Jeff Lindsay was initially against casting Michael C. Hall to play Dexter, but changed his mind after seeing him speak only one line of the script. The crew began filming the pilot in Miami, but were unable to finish due to the overlap of production with the hurricane season. In spite of a subsidy from the state of Florida, the crew moved to Los Angeles, where the remainder of filming took place; footage shot in both Miami and Los Angeles were used in the episode. "Dexter" was watched by over one million viewers, giving Showtime its highest ratings in almost two years. Critical reception of the pilot was mostly positive, though critics of "Variety", "LA Weekly", and "The Wall Street Journal" found that it was "unpleasant" to watch.