Marvin Way

Lately, countless TV series are based on existing novels. A Series of Unfortunate Events, Game of Thrones, YOU. To name a few. And the 2006 series, Dexter, is no different.

Few fans of the show know that it was based on a novel series by the author Jeff Lindsay. But what was his involvement? And what does Jeff Lindsay think about the Dexter series? Most answers are speculation.

Let’s discuss what we know, and extrapolate theories from there.

Involvement

A little-known fact is that Jeff Lindsay actually appeared in the series. He played a bodyguard in the hospital in season 3 episode 10.

Jeff was a consultant for season 1, and some of season 2. After that, he had no involvement in the series.

I found a passing comment in Dexter by Design that may be a direct attack on the series:

Could Lindsay be commenting on the series? About how Dexter always finds out the exact info he needs on the computer? Maybe. Maybe not. It was still an interesting comment that made me giggle.

Comments

Jeff offered an Ask Me Anything on Reddit a while back where he answered some interesting questions.

Lindsay claimed that while he enjoyed Michael C. Hall, he found the show lacked the humour from the books. He views this humour as important to the character. He also claimed that he never chooses a series adaptation over the book.

He had this hot-take response to whether he liked the series or not:

Here’s a screenshot from a question asking why he stopped involvement with the series:

A little spicy, if you ask me. Whether there were only creative differences, or something more, we’ll probably never know. Commenters go on to say that Lindsay’s initial help is why season 1 was “the best.”

Let’s all cackle at Lindsay’s sassy comment on whether he liked the ending of the series:

Lindsay gave his 2 cents worth on Dexter developing emotion and a soul:

Overall, he doesn’t have many super strong opinions on the difference between the series and the books. He seemingly gave up on fighting for his characters and plot lines. Hollywood is rough.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Jeff didn’t have much say in the series. He allowed the showrunners free reign to his characters. In the meantime, he wrote what he thought was right for the story and the characters.

We may never know if there was any beef between the showrunners and Lindsay. We can only assume from his comments on Reddit.

TV series typically diverge from their source material. It’s not unique for the Dexter series to be almost completely different from the novels. We just hope Jeff was happy with the end result…