Dexter - Season 2

The second season of Dexter can't reach the emotional depth of the first, with all of the family revelations, but they still weave quite a web of interesting characters and surprising twists. There's another huge serial killer in town, but this time it's Dexter himself. His graveyard of victims underwater gets discovered by accident, and he has to do everything he can to keep himself in the clear. There's plenty of other subplots, like Dexter faking a heroin addiction to cover up his true secret and Deb trying to come out of her shell after what happened last season, and most of the supporting cast's roles are expanded and developed a bit. Whereas I found Doakes and La Guerta to be pretty non-essential obstacles the first time, much more is shown about their true character, and they actually become somewhat sympathetic.

The show's still really about Dexter, and he's still a really great character, funny and resourceful as he has a major identity crisis and learns more about his past. I thought the background stuff revealed near the end of the first run came a little early in the series, saying too much too soon. But they proved that there's still plenty about the character we don't know. I wasn't a huge fan of his waffling with his woman of choice, but Lila was a unique, interesting character. The end of the story arc resulted more from him being lucky than good, but that's part of Dexter's charm, he's a serial killer, but he has a sense of morality and can make human mistakes. He's become less cold as the show's gone on, and I'm interested to see what happens in his crazy life next.