TV Magic #2

Dexter has always been a show of contradictions. Both the most absurd and most compelling of these is its central premise: what if a psychopath had a heart? Anecdotally, most of Dexter's audience must recognize this as an impossibility. Simply put, psychopaths don't have hearts, they learn to imitate the emotional reactions of those around them in order to blend in. Central protagonist, Dexter Morgan, either can't be a true psychopath, or doesn't truly care about those around him. The contradictory nature of this mystery has kept the show going for four seasons now, a remarkable feat given that it's one major suspension of disbelief for the audience in a sea of others. Take Dexter's ability to maintain a job as a blood spatter specialist in the Miami Police, or his life as a family man, both of which would appear to be major headaches for a serial killer. Strangely, Dexter still works, and does so because of the show's writers willingness to focus on, rather than hide from, these difficulties such that they become the primary meat of the show.

Dexter Morgan is a conflicted serial killer, one who attempts to operate by a “code” given to him by his father, celebrated cop Harry Morgan. Dexter only kills bad people, people who got away, sometimes literally, with murder. How does he track them down? With his cop skill and access to the police department files, of course. Similarly, he is not a stable character, and perpetually questions both his code and whether or not he should just give in to his thirst for blood. Viewers can both empathize with, and be repulsed by Dexter; he seems to have a drive to do the right thing but with a desire to disembowel that is barely kept in check.

One of the most disturbing, and ingenious, things about Dexter is that he is an everyman. He has a job, he has a family, he wants to do the right thing... and he murders people. We are led to identify with Dexter in so many ways that when he proceeds to hunt and kill some one, it's always a shock despite our awareness of the character. It's disturbing because these are, after all, bad people, that have committed terrible acts. Don't they deserve to be tortured and killed? Isn't this justice? This would be an oversimplified reading of the show, though, because not only is Dexter an everyman but he also functions as an ironic critique of the idea of the everyman.

Yes, Dexter has a family, a job, etc., but isn't he also representative of a fairly conservative set of values? He's a heterosexual married man with a blonde wife and two and a half kids living in a safe, suburban neighbourhood. On paper, he should be voting republican. In practice, a darkly humorous voice-over allows us to hear Dexter's thoughts, which are often gleefully murderous, but not entirely so. Fantasies about killing his annoying neighbours are intertwined with everyday concerns about being a good father and husband. This, I think, allows the critique to go in two different directions.

Dexter could be a critique, and tacit justification, of the sanitized man, who has been deprived of his natural, primal urges to kill. Certainly Dexter's recent references to himself as a “lone wolf” fit this interpretation. This would be a conservative reading. Under this view, all that prevents societies from collapsing into a Hobbesian state of war are the laws and conventions that prevent us from doing harm to each other. Dexter is a danger to himself and by extension we all are also. Conservatism is the champion here, allowing both the character and ourselves to live safe, pleasant lives, guarded from the terror underneath, while justifying the urge for primal justice in the form of the punishment of the wicked, whatever gruesome form that may take.

On the other hand, Dexter could be a critique of the very values the character desires to emulate. We are, after all, shown the horror of the fulfilment of retribution as blood-lust. Dexter is at once both carrying out society's dirty work in his adherence to the black and white morality of the communities he frequents, and, forced to hide this side of himself from the same people he is desperately trying to fit in with. What better way to deconstruct safe, conservative values than to embody the paradoxical limitations of those values? If conservatism both celebrates its morality and attempts to cover up the implications of actually adhering to it then aren't conservatives downright hypocrites?

What I love about this show is that either interpretation works. You could be a die-hard republican or a liberal and enjoy it. Clever writing, great acting, and consistently interesting twists make Dexter one of the most watchable mainstream shows on television at the moment. Now in it's fourth season, the show has taken a twist that exemplifies its best qualities. The question is being asked, of Dexter (and by implication, the audience), that if one man can maintain a family and still function as a serial killer, then why couldn't others, too? This is a clever twist for all kinds of reasons I shouldn't need to spell out by now but it also, perhaps most interestingly of all, allows the main character to see himself, to observe someone who might just be like him. The implications are thought-provoking and as viewers we are set, hopefully, for another great season.