Dexter

       When I get interested in a television show, it’s hard for me to stay away. I will start on episode one and go straight through every episode as far as the show has currently gone. I have done this for multiple shows, including Entourage, The Simpsons (ten out of twenty-four seasons so far), Community, Parks and Recreation, Modern Family, American Horror Story and Mad Men. However, none of these can match my obsession with the show Dexter. Summer before my freshman year here at TCU, my brother told me about this show he watched that he was hooked on. So I decided to check it out. I didn’t realize how much my social life would drop after I began the show. I watched the first three seasons of the show, a total of thirty-six hours of television, in the first month of school. Yes, there were probably other things I could have done with that time. But... I regret nothing.

       The main reason I love the show so much is because the characterizations of each person on the show are so definite. The show follows Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter analyst for Miami Metro Police Department. When he was three years old, he witnessed his mother murdered and sat in her blood for two days before he was found. Ever since then, he has had a “dark passenger” that causes him to need to hurt and kill. As a teenager, his adopted father, Harry, discovered this badness in Dexter and gave him a code-- a specific way about executing his kills and deciding who his victims would be-- to live by in order to satisfy this need but keep himself from getting caught. From then on, Dexter would only seek out murderers not convicted or people who he believed deserved to die, as his victims. He becomes a vigilante.

       With that said, Dexter is not Batman. He is a regular human being who has extremely severe subconscious problems that cause an addiction. But yes, Dexter is a serial killer that works at the police department. The overall explanation of the show sounds dumb and too fictitious to ever work. However, what makes Dexter such a sensational show is how flawlessly it seems to bring this odd character to life, and how even with Dexter’s dark tendencies, we are always able to connect and sympathize with him. Obviously, we are not serial killers. But the overall themes of the importance of family, our ability or inability to repress our emotions, loneliness, fear, insecurity, personal vs. professional lives and where they cross, and many more allow us to follow Dexter’s complicated life and be entertained while relating certain aspects of the characters’ lives to our own. In no way does the show display Dexter as the good guy for killing these people. In fact, Dexter states multiple times that if he could just stop his addiction, he could live a safer, happier life. However, he can’t get rid of his dark passenger and must follow the code to keep himself from getting caught.

       The shows supporting characters, which includes Dexter’s sister from the adopted family, Debra, who works as a detective at Miami Metro, are also incredible and help create a believable world surrounding Dexter’s life. The show follows Dexter as he deals with the suspicions of coworkers, keeping his secrets, discovering other serial killers, evading arrest or death, starting a family while keeping his secrets, and most importantly, the consequences of having this dark passenger. If you have not ever seen the show, you should at least watch the first episode. However, I will warn you now, it is extremely addicting.