It is entirely possible that you will think the hero of “Dexter” is one of the most intriguing TV men you have ever met. And it is entirely probable that you will hate yourself for liking him.

The queasily fascinating new Showtime series stars Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan, a blood-spatter expert whose job with the Miami Police Department isn't nearly as grisly as what he does after work. Dexter is a serial killer, and the fact that he only slices and dices bad people would make him the most acceptable serial killer ever. If only he didn't enjoy it so much.
Not that he doesn't have his reasons. In Sunday's debut, Dexter dispenses with two creeps on his own while working on a case involving a string of prostitute killings. It's the usual cops-and-corpses stuff, which is why it's such a relief when the show gives you an absorbing flashback from Dexter's childhood.

In these scenes, we discover that Dexter is a foster child whose mysterious past left him with the need to kill. Under the watchful eye of his understanding foster father, however, Dexter learns to channel these needs, which is how a very bad seed blossomed into a homicidal Robin Hood. Way to go, Dad!

It's hard to tell from one stylish episode if “Dexter” is critiquing our nationwide “CSI” fixation or reveling in it. But judging by the way the camera lingers on the neatly segmented bodies of two dissected hookers, it's probably the latter. Too often, the show sashays over the line separating the merely creepy from the truly seamy, and it loses some of its quality-TV points in the process.

Fortunately, Michael C. Hall is around to win them back. Last seen playing buttoned-up funeral director David Fisher on HBO's “Six Feet Under,” Hall plays Dexter with the detached fatalism of the professional walking wounded. He's a mess, and that's that. And as his character tries to look as normal as he can while being as warped as a man can be, Hall turns in a complex and witty performance that manages to be both human and monstrous.

Ably supported by Julie Benz as Dexter's damaged girlfriend and James Remar as his pragmatic father, Hall is much better than this first episode of his show. He's so great, in fact, that it's worth catching “Dexter” just to see if it catches up.