Snakes on a plane? So yesterday. These days, the buzz is about the serial killer let loose on our national carrier!

This being a particularly vigorous fly-around month, I've been as much a citizen of Air Canada these days as anywhere else. To my perverse pleasure and macabre marvel, it's come to my attention that they have Dexter on-demand these days. Yes, that one: Showtime's "oddly likable vigilante serial killer who fakes human emotion as a forensics blood expert when he's not stalking bad guys to kill," as TV Guide once put it. That Emmy-winning TV incarnate "who began killing pets and other animals as a child before progressing to humans," as Entertainment Weekly once put it.

Something to go, perchance, with the tomato juice I like to order on planes? Just don't forget the celery stick.

"It is indeed sort of controversial," said an airline insider when I asked about this, well, peculiarly avant-garde choice of AC entertainment. "But OK-ish," I was further told, "because it shows on the personal screens, so you can turn it off if it grosses you out."

Indeed, the episode that I caught on a flight some days ago -- it was called "Popping the Cherry" -- fell within a story arc that concerned a psycho who kills hookers, draws their blood and carves them into objets. Corner Gas this ain't. Known for its gruesomeness and its uncanny capacity to be, at times, a Socrates-level symposium on the nature of good and evil -- as its legions of fans know-- this particular episode ended with Michael C. Hall, a.k.a. Dexter, orating, "Most people have trouble dealing with death. Not me; I have trouble with grief." At another delightful juncture he said to one of his victims: "Scream, and lose a tongue."
So, have there been any squeamish fliers? Any viewer-discretion turbulence? 'So far, so good' is what we hear. If people complain, the airline will have a second look.

"AC is trying to liven things up with the programming," is what my insider says. There was, however, talk of a shroud that would prevent the person on the seat beside you from seeing your screen, but in the end, this did not happen.
Me, I'm thrilled with the newish personal TV screens. Actually, I'm happier than Suri Cruise at Sea World when I get in front of one. Flying is not for the faint of heart -- especially these days -- but at least now there's not only a wider-than-ever selection of flicks, but they even have some classic movies. Yes, like those black and white things. TV-wise, meanwhile, there's a wide spectrum to speak of, with everything from 30 Rock to Ugly Betty.

No episodes of Lost, though. I checked. Serial killers are one thing, naturally. Plane crash survivors, quite another.




:D @ the Lost remark!