So I just finished reading the first Dexter book. I liked it a lot and wanna start watching the tv show. My only fear is that the tv show might spoil things that happen in the other books. Is it okay to watch season one if i've only read the first book? Does the first season have spoilers for future books? I wanna basically read the book and then watch the season it's based on.

Only the first book is similar to the TV show, and it has some major differences at the end. The other books are completely different.

And the first book is only passingly similar to the show.

The "Dexter" television series is based on the first Dexter book, "Darkly Dreaming Dexter." The first season of the show loosely adapted that novel.

Subsequent seasons of the show have gone off in their own direction and the books have gone in another way and they are completely different entities.

I've watched every season and read all of the books except for the latest which I havent gotten to yet.

What everyone else has said is accurate. They are completely different Dexters acting in different universes after the first book.

I think Jeff Lindsay (the author) really hit it out of the park with the first book (which the first season followed pretty closely) and every book afterward has been pretty mediocre.

I give the Dexter show writers credit for coming up with some pretty interesting ways to take his character. He actually comes off as a good guy on the show.

In the books he seems much more evil. It's pretty awful the way he is with Astor and Cody. There is even a ludicrous storyline in one book that takes things into the supernatural with 'demons' that aren't just in the metaphorical sense. Thankfully Lindsay went in a different direction afterward.

Fans of Doakes' character would also appreciate the books which have kept him alive as Dexter's nemesis (even if it is in an 'altered' state).

Be warned if you read the rest of the books, some of Lindsay's descriptions can get pretty gruesome. I nearly vomited a few times and some of the images he describes will stay with you for quite a while.

Umm... that's a wee-bit of a spoiler on Doakes seeing as he has not watched the show yet.

I thought Dexter was stolen from the 2002 movie "Hunting Humans"?

I've heard Dexter is very similar to Mr.Brooks

I haven't read the books, just their summaries online, so I can't say how well written they are (or aren't). But comparing the TV series to the book summaries alone, the books seem sicker in a torture-porn kind of way, and much more ridiculous IRT the "willing suspension of disbelief" due to some silly supernatural elements in the books.

I think the best decision ever made on the TV series was to completely deviate from the books.