Season two of this Showtime piece of excellence is just as good as the first season, if not better. If you haven't already met Dexter Morgan (played by Michael C. Hall), he's a Miami police forensic expert - he specialises in blood spatter - with a taste for murder all of his own. By twist of tale, Dexter's past comes back to haunt him this season and Dexter the hunter becomes Dexter the hunted. This takes the excitement and suspense up to new heights.

Dexter is still coming to terms with the season one's shock ending and initially finds (to his horror) that his killing skills are not what they used to be. And as if he didn't have enough worries, Sergeant Doakes (played by the lovely Erik King), the only one around who senses that Dexter is not all that he seems, is still very much on his case. Add to that the fact that his sister Debra (played by Jennifer Carpenter), who is still recovering from her own trauma from season one, is asked to join the FBI manhunt for him. The team is being led by Special Agent Lundy (played by Keith Carradine) and this is a development, Dexter remarks sardonically, that "makes for an awkward family dynamic".

Also very interesting to see this season, is the relationship between just-demoted Lt. Maria Laguerta (played by the brilliant Lauren Velez) and the new Lieutenant parachuted in over her head to take over her shift command, Lt. Esme Pasquale (played by Judith Scott). The cracks in Dexter's seemingly perfect relationship with girlfriend Rita (played by Julie Benz) that began to appear in season one, also begin to get wider this season so look out for Jaime Murray, fresh off her stint on BBC's drama "Hustle", playing the sexy, free-spirited Lila.

There's much more but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it. Twists and turns abound and each episode seems to bring a new shock for the viewer to take in. The humour is dark but it is hysterically funny - a shock in itself, considering the over-arching subject matter. Unless you're someone who gets squeamish easily (most of the violence is implied rather than shown but there's still violence and there's still plenty of blood) this is a definite must-see. I never thought the day would come when I would be rooting for a serial killer - even a fictional one - but here we are. That I'm doing so is more down to the excellent writing and Hall's easy charm, than to anything else. I'm as happy as Larry to know that there's already a season three on its way and I hope they take this series as far as is logically possible.

I say long live Dexter!

Miami blood-spatter analyst and moonlighting serial killer Dexter Morgan spent the first season of Showtime's groundbreaking drama helping his police department track the Ice Truck Killer, a man who turned out to be the brother Dexter never knew. In Season Two, he helps hunt someone even closer...himself. When his Glad-bag graveyard is discovered at the bottom of the ocean, all of Miami buzzes about the Bay Harbor Butcher, the nocturnal crime fighter who litters the sea with body parts of bad guys.

The search for the Bay Harbor Butcher (and the ensuing cat and mouse game between Dexter and his colleagues) provides the overarching glue for Season Two. The middle episodes of the season feature the slippery Dexter trying to wiggle his way out of the grasp of the investigation, lead by new character FBI Special Agent Lundy (Keith Carradine), a professional everyman as unassuming as he is brilliant. Lundy's dedication and focus rival Dexter's and present a challenge for our hero even greater than his "game" with the Ice Truck Killer. Lundy's ritual and disciplined life of cucumber sandwich lunches and Chopin interludes clears his mind, giving him almost clairvoyance into the heart of his target.

The second principle plot centers on Dexter's new love interest, Lila. Early in the season, Dexter is able to explain away his erratic behavior to Doakes and Rita by pretending to be a recovering drug addict. His relationship with his sultry and insightful sponsor sparks tension between Dexter and his girlfriend and forces Dexter into chambers of his mind that have been closed for decades. In the arms of a troubled figure with a past nearly as dark as his own, Dexter feels understood for the first time.

Dexter's "improvements" in rehab, coupled with the relentless investigation of him by Doakes causes a reduction in body count for Season Two. Just as Season One established the winning formula of building a 12 episode serial plot accentuated with weekly self contained subplots with payoffs, Season Two also has small stories to keep the viewers entertained as the search for the Butcher continues. The difference between Seasons One and Two is that these small plots don't always involve Dexter killing someone. Season One almost had a reality-tv consistency with Dexter "voting someone off the island" each week. But sometimes Season Two episode plots are about his relationships with Rita, Lila or Doakes.

This is part of the more human Dexter presented in Season Two. His conscience gets to him a few times; he underestimates one of his victim's strength and then walks into a trap; he routinely gets outsmarted by Lundy; and he's unable to control his feelings toward Rita and her kids. He's come a long way from the unemotional science project of the first season. The extra dimensions to his character and a season-long plot that amazingly trumps the edge-of-your-seat plight of Season One's Ice Truck Killer are only two reasons why the series has improved since its sublime debut season and now fills the void left by The Sopranos as television's finest hour.

Even though I am a huge fan of "Dexter--the First Season," I couldn't imagine a better second season. In fact, I'm going to need imagination-stretching exercises because all the people behind "Dexter-The Second Season" give us just that--a BETTER second season!

An observation: Whoever determines casting definitely has an eye for borderline anorexic women with small breasts. Dexter's sister Debra, his girlfriend Rita, and newcomer Lila, an English woman he meets in a 12-step program and who becomes his sponsor for Season Two--all match that description.

In Season One Dexter tells us over and over he is emotionally dead, but as the season progresses, Dexter truly develops feelings for Rita and her two children. In Season Two he no longer denies his feelings, making it clear how much Rita means to him. However, Lila's presence and declaration that she understands him moves Dexter off-kilter.

Throw into the boiling pot the discovery of all Dexter's plastic bags of body parts hidden at the edge of the ocean's currents and the viewer has an explosive combination that keeps him/her on the edge for all of the second season.

But I neglect to include Special Agent Lundy, who has come to Miami to solve the serial killer case after the plastic bag discovery. He always gets his man and in one scene in particular, I could not imagine how Dexter would escape being identified. But remember? I have an imagination problem. I was wrong. Lundy (wonderfully played by Keith Carradine) also plays a pivotal role in a sub-plot. Nah, I'm not saying.

As the season nears the end, I am astonished to think that the program will end the way it seems to be heading. However, by season's end all loose ends are tied, and concludes, better than first season, with a promise of even better things to come in the third season.

I've described the bones of Second Season, but not the flesh. Season Two is about relationships: lovers, friends, lust, love, co-workers. It is also about character development. I did not care for Dexter's sister Debra in the first season, but her character development made me become quite fond of her in the second. Lila's character becomes more and more annoying as the season progressea, but I did not like her to begin with.

Sometimes the tension is thick enough to cut and once I actually screamed out loud! I scared both me and my cats! In one episode when Dexter drags a torso from one of his victims into the police department with Debra nipping at his heels, I kept thinking, How will Dexter get out of this?

Michael C. Hall is brilliant as Dexter.