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Byline: >DAVID KRONKE

Parents TV Council on rampage

This one was inevitable: Our good friends at the Parents Television Council are going all Ed Anger at CBS because, in order to fill its schedule while the writers strike is ongoing, it will air the first season of Showtime's "Dexter," starring Michael C. Hall as a serial killer who works as a forensics specialist for the Miami Police Department.

"(T)he series compels viewers to empathize with a serial killer, to root for him to prevail, to hope he doesn't get discovered. 'Dexter' introduces audiences to the depths of depravity and indifference as it chronicles the main character's troubled quest for vigilante justice by celebrating graphic, premeditated murder," the PTC sputtered with indignation. "(N)ow CBS intend(s) to air material that effectively celebrates murder?

"We are putting CBS, its affiliates, and every potential sponsor of 'Dexter' on notice: Parents will not tolerate this type of disturbing content on the public airwaves," they further blah blah blahed.

Well, no: Responsible parents will simply not let their children, who should be in bed at that hour anyway, watch the show. It's the PTC that can't tolerate anything but "Jeffy McFeeble's American Gospel Hour" on their TeeVees and is hellbent to prevent anything that might contain nuanced, mature and difficult themes from reaching the minds of American adults.

And while the show indeed "compels viewers to empathize with a serial killer," the PTC is being condescending to an astonishing degree (even for them) with their implicit suggestion that viewers somehow don't realize that they're watching a TV drama and not a how-to show or Satan's version of "The Purpose-Driven Life." "Dexter" has been on for two seasons now and is a bona fide hit by cable standards, and I haven't seen any uptick in the number of vigilante serial killers running amok in our country. (Well, maybe in Florida, but hey: It's Florida.)

And "Dexter" "celebrates murder?" Well, it depicts murder, as does every other TV cop show on the planet, but Dex isn't exactly popping open the champagne after each kill. He's kind of struggling with his damage - not winning, naturally, otherwise there's no show - but his mind is fairly preoccupied with the horror he has wrought.

(Oh, and the PTC folks might want to look in their Bibles: God did a good deal of smiting himself - Sodom and Gomorrah, the Egyptians' first-born, Pharaoh's soldiers - etc. Here's a thought, PTC guys: Maybe Dex is just emulating the Old Testament God of wrath? Does that make you like him any more?)