Death On His Own Terms

There is something charming, chilling and absolutely fascinating about a brilliant bloodstain analyst that moonlights as a serial killer.

Dexter Morgan kills by the guidelines of Harry, his adoptive father, who trained Dexter to convincingly interact with normal human beings while remaining a closeted psychopath. Dexter’s fascination with killing has largely escaped suspicion as Dexter keeps up superficially close relationships with his sister, Deb, and girlfriend, Rita. However, Dexter is also alarmingly aware of his duplicitous lifestyle and how he is unable to feel the emotions of love, friendliness or sorrow, although he has completely mastered the art of pretending.

Serial killers are a familiar figure in action movies by this time, usually as the villain. Yet empathizing with a serial killer is not something I expected. Neither did I expect to have conversations with my friends about feeling fascinated by the methodical process of killing or feeling like we could relate to Dexter’s search for emotion.

Dexter’s signature killing method is shown in nearly every episode. In just the first episode of the first season we see that he straps his victim naked to a table and slices open their cheek with a knife for the blood he will later store on a slide as a sort of victory treasure. As the captive blubbers and their eyes go white with terror, he delivers the death blow which can be anything from a cleaver to a buzzing drill. Nauseating as it may sound; it becomes fascinating as you feel more involved in Dexter’s emotions than in those of the dying yet monstrous victim. Plus, you are spared the actual sawing or gutting, although you are shown the wrapped limbs that he dumps into the Florida Keys.

Something about this is both desensitizing and arousing. A violent look at the transition we have as a culture into less human forms of empathy.

But, of course, this is only in season one. Now on season four, Dexter has become much more graphic and the villain of the season kills with much more methodical ferociousness.

“This season just hits closer to home,” said Bryan Graf, “The way in which one of the serial killers thinks about the death and just by being friendly manages to find out so much about their victim. Its just so graphic but you can’t stop watching.”

The thing about this Showtime production is that you cannot help but become fascinated. It becomes a brilliant battle of wits with death as the punishment for failure. Watching Dexter manipulate his emotions and those around him, slyly figure out how to kill the devils that the Miami Metro Police Department he works for tracks down and still remain a serial killer that no one is on the hunt for sounds unbelievable until you watch the show. Suddenly, in a grotesque way, Dexter becomes believable.

This sadistic superhero does not kill just for the fun of it but according to the “Code of Harry” he must only kill those who deserve to die.

The self- narrated setting of this beautifully shot show is proactive and eluding and the actor who plays Dexter, Michael C. Hall, seems the perfect platform for his ambiguous persona. Hall won the Golden Globe award in 2010 for best actor in a television drama series after two other nominations from previous seasons.

The show is something of a mix between the depth of Lost and the superhero-gone-good feeling of Twilight. Throw away your vampires and your werewolves to delve into the dark and good-looking person of Dexter, the forensic researcher that you know could outsmart you.

He is too smart, even watching you begin to understand that Dexter truly believes that he is an incurable psychopath striving to exist and evolve on his own terms.

And also live by Harry’s Code’s first rule: Don’t get caught.