Dexter, reviewed by Cartoonist Jeff Swenson

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DEXTER: Gruesome Vigilante or Restrained Psycho
Reviewed by Cartoonist Jeff Swenson

Damn, I was thinking about canceling my subscription to Showtime when I caught this show.
It's good!

We need more horror shows in the pay cable arena. Dexter is proof of that. It comes at the right time, premiering in October and amidst more bad news of senseless child killing, terrorism and The Iraq War. Horror has always been a release for our emotions when times are bad and vigilantism remains a vicarious experience where we ourselves feel--as much as is possible with fiction--what it is like to take a brutal whack at some unapologetic, cold-hearted bastard who butchers his fellow human beings for pleasure.

That's really what this show is: two genres rolled into one. The vigilante genre of taking justice into your own hands to regain some perceived balance between the victim and victimizer and the horror genre which is designed to disturb you and cause a scream now and again.

Dexter doesn't cause you to scream--at least not yet. He disturbs you. And what is even more disturbing for the viewer is that they find themselves rooting for him to succeed. In the opening of the first episode he has tracked down his first "victim" who took the lives of innocent boys simply to enjoy his sick cravings. It's no wonder we don't feel any remorse for what Dexter does to his "victim" in this instance.

The idea of a serial killer hunting down other serial killers isn't necessarily that original. I remember back in my early twenties brainstorming the idea myself (as incompetent as I was with writing back then) and how it could be done and I'm sure other writers, known or unknown, have tackled the same subject matter.This series is based on a book by Jeff Lindsay originally called Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Since Lindsay now has a TV deal for this concept he obviously has a stranglehold on how it will be popularized. Because there are very few truly original ideas out there, It's how a fictional premise is presented that counts. Can you make it plausible? And why would a serial killer have an interest in killing other serial killers?

Traditionally, the bloodlust of these depraved individuals--Gacy, Dahmer, The BTK killer--requires innocent victims. They like the tears, the pleading, the helplessness, and the sexual high they get from torturing and dismembering. The sexual component seems to be most important. I remembering reading that Ted Bundy would return to his burial grounds and unearth decapitated heads of women and masturbate onto them. This is what's truly frightening about most serial killers; that the violent aspect of what they do is fused with their sexual drive. Dexter, the show, doesn't quite address that or tries to avoid that component by suggesting that Dexter feels no sexual urges or has completely replaced his sexual urges with his urge to kill. It's not a combination of sex and bloodlust, rather his bloodlust is a complete replacement for his sexual drive. I'm not sure if that's realistic, but I'm willing to accept it. Possibly as the show progresses they might alter that perception that is prevalent in episode one.

The writer of Dexter solves the entire problem of a psycho unfettered by morals by revealing that Dexter's father discovered his son's violent nature early on when he noticed his young son torturing animals. At first his Father tries to prevent it. This of course is impossible. As Dexter moves into his teens, his father realizes that he can do nothing to stop the bloodlust so he decides to channel it for something good. He teaches his psycho son how to kill serial killers even as Dexter himself may share their nature. It also looks like Dexter was adopted so it will probably be slowly revealed as to who his real father is and what kind of consequences that might have had on his personality.

Fully grown, Dexter works as a forensic scientist specializing in blood spattering. He mentors his somewhat timid sister into pushing herself to succeed in the police force and by all accounts his sister considers him to be a genius. So does the female lieutenant--his boss--who is more than obvious in her affections for him which are not returned. Dexter, as mentioned before, is not a sexual being. He lives for the kill. Which is why the girlfriend he chooses to continue a relationship with is so fucked up by being raped in the past that she avoids sex and tends mostly to her children. Looking at Dexter's life from the outside you wouldn't even think he would do the things we know he does in his spare time. Lovingly close to his sister, a steady girlfriend, well-liked by his coworkers, attractive to the opposite sex, rewarding if not morbid career--hardly the loneliness and failure I usually associate with those who kill. Though, I would hearken back to the days of Ted Bundy who seemingly had it all too.

The premiere of this series sucked me in pretty good. I was hoping for a 2 hour run for the first episode but they cut me off at the usual one hour just when things were really getting good. Which means I'll be back for more next week (the sign of a good show) and with the Halloween season upon us it is perfect timing for an intelligent, gruesome horror series. I can't recommend this series for those who love horror for the screams and cheeze factor (which I enjoy too), this is disturbing and quiet horror that is best watched alone. If you watch it with someone you love most likely they're going to feel the creeps and especially with girly women not prone to liking intelligent horror they might wonder if their boyfriends are keeping dark secrets from them. Goth Girls are going to be squealing with delight, however...

NOTES:
1. Dexter is played by Michael C. Hall, formerly of Six Feet Under, the hit HBO series. It's interesting that he hasn't moved too far from playing with dead bodies.

2. Many of the people in the cast are from the HBO series OZ. Lt. La Guerta as played by Lauren Velez, Angel Batista as played by David Zayas, and Sgt. Doakes as played by Erik King. I wouldn't be surprised to see more show up. Actors always get their former buddies connected to the casting director. I recently saw another OZ connection when I re-watched V the TV series from the eighties : Rebadow as played by George Morfogen and Omar White as played by Michael Wright were both in that original alien classic. Many of the OZ characters also went on to star in Law And Order. It's good to stay connected to your former cast members I guess.

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