Aziz Ansari's Nostalgic New Comedy Special

One Of The Best Serial-Killer TV Shows Ever Made Lands On Netflix Today

Dexter lands on Netflix today.

Credit: Showtime

One of the greatest serial-killer dramas of all time lands on Netflix today. If you like top-notch thrillers filled with suspense, great characters and plenty of gore and mystery, you're going to want to check out Dexter.

Dexter aired from 2006 to 2013 on Showtime, and was a major hit thanks to its gripping combination of crime drama, psychological thriller, and dark comedy. The show is based on the novel "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" by Jeff Lindsay and follows the life of Dexter Morgan, a forensic blood-splatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department. The twist? Dexter leads a double life as a vigilante serial killer.

A sequel series—Dexter: New Blood, set ten years later—aired in late 2021 and early 2022, ending with a controversial finale that split fans. (While I was certainly aware of the problems with that show's finale, I actually liked it overall, though I don't blame fans who didn't.) The spinoff series trades the vibrant, hot streets of Miami for the icy snow swept forests of upstate New York.

What Is Dexter About?

Dexter

Credit: Showtime

The series centers on Dexter Morgan, played by actor Michael C. Hall (who you might recognize from HBO's Six Feet Under) in a career-defining role. Dexter's insatiable drive to kill was formed in childhood when he witnessed the gruesome murder of his mother—a murder that haunts him years later, and will rear its ugly head in more ways than one as the series progresses.

Dexter was raised by his adoptive father, Harry Morgan, a police officer who taught Morgan to channel his violent impulses. He could tell that Dexter was going to become a killer, but he loved him too much to stop him. So he taught him a code: Only kill other serial killers. This becomes a guiding principle but unfortunately even the best laid plans of mice and serial killers often go astray.

Dexter works best when things go wrong. For all his meticulous planning, Dexter makes mistakes. Sometimes things are simply out of his control. Often, major characters he meets each season end up having dark secrets or other surprises up their sleeves. And while Dexter is certainly an antihero you want to root for, many of his choices end up hurting innocent people in the end.

What Other Characters Are In Dexter?

Angel Batista

Credit: Showtime

Dexter may center around Dexter Morgan's character, but there's a great cast of regular and guest stars who really make the show great.

Angel Batista (David Zayas) is a lovable detective with the Miami police and one of Dexter's friends and co-workers. Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter) is Dexter's adoptive sister—also a police officer. In fact, most of Dexter's closest friends and family are cops, which can be both a boon and a curse for the serial killer.

A long list of guest stars includes John Lithgow (in his most disturbing performance), Keith Carradine, Jonathan Banks and many more.

Breaking Bad Fans Should Watch Dexter

Dexter

Credit: Showtime

Dexter's duality is central to the show's narrative. By day, he is a meticulous and highly skilled forensic expert, helping to solve crimes for the police department. By night, he hunts down those he deems worthy of his brand of justice. This dichotomy raises questions about the nature of good and evil, as Dexter operates in a morally gray area. While his actions are undoubtedly criminal, his victims are often those who have committed heinous crimes themselves.

Like Breaking Bad, the show keeps you on the edge of your seat as you root for someone who is fundamentally a monster. Both Walter White and Dexter Morgan think that what they're doing is right, and you root for them even though you know that what they're doing is most certainly not. Dexter kills bad people because he's compelled to kill, not because he's a hero.

He's cunning, meticulous and ruthless, but whether he has any good at his core—or if he's just living by his father's guiding principles as a survival mechanism—is the real question that follows Dexter throughout the series.

Two Warnings About Dexter

Dexter and Debra

Credit: Showtime

Dexter is a genuinely great series that will keep you on the edge of your seat. You might yell at your TV from time to time even, and now that it's on Netflix you should absolutely check it out.

I will offer up two warnings, however: First, it can be very gruesome and hard to watch at times. If you're into this kind of show that shouldn't be an issue. Worse, however, is the fact that it does fall apart to some degree by the end. After a solid first season, the show gets even better for the next few seasons before taking a nosedive into ludicrous plotting and a bunch of strange choices from the writers. Still, even if you only watch the first five seasons you'll have plenty to enjoy. (Season 7 is a return to form, between a tepid sixth season and an even worse final season, which is an unusual pattern for this kind of premium cable show).

