The Dexter Effect

Why do we continue to support the antics of a serial killer? That fundamental question is constantly ringing in the ears of Dexter viewers, one of Showtime’s hit series. Dexter, played flawlessly by the ever creepy yet likeable Michael C. Hall appears in television in an era where good and evil are not so black and white.

Several factors seem to contribute to the audience’s tolerance of multiple murders, the first being perspective. We see the world through Dexter’s eyes. We see the rationale behind his acts, and we understand the psychological trauma that has made him this way. More importantly, each season is set up to present Dexter as the anti-hero, but more importantly, NOT the villain. In The Silence of the Lambs, though Hannibal Lecter’s crimes may be ultimately worse, we see him as at least somewhat good because he helps to apprehend Buffalo Bill. In Dexter, we see Dexter taking justice into his own hands (a feat also accomplished by Lecter in Hannibal), and we see the true villains as The Ice Truck Killer, Lila, Miguel Prado, George King, even Sergeant Doakes. Ultimately, Dexter is not the villain to the viewer because each season, that spot is taken by characters even worse than the title role.

Audiences also seem ready to accept the “hero” qualities in Dexter because we no longer want simple presentations of good and evil. The critical and audience success of The Dark Knight and even Iron Man this year both reflect Hollywood’s acknowledgement of more complicated hero movies. The failure of movies like Punisher: War Zone and Rock’n’Rolla also help my argument. While the quality of The Dark Knight and Iron Man are irrefutably better than the other films I mentioned, part of their achievements are their complexities of character presentation.

Maybe Dexter is just a good hour of television. Maybe it simply appeals to the darkest versions of ourselves, without going too far off the deep end to the point of being unidentifiable… But I’d like to think that audiences are looking for something more than just a mindless comedy or shoot ‘em up action flik (Shoot em Up was also a terrible movie). Hopefully Hollywood takes notice.