewers follow Michael C. Hall as the titular character, who specializes in bloodstain pattern analysis for the fictional Miami Metro PD. But he doesn’t just solve murders, as he also hunts down murderers inadequately punished by the justice system due to corruption or legal technicalities. His police officer sister and cop coworkers have no idea Dexter lives a double life; however, his adoptive father, Harry, knows his secret and helps him hone his skills.

Dexter has since expanded into a successful franchise with three series: two sequels and one prequel. Dexter: New Blood and Dexter: Resurrection are sequels; the former aired on Showtime from November 7, 2021, to January 9, 2022. Prequel series, Dexter: Original Sin, on the other hand, starring Patrick Gibson in the titular role, aired from December 13, 2024, to February 14, 2025, and was unfairly canceled despite being renewed for a second season. Dexter: Resurrection is now the only active franchise entry.

Dexter streams on Paramount+. Follow Collider for future updates.