Dexter is – in its strange way – an uplifting story of how we all feel alone and uniquely damaged but are all the same. The title character is a likable serial killer who only kills bad guys, but there are really four or five plots going on at once. It is one of my guilty pleasures.

Recently, in passing, Dexter snidely brushes off the computer as entertainment by suggesting its highpoint is showing a cat that farts and coughs at the same time. That the farting cat is all that is there.

I was reminded of movies dissing television at the dawn of the television era and realized that I may have lived through the complete cycle of television. If so, it is probably the only complete cycle I have lived through. After all, cars were here when I was born and will still be here for a long time. The same with planes.

But, when I was young, most people did not have television. As television grew, it went from television as the upstart, simple and primitive, to television as the dominant story teller. Now, as the dominant story teller,  the best television programs are longer, more complex, movies.

The Sopranos, or Mad Men, or The Wire, or, even, Dexter, tell better stories than any movie. And, like movies felt under siege by television, when when television was just starting; television now feels under siege by computers. Or, maybe, it is the internet, or maybe, just YouTube.