This was my essay for Television Crticism.
Dexter— A Twisted Crime Drama
Dexter (based on the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay) is a television series on Showtime based around the title character’s life as a forensics analyst by day and a serial killer by night. The show asks the audience to reevaluate what their expectations for a monster really are. It has gone through three seasons so far, with a generally positive response from critics and fans alike. The popularity of Dexter seems to be centered on superb acting of the main actor, Michael C. Hall, its narrative structure, and an ability to redefine the expectations of a crime drama.
The first truly wonderful thing about Dexter is that it presents to you a different type of protagonist. Imagine it like this: footsteps fall lightly on the pavement behind you as you make a path down an empty street. It’s late, the darkness has already settled in and the only guide down the sidewalk is the light from the orange glow of lampposts. The hair on the back of your neck stands on end. Someone is behind you. A mugger? The Boogieman? Just another lonely walker traversing the dark night? The pace of your walk quickens as you consider the possibilities. Perhaps a detour down a different block is warranted, just to be on the safe side. A million different visions flash through your mind of what the person behind you might look like. You take a chance and toss a glance over your shoulder.
Most likely, there is an expectation in your mind of what your shadow looks like, and it is safe to wager that the person you have developed in your mind looks nothing like Dexter Morgan, the show’s main character, a thirty-something year old man who works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Police Department. At work, Dexter is respected as a thorough investigator with a pleasant sensibility. He’s the guy that brings the donuts each morning, passing them out to his colleagues with a grin and morning greeting. However, there is really nothing run of the mill about Dexter Morgan. The face he shows the world—the average white male—is a farce, a mask he puts on to hide his menacing side. From an early age, Dexter felt the urge to cause harm to others. He has a need to kill, as powerful as the need to breathe. In order to function in society, he lives by a code. Dexter’s victims are only other murderers.
In most television shows, Dexter would be the villain. It’s a hard pill to swallow to find you are rooting for a serial killer. “Dexter Morgan,” television critic Ginia Bellafante of the New York Times explains, “is continually differentiating himself, in ways both philosophical and mundane, from the street-grade sociopaths pulp fiction and local news have accustomed us to” (Television Review 2008). This initial twist presenting a demented main character makes it a unique viewing experience for the audience. The shocking difference between him and other protagonists from most television shows sneaks up on the audience just like the shadow in the alleyway. He is not harmless or benevolent, and there is a monster within.
Dexter is played by Michael C. Hall of Six Feet Under fame, and his portrayal is always praised as the strongest point of the show. “Hall does the seemingly impossible,” critic Mary Mcnamara of the Los Angeles Times hails. “He makes real a serial killer who is as ruthless as he is sympathetic. Not since Anthony Hopkins gave us Hannibal Lecter have we had a murderer with such dinner party appeal” (“New TV Season”). Hall is no stranger to portraying complicated, multi-layered characters. Six Feet Under was a series on HBO where Hall portrayed David Fisher, a homosexual funeral attendant. He also received a lot of acclaim in that role. The switch from Six Feet Under to Dexter seems appropriate. Fisher’s character not only dealt with the darkness of death in an everyday setting, but he also had a secretive nature with his gay lifestyle. In Fisher, Hall created one memorable character based on darkness and secrets and obviously took some of that familiarity to the role of Dexter. This time as the complete focus of the show, Hall was able to take the duality of an everyday family man and mix it with the unyielding creepiness of a serial killer. For his portrayal, Hall been nominated for an Emmy as Best Dramatic Actor two years in a row.
The show essentially takes this amazingly unique protagonist and inserts it into the established world of crime drama, marrying the two devices of character and genre into a darker show. “I'm neither man nor beast,” Dexter states, adding “I'm something new entirely. With my own set of rules” (“Let’s Give the Boy a Hand” 2006). He works just slightly out of the bounds of average and normal, in the realm of the uncanny. The creators of Dexter have taken the forensic analyst made popular in similar shows like CSI or even the X-Files and twisted it completely. It isn’t just about catching the bad guy and letting the justice system have its way. In fact, one could argue that the audience is encouraged to see the law lose just so Dexter can give murderers what they ‘really’ deserve. Therefore, the audience gets the familiarity of the typical crime drama with the standard investigations of complicated clues that lead down a rabbit hole to an the criminal. All of the important characters are represented—cops, detectives, police chiefs, and of course forensic analyst like Dexter. However, in this crime drama there is usually no trial or arrest. Instead, the serial killer binds his “victim” (or deserving criminal) to a table and shows him or her pictures of the people they killed just before Dexter exacts his bloody justice to quench his own blood lust.
