You’ve just watched a man drug and kidnap someone. He ties the victim to a table, waits until he wakes up, then ritualistically stabs him in the chest, dismembers the corpse, and dumps it off a small boat into the Atlantic Ocean. Moments later, you see the same murderer holding an infant, cooing and singing the kid to sleep. But you don’t recoil, you don’t hold your breath and pray for someone to come rescue the poor baby from this psychotic, Charlie Manson wannabe. You just hope the kid falls asleep soon, because Daddy Dexter’s exhausted, and has another hard day of killing ahead of him tomorrow.
It’s easy to organize a successful, interesting movie plot around a serial killer. That’s why Charlize Theron won an Oscar for Monster, and the Saw series just won’t die. They’re fascinating because they’re inhuman, sociopathic, and mind-numbingly terrifying. But a sympathetic, lovable protagonist who graphically hacks at least one body to pieces per week?
It seems unlikely, but Showtime’s Dexter has made it to the fifth season using precisely that premise. The show’s protagonist is the Clark Kent of serial killers, with his superhuman power deriving from his subhuman urge to slice open everything that moves. And since he only kills people whose deaths are for the greater good of the people of Miami, when he puts on his hunter green thermal shirt and leather gloves, you’re rooting for him to off the bad guy and get home in time to play family man with his wife and kids.
The antihero isn’t by any means a new invention, but in the past few years, television has been taking the concept in a bolder, much darker direction. AMC’s Breaking Bad, for example follows Walter White, your friendly neighborhood high school chemistry teacher turned meth cook. And if that sounds ridiculous, just watch a few episodes: you’ll hate the government for paying teachers such meager salaries, you’ll hate the police for trying to take drug dealers off the streets, and you’ll even hate his wife for not accepting “I was out” as his excuse when he’s disappeared for days to break more laws than he can count.
It’s unreasonable to think that a serial killer or a drug chef could keep up his family-man appearance and go about his less-lawful business unscathed for too long, and that’s another field where both shows excel. Although television isn’t limited by the constraints of the real world, neither character lives in Metropolis: they’re not untouchable, and can be recognized even in glasses.
Walt’s web of lies rips his family apart, and, despite his strict moral code, Dexter finds himself responsible for a fair number of innocent lives. The police, though inept compared to our heroes, are constant threats, and the viewer stops breathing whenever a cop gets too close to uncovering the protagonist’s grim secrets. It makes these heroes more real, and by extension, a little more relatable to an audience who doesn’t have their own meth lab.
With the runaway success of these two shows, it’s clear that a dark, disturbing hero can be a success from week to week on TV. Terriers, a new drama which premiered this month on FX, features a loyal but morally ambiguous private investigator who finds himself involved in two murders and a high-profile porn scandal à la The Big Sleep—and that’s just in the pilot.
And if this new detective proves unsuccessful at taking down the first episode’s villain? Here’s hoping that the murderous scumbag finds his way to Miami, because there’s sure to be an operating table and a butcher’s knife with his name on it.
Wanna impress Leigh? Show her just how dark you can be at lfinnegan@georgetownvoice.com
Love the alliteration — “Daddy Dexter”!
Love the Superman allusions!
Is there any way he can get to the cast of the Jersey Shore?