I haven't watched this show in years (other than the spinoff). I'm definitely going to go watch at least the first few seasons again.

Here's the Season 1 trailer:

Have you seen Dexter? Let me know on on Twitter and Facebook.

23 Of The Best Amazon Prime Video Comedy Shows And Movies

It's easy to get Netflix tunnel vision when firing up your preferred streaming device for an epic telly session. But don't be a fool of Kraken-­sized proportions and discount Prime Video's growing library of gems. Here's our guide to the best Amazon Prime Video comedy.

As this collection of Stuff favourites shows, Amazon's streaming service has become particularly adept at laughter generation. And remember; all of these movies and TV shows are already included in your Prime subscription. So sit back and prepare to engage your face's smile apparatus with these comedy masterpieces…

Uncle Buck

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Some 'serious' film critics have decried John Hughes' transition from writing and directing cult 1980s teen movies to making family-friendly comedies like Home Alone and, yes, Uncle Buck. But there's much to be enjoyed about the man's heart-warming latter-day fare, in our opinion, and the late John Candy was never better than in the title role here.

Buck is a shabby, dirty, boozy mess of a man. Unmarried, ill-mannered, essentially jobless and on the cusp of middle age, he's the last person you'd call to look after your kids when you need to head out of town. But when an emergency sees him babysitting his brother's kids, Buck must knuckle down and adapt to suburban life – while teaching the children a little something about rebelliousness into the bargain.

Watch Uncle Buck on Amazon Prime Video

American Fiction

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Dismayed at reductive, clichéd representations of African Americans in fiction, a black professor and novelist resolves to offer his own satirical contribution to the canon.

He starts penning the explicit memoirs of a convict. Peppered with drugs, violence, deadbeat dads and other trite tropes, the document is sent to his agent as a joke. But when it becomes his most successful piece of work by far, embraced by the public, publishers and critics alike, he's forced to confront prejudices and assumptions of his own.

With loads to say about race, family and how art and life intertwine, this Oscar-nominated comedy-drama is among 2023's smartest films – not to mention its most enjoyable. Jeffrey Wright is typically superb in the lead role, with Sterling K. Brown delivering scene-stealing comic support as his rowdy brother.

Watch American Fiction on Prime Video

21 Jump Street

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This 2012 movie remake of the 1987 TV show is guaranteed to leave you with a smile on your face. Where the show was a stylish but ultimately po-faced look at young undercover cops, the movie is all-out daftness from the word go.

Jonah Hill (who also co-writes) and Channing Tatum play police officers assigned to pose as high schoolers in order to take down a criminal gang pushing a new drug to kids. But their mission is just one of two challenges they must face: the other being navigating the ins and outs of being teenagers again.

Watch 21 Jump Street on Amazon Prime Video

The Kids in the Hall (S1-5)

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Maybe only 90s kids will recognise this – but there's plenty here for comedy fans of all ages. This cult Canadian sketch series aired from 1989 to 1995 and starred the comedy troupe of the same name, which consisted of Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson.

Stuffed with surreal humour and unique characters, each episode features skits that range from light and whimsical to dark and edgy, and frequently push the boundaries of conventional comedy. The Kids' penchant for cross-dressing and portraying diverse characters brings to mind the Monty Python crew, but their original and inventiveness arguably influenced a whole generation of today's sketch comedy creators.

Watch The Kids in the Hall on Amazon Freevee

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

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This Taika Waititi-directed comedy-drama sees cantankerous kiwi farmer Hec (Sam Neill) and his precocious, wannabe-gangsta foster nephew Ricky (Julian Dennison) attempt to outrun and outwit the police in the wild New Zealand bush.

We won't be ruining much if we tell you that along the way the pair form an unlikely bond, but it's the chemistry between the two leads that forms the heart of this wonderful indie film. It's an irresistible combination of sweetness and hilarity that should go down well with the whole family.