Also, unlike most crime dramas, there is a large blur between right and wrong. There is a huge opportunity for interaction and civil discourse to happen with Dexter as a catalyst. Is it okay that Dexter kills murderers? Is the death penalty any more justified than Dexter? And while most crime dramas allow for the law to be the ultimate winner, Dexter discusses the flaws of the legal system, because if it worked perfectly Dexter would have no one to kill. Also, in this day and age, Americans have to deal with notions of terrorism and rabid crime in the homeland. It has become second nature to most to associate criminals with minority groups or impoverished people. Whether this is a fair judgment or not, racial and social profiling exists. Dexter Morgan is a terrifying monster because of the fact that he defies society’s expectations of a killer.
One of the other things that make the show so much fun to watch is the humor that is wrought throughout the episodes, even in the midst of such sick and twisted action. It’s somewhat unexpected and yet ultimately fitting to hear a serial killer’s inner monologue as he goes through his day, filled with his own musings and sarcastic remarks. Perhaps the show couldn’t be popular without it. If there was presented no moment to have a laugh, even a dark and sadistic laugh, the audience might find it hard to swallow some of the horror they experience in seeing their protagonist murder. The voiceover Hall delivers is dry but somewhat charming and acts as a cushion between the harsh reality of the subject manner and the audience. The humor is not limited to Dexter’s mind though. Often, Dexter has to interact with friends and family with a tone of innocence even when he is anything but that. “The initial shot of Sunday’s premiere offers the sinister image of medical knives, a needle and a syringe, the unsettling sound of a drill” accounts Bellafante, adding:
The camera pans to reveal Dexter (Michael C. Hall) in a dentist’s chair. The dentist is asking him how he spent his summer, and Dexter happily obliges with euphemisms: he made some new friends, acquired a few hobbies, did a little boating — all of which is to say that he continued his escapades in vigilante killing, filed away some trophy DNA and got rid of the bodies. Warned that the procedure he is about to undergo might result in a little blood, Dexter smiles his practiced smile and assures the dentist that it won’t be a problem. (Television Review 2008)
The juxtaposition of the mundane real world issues of dentistry with the darkness of Dexter’s world allows the audience to be in on the joke. It helps the connection between Dexter and the audience grow stronger, aiding in the popularity of the series by softening the darkness just enough to allow people to enjoy the story being told each week. Without the humor, Dexter would be an entirely different show.
Then there is the narrative structure of the show. It is a cumulative narrative, as each episode tends to include Dexter going after a “murderer of the week” while also having a lot of serial elements. One episode is not exclusive to the other; so long time viewers are rewarded with new complications each week. “As with the first flight -- which I initially reviewed unfavorably before being absorbed by the show -- the storytelling becomes richer and more engrossing as the season progresses” Variety reporter Brian Lowry explains (“Dexter”). Each season so far has followed the same structure of developing a story in the first episode, allowing for a climax and resolution at the season’s end. There is a lot to be gained by watching Dexter each week that it is on because the narrative grows and develops more from one episode to the next. At the same time, when Dexter sets his eyes on a new victim, he has to go through the ritual of proving the person is actually a killer and sets up the perfect way to catch them, ultimately exacting his justice. For new viewers, this makes an episode of an individual experience, allowing them to enjoy his kill of the week without having to be invested. Though, the experience is probably more fulfilling for the continuous viewer, encouraging you to tune in each time see where the complicated story goes next.
Dexter does two things. It represents the monster we fear the most—the one we will never see coming, by blending in to scenery of everyday life and using our own expectations against us, getting away with murder. At the same time, it taps into that rarely discussed or acknowledged side that people have on occasion, the side that seeks vengeance for the injustices in the world. Dexter’s character can do what we cannot—make things balanced in the world. The audience is allowed to indulge in grotesque anarchy within the familiarity of a crime drama, horrified and laughing at the same time. For an hour each week, everything and nothing is right in the world, which is why Dexter is such a powerful television show.
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