Protests greet show’s move to CBS

One of the more intriguing gambles during the thankfully concluded writers strike was CBS’ decision to import the Showtime hit “Dexter” to help fill that gaping hole in prime time.

CBS still plans to air Season 1 of “Dexter” (the show completed its second season on Showtime this year) beginning at 9 p.m. Sunday.

Surprisingly, “Dexter” didn’t require much editing to go from pay cable to network TV. There are a few swear words and blood splatters that got the ax (so to speak), but the show’s violence was never much more graphic than what we see weekly on “CSI.”

Nevertheless, the move is generating controversy. The Parents Television Council, a TV watchdog group, has waged an unusual campaign to nip “Dexter’s” broadcast debut in the bud.

“Dexter” stars Michael C. Hall of “Six Feet Under” fame as a blood-splatter expert who moonlights as a serial killer — or perhaps vice versa. Although Dexter’s adoptive father taught him to channel his murderous impulses toward criminals, the show doesn’t pretend its protagonist is anything other than a cheap mask of a man covering a monster. The connections and conflicts between Dexter’s two worlds make for a compelling character study and a drama with touches of dark humor.

That’s fine for Showtime, said PTC President Tim Winter, but the plot is too disturbing, too dark for network prime time, regardless of editing. The PTC’s normal practice is to protest after shows it feels are over the line have aired, but Winter said the group needed to speak ahead of time on “Dexter.”

“We cannot allow this program to become the standard,” Winter said. “Maybe they will take out some of the most graphic scenes. That doesn’t take away the nature of the show itself: You’re rooting for a murderer.”

And it’s true. For all that “Dexter” strives to show the lack of humanity inside its antihero, Hall ends up making Dexter a sympathetic figure — the brother, co-worker or boyfriend we’d all love to have. I’m not sure “Dexter” glorifies its murderer more than “CSI” played up its Miniature Killer, but it makes him a more attractive villain.

Winter also contrasted “Dexter” with hyperviolent shows like “The Shield” and “24.” “The way that this violence is depicted and described and produced, it makes Jack Bauer’s kind of violence look like the Three Stooges,” Winter said.

I’m less convinced on that point. Even the biggest “Dexter” fan is bound to get squeamish when Dexter starts slicing into helpless victims. Contrast that with “24’s” Bauer, whom audiences root for as he tortures innocents for information.

Eric Brookens, the PTC’s local chapter president, took the complaint to CBS affiliate KKTV/Channel 11, though he’s never seen the program. “It’s unacceptable. Why would we want to broadcast something like this?” he said.

Even given those concerns, I’m guessing that “Dexter” will find an audience on network TV — Hall is that good, and the show is a lively blend of “CSI”-style police procedural and “Sopranos”- style character study.

But is it troubling and unsuitable for children? Definitely.

Take a look Sunday and tell me what you think at springstvtalk.blogspot.com.