Watch Hunt for the Wilderpeople on Amazon Prime Video

Frances Ha

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Frances (Greta Gerwig) is typical late-20s New York 'creative'. She's full of dreams about making it in the big city, but devoid of the talent or drive to actually bring any of them to fruition. Instead, she latches onto her more successful best friend as a crutch. When that route comes to nothing, she's finally forced to look inwards and face some difficult choices.

Noah Baumbach's black-and-white film may sound somewhat arty and arch, but it's sweet, funny and involving. And wonderfully buoyed along by Gerwig's outstanding performance.

Watch Frances Ha on Amazon Prime Video

Parks and Recreation (S1-7)

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The show that propelled Amy Poehler to Golden Globe-presenting notoriety and Chris Pratt to ubiquitous ultra­stardom has its wit and one­liners honed to perfection. Taking Modern Family's warmth, mixing it with Arrested Development's absurdity and building it around The Office's mockumentary formula, it centres on the inconsequential workdays of the least consequential department of the council of fictional middle- American town of Pawnee, Indiana.

Like The Office, its brilliance lies in its characters and their relationships, although its comic set pieces are also ingenious. But unlike The Office, it's not tragic – it's bright, touching and will leave you grinning from cheek to cheek. It takes until series two to really hit its stride, but Parks and Recreation is a true must-see.

Watch Parks and Recreation on Freevee

Adaptation

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A few years on from the triumphant Being John Malkovich, director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman reunite with Adaptation, a supremely clever comedy movie about Kaufman's own attempts to adapt Susan Orlean's non-fiction book The Orchid Thief.

Starring Nicolas Cage as both Charlie Kaufman and his non-existent (at least in the real world) twin brother Donald, it manages to be the very adaptation Kaufman was asked to write, as well as an examination of screenwriting, natural selection and much, much more. Postmodern but wildly entertaining and filled with wonderful characters (Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper are fantastic), it's one of the best examples of mainstream Hollywood creativity around.

Watch Adaptation on Freevee

Ghost World

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Based on the graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, Ghost World stars Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson as teenage best friends on the cusp of adulthood – and distinctly pessimistic and cynical about their prospects and the world in general. If you like your comedies light and airy, the irony levels of this cult coming of age tale might well weigh you down – but those with a taste for thought-provoking, character-driven indie flicks will embrace its dark sense of humour.

Watch Ghost World on Freevee

Upload (S1-3)

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Given a choice between death and eternity as an avatar in a virtual world that's almost indistinguishable from the real one, many of us would pick the latter without question – but before too long we might be questioning our decision.

That's the setup for this Amazon original sitcom from Greg Daniels (he of the US Office and Parks and Recreation fame), in which app developer Nathan has his consciousness uploaded to a luxurious digital heaven, only to quickly discover that not only have his earthly problems not suddenly disappeared, they're now bolstered with a bunch of new ones. Mixing sci-fi, satire, romance and more, Upload is sure to strike a chord with anyone who spends time pondering the future of tech. That means you, Stuff reader!

Watch Upload on Amazon Prime Video

Good Omens (S1-2)

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Fans of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's beloved comic fantasy novel have for years been crossing fingers, toes and other body parts in the hopes that one day, somebody would take a chance on a screen adaptation of Good Omens – and that somebody turned out to be Amazon, which produced this star-studded series (now returned for a second, Gaiman-approved season of material not based on the book).

Set in modern-day England, it stars David Tennant and Michael Sheen as a demon and an angel whose eons-old friendship faces obliteration (along with the rest of the world) as the Antichrist comes of age and Armageddon looms. With the massive supporting cast including Jon Hamm, Jack Whitehall, Miranda Richardson and Michael McKean and a budget capable of bringing the novel to life, the fanboys and girls' waiting has not been in vain.

