Jeff Lindsay originally wrote a series of books before it became a television show known as Dexter, which aired between October 1, 2006 and September 22, 2013. The show features Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter analyst that works for Miami Metro Police Department. The story centers around the fact that Dexter leads a double life as a serial killer. When he's not solving murders, he spends his time finding and killing people that slip through the cracks of the  justice system. He spends his mornings solving crimes and at nights he is committing them. Dexter however not just a cold-blooded killer, he was taught a code when he was younger, he doesn't kill just an innocent. He locates and hunts other killers that fit the code and people who escape justice. He then goes through a specific killing ritual.

  In Dexter, Jeff Lindsay employs the theme that people's choices can affect others. Although there are many other themes throughout the show and series they are just minor and I believe this to be the overarching theme. Dexter makes it a point to show the people pictures of their victims  when they are on his table of the people that they have hurt because of their choices. It was the criminal's choice to kill his or her victims, Dexter looks into people that have gotten away from the law and if they fit the code, he kills them.

     In the very first season, Dexter regains his memories of his childhood and why he is the way he is. When he realizes when his "dark passenger" what he calls his desire to kill came into existence when he was "born in blood". He was born in blood was because of the choices that his mom made to go undercover for what we assume to be later on in the story be his biological father (Harry). Harry asked Dexter's mother to be involved in a case and go undercover, by her choice to say yes is what mainly caused Dexter to be the way he is. If she would've declined then she wouldn't have been at risk with the men that killed her in front of Dexter and his brother Brian. If she were not killed, Dexter would cease to be the way he is because he wouldn't have seen his mother getting killed and he wouldn't have been scared.

     Throughout the series, there is a major change in character’s attitude and emotions, and it's not only Dexter that changes. His sister Debra Morgan, newly promoted to the homicide department was initially impressionable and eager to learn. She was to begin with, a by the book detective and very bright, later on she starts to be a little more lenient and not always do what the law would say is right but she feels it to be right. Towards the ending, Debra goes “off the rails” and kills one of her commanding officers and it just gets worse from there. Dexter, a person that never shows his feelings to anyone and covers them with a mask creates a double life for himself. At first he creates a cover life in which he shows no emotion. Soon, his fake life becomes his real life.

     Overall, Dexter has so many life lessons and so many accurate emotions that viewers can relate to. Critique wise, all of the websites that I could find say that both the series on tv and the novel are "a bloody masterpiece", which I agree to be true. However, most critics say that they didn’t approve or particularly like the ending. Most people wanted it to be like a fantasy and have the perfect ending. In reality, Dexter never could have a perfect ending because his dark passenger exists. Aired on showtime, Dexter was very successful, and although it's not 100% known how much  Michael C. Hall earned, it was shown that he made around 1 million dollars for each episode. It is the same with the show because the exact amount made is not known. On the season finale Dexter drew more than 2.8 million viewers and most were disappointed at the ending. As far as a lesson learned, I believe that one should, not just think of themselves because you never know how it affects others.