There’s some competition for crime shows, especially moving into the holiday season where streaming numbers skyrocket, says streaming columnist NICK OVERALL.

THE revival of “Dexter” has seemingly done the impossible – make the show’s lacklustre original ending from 2013 seem a little better.

If that’s not the ultimate compliment for this new series appropriately titled “Dexter: New Blood” then I don’t know what is.

In the original ending (spoilers alert), the murderer of murderers was believed to have died by suicide only for the final moments to reveal he was still at large disguised as a lumberjack.

Anticlimactic to say the least – an ending that felt like a return to square one rather than a satisfying tie-off.

But now, a decade later, “Dexter” has taken up residence in the “Fargo”-esque town of Iron Lake, New York; a quaint, snowy abode where he’s tried to put his blood-soaked past behind him.

He’s even in a relationship, with a local policewoman no less – not risky at all for a reformed serial killer.

But, it’s not long before the ice beneath him begins to crack.

As a string of murders starts to plague the small town, Dexter starts to question whether his “dark passenger” is soon to re-awaken.

It doesn’t feel like 15 years ago this show first took 2000’s television by storm.

Where TV had hitherto been saturated with wholesome heroes, “Dexter” gave the world a reverse superhero: a serial killer who hunts down the bad guys as his victims.

But, by the time the show wrapped up its eighth season run, the legacy it left had been tarnished.

“You only need to watch as far as the fourth season” became a commonly heard take from fans who clung on even as the quality of the series declined, in hope of more of that bloody brilliance that first hooked them.

But with this revival, releasing new episodes weekly, it can tentatively be said their patience may very well have been rewarded.

Aside from the bare basics, “New Blood” seems to have shed pretty much all of the baggage of the original series, which allows it to breathe as a stand-alone story and reviews so far have praised it as a return to form – like the early days.

It’s a boon for Paramount Plus, the newest face on the streaming block that wants to give platforms such as Netflix, Stan and Binge a run for their money.

While offering a decent collection of content, the platform has been in need of some famous faces to bring in subscribers, and Michael C Hall’s devious grin is the perfect candidate.

It’s got some thick competition at the moment, especially moving into the holiday season where streaming numbers skyrocket.

CRIME TV fans may also be having their interest piqued by the release of the fifth and final season of Netflix’s Spanish hit “Money Heist”.

Set in Madrid, “Money Heist” follows eight people recruited by an enigmatic man named “the professor” to pull off the biggest heist in history. 

It’s become one of Netflix’s most watched series of all time, yet again proving the quality of entertainment coming out of places far away from the Hollywood hills.

SPEAKING of which, these two shows will also be contending with a new series on Britbox titled “Crime”.

While people may not recognised the name compared to entertainment juggernauts such as “Dexter” or “Money Heist”, “Crime” is from Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh who was behind the ’90s cult-classic “Trainspotting” (on Stan).

The capital of Scotland makes for a unique backdrop to this series, which sees a disturbed detective take on an investigation of a missing schoolgirl.

While on the outset it sounds like familiar territory, it’s Welsh’s darkly puckish style that makes this police procedural anything but pedestrian.

So serial killers, bank robberies, and disturbed detectives – lots of cheery affairs to stream heading into the holiday season.

Isn’t “Love Actually” or something wholesome like that supposed to play on TV again right about now?