2
1
‘Dexter’ review: understanding psychopathy
‘Dexter’ is an American television series
which premiered on Showtime in 2006,
and ran till 2013. The premise of the
series can be summed up in a quote from the
series itself, “Psychopaths are not a mistake of
nature”. The underlying theme of the series then
seems to be presenting psychopaths as a gift of
nature, so extraordinary, different and rare that
these characteristics are hidden deep beneath the
folds of the façade known as an ordinary person.
The definition of psychopathy is the pervasive
pattern of incapability for empathy and
indifference towards others. Most people mistake
psychopaths for nut jobs, while psychopaths are
intelligent and cunning, having a more highly
evolutional brain and mind power than an
ordinary human being. A psychopath hides in the
most successful politicians, business tycoons,
lawyer, doctors and ultimately the central
character of the series, Dexter. Based on the
novels by Jeff Lindsay, it presents the central
Dexter as an extremely skilled blood-spatter
analyst in the forensic department of Miami
Metro by day and a serial killer by night. Labeled
as a psychopath in the series, he has a passion for
blood and often refers to himself as “born in
blood”.
Dexter’s obsession for blood begins at a young
age. In a shipping yard massacre, a three year old
Dexter and his brother, Brian, witness their
mother being dismembered with a chainsaw, and
the boys spent two whole days in a pool of their
mother’s blood.
The younger of two brothers, Dexter is able to
block out the incident of his mother’s death, but
not without consequences. He is “reborn” and
spends the next 30 years of his life being
emotionally divorced from his humanity. He often
refers to himself as a “monster” and refers to
“humans” in a manner that he does not perceive
himself as one. This series conveys the transition
of Dexter from a man who does not feel emotions
into a colorful world of emotions. However,
Dexter is not absolutely bereft of emotion. He is
merely emotionally shut down, where an event
scarred him so deep that he blocked out most of
his emotions in order to keep himself sheltered
from the world around him. I emphasize ‘most’
because he displays violent tendencies as a child
when he kills animals and violence is indeed a
very powerful manifestation of emotion. This
particular emotion is captured by Harry, Dexter’s
adoptive father who realizes that Dexter is a child
who aspires to be something altogether
exceptional and idiosyncratic than what society
has envisioned him to be. Harry subsequently
guides Dexter to channel his “dark passenger”
which is namely his murderous impulse towards
being a vigilante according to the “Code of
By Parvin Sandhu
Harry”. The Code strictly specifies
Dexter must only engage if he can avoid
getting caught, his victims must be
killers without a conscience and lastly
he must be completely certain of their
guilt. Moreover, Harry coaches Dexter
on the manner to conceal his tracks, how
to create a veneer of normal human
emotion and social behavior. Harry
persuades Dexter never to reveal the
truth behind his masquerade, because
the world would never accept him for
his true self as people are fearful of what
they do not fathom.
A focal point in the series is Dexter’s
precise,
meticulous,
neat,
and
methodical murder methods. Dexter
begins his killing ritual by selecting his
victims who conventionally are felons
who have triumphed in slipping through
Michael C. Hall, who plays the lead in
the narrow loopholes of law and order.
‘Dexter’ Source: Wikipedia commons
Secondly, he researches his victims
extensively by stalking them to discover proof of their
“Dexter
guilt; he must be convinced they are going to kill again
undergoes a
without appropriate justification. Once Dexter is assured,
form of
he sets up a kill room which is typically covered and lined
with industrial plastic from ceiling to walls, and contains a
insecurity
kill table. He usually includes pictures of his target’s
where he feels
victims (whom they have killed), hung like sanctuaries to
he was stripped
communicate the rationale of h