Watch Good Omens on Prime Video

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (S1-5)

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Hankering for a grown-up TV show in the vein of Mad Men? One also set in mid-century Manhattan? The Marvelous Mrs Maisel might be the new series for you. Rachel Brosnahan stars as Miriam "Midge" Maisel, a quick-witted middle-class housewife with what she thought was the perfect 1950s New York lifestyle: husband, kids and a beautiful Upper West Side apartment. When things take an unforeseen turn, she stumbles into trying out stand-up comedy – and discovers she has something of a talent for not only making people laugh, but for hitting upon life's truths and enigmas while doing it.

With three seasons to binge upon, this award-winning comedy drama makes for a lightweight, enjoyable watch.

Watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime

24 Hour Party People

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Michael Winterbottom's dramatised history of Madchester, Factory Records and The Hacienda has no right to be this funny – but what do you expect if you cast Steve Coogan as broadcaster and Factory co-founder Tony Wilson, the ringmaster to a chaotic circus of booze, drugs, sex and tragedy?

Fast-paced, compelling and engagingly postmodern, it functions both as a character study and an informative inside look at the story behind bands like The Happy Mondays and New Order.

Watch 24 Hour Party People on Prime Video

Freaks and Geeks (S1)

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Before Judd Apatow and Paul Feig hit the big time with the likes of Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Bridesmaids, they co-created a little TV comedy-drama based on Feig's own adolescence in early 1980s Michigan. Dubbed Freaks and Geeks (most of its main characters fall into one or both of these categories) it lasted just one 18-episode season – something that's still hard to fathom, given how fantastic it is.

Perhaps viewers just weren't ready for a well-written, warm and entirely honest portrayal of the highs and lows of high school. Despite its untimely demise, it kickstarted a bunch of major Hollywood careers (James Franco, Linda Cardellini, Jason Segel and Seth Rogen being the obvious examples) and is regarded as a cult classic 20 years later.

All 18 episodes are now streaming on Prime, so why not go back to school?

Watch Freaks and Geeks on Prime Video

Nathan for You (S1-4)

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This brilliant spoof reality series, in which deadpan Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder swoops in to save ailing small businesses with absolutely woeful advice, has largely flown under the radar this side of the pond, but do yourself a favour and give it a shot. Often so surreal and bizarre you won't believe Nathan's clients aren't in on the joke, Nathan for You is a true original.

Watch Nathan for You on Prime Video

Palm Springs

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Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti find themselves trapped in a time loop in this offbeat romcom. Should they fall asleep or die, they wake up and live the entire day – in which they're guests at a wedding in California desert – through again. The pair decide to make the most of their temporal purgatory, indulging in wilder and wilder behaviour in the knowledge that whatever happens, they'll just end up back at square one. Everything, it seems, has become meaningless.

If might sound like a hackneyed idea but Palm Springs feels different by dint of focussing on a pair of people rather than just one. The chemistry and tensions between the two keep the film nicely involving – and it's genuinely funny to boot.

Watch Palm Springs on Amazon Prime Video

Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm

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Kazakhstan's favourite son returns to the screen, with Sacha Baron-Cohen's creation once again poking fun at Americans – this time in the midst of a chaotic Trump presidency and the COVID-19 pandemic. While the civilian victims of Borat's pranks sometimes seem a little undeserving (seemingly being accommodating to an eccentric foreigner rather than outright agreeing with his terrible opinions) it's hard to feel sorry too many people in this movie, as its hidden camera setups delivering almost-unbearable levels of cringe and no small amount of laughs.

To call the film scorching satire would feels inaccurate – it simply reinforces what most right-minded viewers already think about bigots, gun nuts and Republicans – but at the very least, Borat's antics are reliably entertaining.

Watch Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm on Amazon Prime Video

The Office (US, S1-9)

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It might have started out as a pale shade of the British original, but NBC's long-running sitcom quickly found its feet and its own comedic voice. Even if Steve Carell's Michael Scott is a bit broader and a bit less melancholy than Ricky Gervais' David Brent, it's hard to deny that Carell has made the role of "awkward boss at a mid-level paper company" his own, and made himself into a massive star in the process.

