Arriving in the fall of 2006, Showtime’s Dexter followed the exploits of a serial killer who exclusively stalked other serial killers and wicked folk. The series, based on the novels by Jeff Lindsay, gave depth to its macabre thrills by way of a classic moral quandary: Was protagonist Dexter Morgan, played by Michael C. Hall, a good person who did bad things, or a bad person who deluded himself into believing he was good? Thanks to the show’s peers in the prestige-TV heyday known as the Second Golden Age of TV—concurrent with the peak of Lost mania, 30 Rock ’s freshman year, and the beginning of the end for The Sopranos and Deadwood — Dexter seemed like it was part of the same movement, Showtime’s first contender in an increasingly crowded field of challengers to HBO’s prestige

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