The TV Zone

Well, I haven’t actually seen it happen yet, still, but I’ve seen a press release about it.

CBS announced this morning it will indeed air Showtime’s serial killer drama “Dexter,” starring mesmerizing award-winner Michael C. Hall (“Six Feet Under”). Beginning Sunday, Feb. 17 at 10 p.m., the network plans to run all 12 first-season hours weekly, after they’re “edited for network television.”

When NBC said last month it would “repurpose” USA cable’s “Monk” and “Psych” (see ’em on the Peacock in March), I wrote that CBS had floated the idea of borrowing “Dexter” from premium-cable sibling Showtime, but “when it comes to a broadcast network with federally licensed affiliates airing an adult study whose protagonist is a guilt-free serial killer, well, we'll believe it when we see it.”

Guess they showed me!

CBS could do worse -- a lot worse -- and, in fact, does, airing the reprehensible “Criminal Minds” weekly, with its lurid gawkery at all manner of disgusting crimes committed against women, detailed in a manner only a misogynist could love.

At least Hall’s peculiarly charming though purportedly emotionless Dexter character considers himself to “have standards.” He restrains himself to tracking and snuffing only those murder perps who might otherwise have gotten away with their own heinous crimes. Easy for him to find ’em, too: Dexter Morgan is a blood-spatter specialist for Miami’s police forensics squad.

He’s also a morally provocative wounded soul with a tragic backstory that unfolds throughout the first season, as flashbacks show his cop dad training his damaged adopted son to channel his bloodthirsty urges into socially “beneficial” paths. Seems Dexter has learned to take out the trash in his very own (extremely tidy) way.

The whole cast is fascinating -- Dexter’s hapless cop sister, and his previously abused girlfriend, and a fellow detective who suspects Dexter is up to no good -- and the producers weave a stylishly steamy mood throughout. They don’t actually show much sex, or even violence in the usual manner, but there’s no mistaking that this show revolves around premeditated slicing and dicing done by one very sick (but very tidy) dude.

The second season, recently concluded on cable, is even better, having just vaulted Showtime to the top of my 2007 best-of list. Better if America sees it unexpurgated on pay-cable or DVD (just $28 at Amazon.com, or $1.99 download per episode there and iTunes), but good enough that “Dexter” gets exposed to the widest possible audience on network air. (You can watch select free episodes and other footage at Showtime's "Dexter" site.)

Now when it comes to Showtime’s drug-dealing comedy “Weeds” crossing over? We’ll believe it when we see it.