You know the drill: The Office is a sort-of mockumentary set in a dreary Pennsylvania workplace populated by a few normal folks – representing us, the viewers – and a few caricatures. The comedy mostly springs from the interactions between the two, and the formula works so well that NBC managed to keep it going for an astonishing nine seasons.

Watch The Office on Amazon Prime

Fleabag (S1-2)

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Phoebe Waller-Bridge writes and stars in this riotous six-part sitcom about a single woman's attempts to navigate the many pitfalls of modern London life. Even if that sounds like a hackneyed synopsis, or one that fits roughly 10,000 British sitcoms, we suggest you delve in anyway, because Waller-Bridge's eyes-open approach – acerbic, dry, unashamed, raw – doesn't feel unoriginal in the slightest. It's also really, really funny, which is probably worth mentioning too.

A second series, with both Waller-Bridge and on-screen rival Olivia Colman returning, is also now available to stream on Prime Video – albeit not for free. If you have access to BBC iPlayer, however, have at it on there.

Watch Fleabag on Amazon Prime

Forever (S1)

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The world doesn't seem short on wry, quirksome comedy drama series exploring the crushing ennui of modern life, but Amazon has furnished us with another one – and it's a delightful surprise.

Starring Maya Rudolf and Fred Armisen as a married couple struggling with an encroaching middle-aged itch, Forever starts off as one kind of show and quickly transforms into another. Funny, smart and affecting, it's Amazon's best new original series in a long time.

Watch Forever on Amazon Prime

Transparent (S1-5)

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Amazon spent a long time trying to "do a Netflix" by creating its very own blockbusting TV shows, and Transparent was the moment it got it right. For a start, this is really bold – it tells the story of a sixty­something divorcee announcing to his three grown­up kids that he's always felt different and is now going to live as a woman.

Sounds heavy, and it sort of is, but it's also darkly funny, with a degree of wit and sharpness that's still rare even in this golden age of TV. The bickering between the three kids (each of whom is riddled with their own individual problems and peccadillos) is as chucklesome as it is awkward and believable. Amazing telly.

Watch Transparent on Amazon Prime Video

Red Oaks (S1-3)

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A hidden gem in Amazon's catalogue, Red Oaks' unremarkable premise belies a nuanced show that blends humour and pathos surprisingly adeptly.

Set in 1980s suburban New York, it follows the bumbling but tumultuous life of David Myers. From the enigmatically aloof love interest to parental turmoil at home, all the classic teen drama tropes are ticked off here with just enough of a twist to sustain your intrigue. What really elevates this show above the many others that riff off a similar tune is its riotous roster of characters. Sleazy, feckless tennis coach Nash alone is worth the price of admission.

Watch Red Oaks on Amazon Prime

The Big Sick

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Silicon Valley star and stand-up comedian Kumail Nanjiani plays himself in this dramatisation of how he and his wife, the writer Emily Gordon (here called "Emily Gardner" and played by Zoe Kazan), met each other, fell in love and got married.

An enjoyable culture-clash romantic comedy revolving around Nanjiani's desire to lead a normal American life while his Pakistani parents pressure him to enter into an arranged marriage with a woman he barely knows, The Big Sick really gets going when Emily falls seriously ill, forcing our hero to confront the two sides of his life – not to mention meet her parents, played by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano.

Watch The Big Sick on Amazon Prime

The 5 Best New TV Shows Of June 2024

Summertime, and the viewing is easy. Which is a relief, considering the heat dome conditions that have made outdoor recreation, in much of the eastern half of the U.S., feel like playing in a furnace. Among June's best new TV shows are documentary series about disco and a Renaissance faire. (Both are pretty substantive but feel relatively light for a genre whose favorite topic is serial killers.) Julio Torres returns with another comedy that finds ethereal humor in the precarity of an artist's life. Queenie chronicles a wounded yet charming 20-something's second coming of age. There's even a new Star Wars show premised on a twin-sister switcheroo. 

