"Dexter" Finally Goes a Little Gay, But Misses Big Opportunity

***Warning*** This  article discusses some plot points for Sunday night's episode of Dexter on Showtime.

At this year's Summer Television Critics Association Tour, I had the opportunity to ask Dexter executive producers Sara Colleton and John Goldwyn about their show's lack of gay representation. I received a rather odd answer about the show having already had gay characters, but that information was never revealed to the viewers.

As, I noted at the time, "Um, okay. Then you don't really have gay characters, do you?"

Which is why I was very happy when watching this coming Sunday's episode and not only was Dexter going after a gay serial killer named Lance Robinson, but that killer was played by out actor Chad Allen (pictured right).

Allen first appears as Dexter's voice over intones, "Soon Lance Robinson will be on my table. Lance trolls the internet engaging in casual encounters with innocent men who never suspect those encounters could turn deadly."

As we hear this, we see Robinson meeting a man and then disappearing into a public restroom together. Then we cut to Dexter looking at pics of some of the four men Robinson has killed.

So at this point I was thinking, "Yay! Dexter is doing a gay serial killer! And he's played by Chad Allen! We don't see nearly enough of Chad!"

Normally, I don't get terribly excited about the prospect of yet another gay serial killer on TV or in the movies, but this is Dexter and it is a show about serial killers. As we frequently say here at AfterElton, all we ask of a show is that they treat their gay/bi characters just like they do their straight ones.

So a gay serial killer in this case is perfectly fine. Especially since we're five seasons into the show and this is the first time they've had a gay killer. So as long as they don't make some weird statement about being gay and being a serial killer, all should be good.

Yes, it would be great if Dexter had actually featured a regularly occurring gay character by this point -- say a detective -- but not every television show has to have a gay character, and Dexter does air on Showtime which is one of the most gay-friendly networks out there. So Dexter gets a pass in this case.

So what happens next with our gay serial killer? Are we going to get some insight into the world of closeted men and how homophobia makes them easier targets to prey on? Or since this is Chad Allen, a pretty darn good actor, perhaps we're going to at least see a great performance and a peek inside the mind of what drives some people to kill. 

Sort of like what we saw with Shawn Hatosy over the last three episodes, maybe? 

I'm sorry to say what we get is bupkus. In fact, Allen gets exactly one line: "You must be ten inches of hard steel."

This being Dexter, you can probably guess how it all ends. 

This is hardly the first time Dexter hasn't delved deeply into one of Dexter's targets, but given the show's overall lack of GLBT visibility, not to mention having an actor of Allen's caliber doing so little, it truly seems like a wasted opportunity.

In fact, I'd say it was criminal.