Anyone else watching Dexter? God, that was a good episode. At the end, where he's sitting between the couple smuggling and killing the cuban immigrants, and he stops and asks them how their marriage works--I had to pause the show, I was laughing so hard. Brilliant.

Whooo hoo! Dexter got renewed for next season:

Showtime has given an early greenlight to a second season of one-hour thriller "Dexter" and is finalizing a deal to bring back Mary-Louise Parker starrer "Weeds" for a third cycle.

Announcement for the latter is said to be imminent.

Production on 12 new hours of "Dexter" will begin next spring for a premiere next summer. Renewal arrives after just five episodes of the current season have aired.

Based on the novel "Darkly Dreaming Dexter," skein stars Michael C. Hall as a forensics expert for the Miami Police Dept. who moonlights as a justice-seeking serial killer.

"Dexter" is a "home run for us, both critically and in popularity. The show was launched at the height of all the broadcast networks' fall launches and instantly became our highest-rated show," said Showtime entertainment president Robert Greenblatt.

John Goldwyn, Sara Colleton and Clyde Phillips are exec producers. "Dexter" also stars Jennifer Carpenter, Lauren Velez, Julie Benz, Erik King, David Zayas and James Remar.

Season finale airs Dec. 17.

Oh, AWESOME. That's fantastic.

Whooo hoo! Dexter got renewed for next season

Thirding that woohoo. The show is creeptastic and fascinating and they've only scratched the surface. (hee)

I was trying so hard to pick up the first book today, because I totally have a fixation now. I was only able to get the second one, but I endeavor to find the first.

DEXTER!!!

Julie Benz is so great at being broken.

It's so true! When I watch her on this show, it feels like a more refined version of her human-Darla on Angel. She's remarkably talented.

Damn, you know, I haven't given much thought, or not in a long time, to how much you need to trust somebody to let them teach you shit. Because it is, after all, a concerted effort to *put stuff in your brain* and possibly also *take stuff out* that, stupid, wrong, or shortsighted as it could be, may be all your parents ever gave you...and so you might still want it. It's not so much that Simon &Burns show us new stuff so much as letting us see the old stuff in new ways.ETA: If, say, Grad Student Chick had confessed to some sadness upon hearing such young people plan for their deaths, that would have marked her as irretrievably punkish? Or has she just heard that so often, it's all in a day, or what?

Damn, that's some high-tension stuff they're doing on the show. And now I don't know whether Randy or Namond has a bigger target on his chest. And Michael's implied history of abuse came crashing down today.

That episode was so tightly written (Richard Price, I know) that I can hardly believe that it was less than an hour long. The Bunk undid Omar's incarceration. Carcetti visited homicide, the Eastern, heard Rawls out, and made his move with Daniels. Rawls threw his cards on the table with Burrell. Another wake, another sober McNulty sighting. Prez and his team completely took down the horseshit Leave No Child Behind hypocracy. Colvin and the university people got through to the corner kids. Prez got through to some of his kids. Michael's world became infinitely shittier. The seeds of Randy's destruction were sown. Prop Joe is the funniest motherfucker on the show all the sudden. The seeds of Namond's destruction were sown (in the form of his mother!). Slim Charles appearance, which is never unfortunate. Herc attempted to force Marlo's hand. The major crimes unit is coming back in a big way. Lots of Snoop and Paltrow, and the last of the nail gun that started the season. Did I miss anything?

Herc's still looking for um, Fuzzy Dunlop, but no. Nice little precis, bunk. I hate Namond's mother. Even more than Michael's mother the fiend. That's pathetic and all that, but in a way that I could accept. Namond's mother puts him in harm's way on purpose...that sucks.