The Acolyte (Disney+)

The best thing about the latest Star Wars spin-off is that you don't have to be Yoda to understand who everyone is and what's going on and how the show fits into Disney's 100-year plan (or whatever) for Lucasfilm. That's because The Acolyte takes place a century before the rise of the Empire and its reams of blockbuster lore, when the Jedi Order is thriving and the galaxy peaceful. Our heroine is Osha (Amandla Stenberg), a young Jedi-Knight-training dropout who is apprehended for a murder that was actually committed by a twin sister, Mae (also Stenberg), whom Osha had long believed to be dead. Mae's quest to assassinate several Jedi leaders as retribution for a past wrong intriguingly muddies Star Wars' standard light-vs.-dark moral dichotomy. Other reasons to be optimistic about the series: it was created by Russian Doll mastermind Leslye Headland, and the delightful cast includes Carrie-Anne Moss, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Manny Jacinto, and Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae.

Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution (PBS)

Music documentaries are everywhere these days, and plenty of them are fascinating. But how many actually embody, rather than simply describe, the spirit of their subject? In the case of disco, that feeling is ecstasy, and PBS's three-part docuseries Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution is at once a serious, politically engaged, and culturally aware history of the genre and a pleasure bomb, fogging your living room with hi-hat shimmer and metallic confetti. Told largely by the DJs and singers who invented disco in the '70s, the series not only immerses viewers in the atmosphere of the dance floor, but also breaks down influential tracks—from Cameroonian musician Manu Dibango's oft-sampled "Soul Makossa" to Donna Summer's heavy-breathing masterpiece "Love to Love You Baby"—to explore each artist's innovations.

The triptych structure is perfectly suited to Disco, which opens with an episode tracing the sound's rise from gay nightlife; followed by an account of an imperial era defined by Black, female acts like Gloria Gaynor, Labelle, and Candi Staton (who sits for a wonderfully candid interview); and a finale that both laments the record industry's disco cash grab (see: Village People, "Disco Duck") and celebrates the continuous evolution of dance music. Recent years have seen a crucial recontextualization of disco as a movement pioneered by Black, Latino, queer, and female artists, then simultaneously co-opted and demonized by the white, male mainstream. Disco brings an unusually nuanced perspective to this revisionism, noting upsides as well as downsides to the genre's gentrification and never losing sight of music as a business. 

Fantasmas (HBO)

Los Espookys co-creator and SNL alum Julio Torres is back on HBO with his weirdest and most wonderful creation to date. Fantasmas (Spanish for ghosts) gets its title from a pitch writer and director Torres' quasi-autobiographical protagonist Julio makes to Crayola, early in the six-episode series' premiere, for a clear-colored crayon with that spectral name. But it applies equally to the show's characters, offbeat dreamers set adrift in a society eager to commodify their identities and aspirations. The premise makes Fantasmas both a sparkling specimen of weird TV and a manifesto championing the existence of that possibly dying art. [Read the full review.]

Queenie (Hulu)

Hulu's wonderful new dramedy Queenie opens with an overhead, medium close-up shot that puts viewers face-to-face with the show's namesake heroine. Twenty-five-year-old Queenie Jenkins is staring at the ceiling, her braids spread out on a white pillow, a tangle of necklaces grazing her clavicle, and an expression of idle bemusement twisting her features. In a voiceover, as the camera zooms out and we see that she's in the midst of a gynecological exam, she enumerates the many "things I should've done today"—a bikini wax, for instance.

It's hard to imagine a more intimate introduction. And that's fitting. Based on the celebrated 2019 novel of the same name and created by its author, Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie delves deep into the subjectivity of its title character, a Londoner of Jamaican descent who works in social media at a newspaper but dreams of earning a byline. [Read the full review.]

Ren Faire (HBO)

You might think you know what to expect from a documentary series called Ren Faire, but you are almost certainly wrong. From Spellbound and the crossword chronicle Wordplay to Trekkies and the live action role-playing doc Darkon, the Y2K era set the template for offbeat, warmhearted nonfiction films about nerdy subcultures. Ren Faire, HBO's perceptive and surprisingly thrilling three-part portrait of the Texas Renaissance Festival as it approaches its 50th anniversary, is not that kind of story. It's Succession, but with corsets and chainmail. [Read the full review.]

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