Dexter

Nope, this is not Dexter’s Laboratory available in Cartoon Network. I’m talking about the tv series named Dexter. It is a relatively new tv series which is going to start its first episode in third season soon.

Initially, I did not pay much attention to this series. This is because there are only 12 episodes (I think) in each season. I just felt that with so little episodes per season, maybe they are not really doing that well. Besides, one of the main purposes that I watch tv series is that they can fill up my long lonely nights… it won’t do for me to watch a boxset that would finish in less than a week. However, since I have watched almost every tv series that is available on Earth, I decided to give it a try.

Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is a very disturbed person. I don’t really know the exact term I should use to describe him. He witnessed the gruesome murder of his parents when he was little and was left sitting in mass amount of blood for two days before a police found him. The police took him in as a foster child. Dexter had no memories about the murder but he has grown a fascination for blood. Soon, he found himself killing animals just to satisfy his ‘urges’.

His foster father found out about it and surprisingly, instead of chucking him to a therapist or mental hospital, he taught Dexter to direct his urges to kill to those who deserve it. You might think that he would become a crime fighter or some dark hero who kills the wicked. However, Dexter did not kill for justice; he kills to satisfy the monster that resides in him. He chooses his victims from the wicked just because his foster father, Harry told him to do so. Apart from the ‘blood problem’, Dexter also find himself void of all emotions. As such, Harry taught him to fake his emotions so as to blend in with the society. In one episode, Dexter told a boy that if one does not feel emotions, one should act as if they can feel it.

I have just finished watching season 1 but I expect Dexter to be questioning Harry’s teaching since he discovered Harry lying to him. What that piqued my interest is to find out how the writers would continue the story. Basically, the style used in the first season is the three-pointed attack. There would be one long plot about another serial killer that is sort of the main plot. Then there’re sub-plots where Dexter made his normal killings and also the plot with his girlfriend. And his girlfriend has the uncanny ability to be in deep trouble whenever Dexter is too.

However, there are some points that I did not understand. For example, Dexter;s fascination is with blood, however when he saw a bloodless corpse, he said that the killer is even better than him. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? However, I don’t think this series will gain much acceptance. Most would not be able to accept such brutality and it will not be accepted in most households.

However, I think that this tv series is refreshing since it is sort of an anti-hero and it doesn’t have blazing guns and all those pyromaniacs. Just plain drugs and needle and carefully laid out plans. I would not say that it is brilliant, but undoubtedly it managed to grab a place to be amongst my favourite tv series.