'Dexter' keeps delivering a good twist

Oh, you sly "Dexter" writers, you really threw me for a loop this season. Last night I caught up on the last two episodes of the Showtime series about a serial killer. And boy, was the episode from Oct. 25 a shocker. For anyone who watches the show, I won't disclose what was so unexpected but I will say John Lithgow's Arthur Miller has much more depth than many viewers were expecting. I knew there had to be a twist since it was too early in the season for Dexter to catch the Trinity killer, but the thing that keeps Dexter from his kill is a surprise to be sure.

One of the reasons I enjoy Dexter so much, besides the way Michael C. Hall somehow manages to make me root for a man who can't keep from killing people, is that the writers are very good at keeping viewers in suspense. They don't use so much foreshadowing that they give all the action away before it happens.

I can't remember the last time I hadn't figured out the bad guy or the coming twist in "Law and Order: SVU," which is so formulaic - and often based on real-life happenings - that it is easy to see what is coming. And when it comes to movies, perhaps the last one that really caught me off guard was the 2001 film "The Others" with Nicole Kidman.

While I absolutely can't take the horror genre, I do like a little bit of suspense, and "Dexter" certainly offers that up season after season.