Dexter

While I was writing the posts I Am Shadows, my brother told me that I needed to watch Dexter. I had heard of it, a showtime show about the serial killer that has a code; he only kills other serial killers. And so I did, and I didn't want to stop watching it. I told my wife about Dexter and she was hesitant, now she watches them without me. Aside from the potty mouths and the nudity (which I could do without) the story is what has grasped my imagination.

My brother was right, for the sort of story I was writing (and still am) Dexter fits right into the "crazy" that my hero suffers. What interested me is the way the story is told, which is  from his inner monologue, then later, people he cared about who died return to him to help him make his decisions. (I know what you are saying "With all the hunting and killing that happens this is what you found interesting?" I know! This is how I digest all my media, I pull out what could make me a better writer; I'm a nerd)


My beef's with the show are small, but bug me enormously. Namely, in all of the studies I have done on how sociopaths are created, every one of them had to do with sever neglect while as a baby. Yes Dexter had a very traumatic experience when his mother died, but he wasn't neglected. Sociopaths were left to self sooth as infants. Not put to bed and ignored, but left for hours and hours every day, no real physical or emotional contact. The sociopath learned that the only person they needed was themselves and they were the only ones who could meet their own needs. They have no ability to please others, or even care to, because there was no one to please; this "pleasing others" desire is formed in the first couple of years of life. They were left alone and didn't develop the "pleasing" desire. So later life skills are faked because they learned "that's how I get what I want"  Dexter was well loved as a baby, and taken care of by his attentive foster father. If anything Harry (His foster father) was misinformed as to what makes a sociopath and raised Dexter fully expecting him to be a killer and made Dexter feel like there was no other course, then trained him how to get away with it. That would make a killer, not his child trauma. The other thing that bugs me is that when he is "trailing" people in his car he is literally right behind them, but nobody ever notices. What?

This has been a great series for me to study the storytelling of an emotionally troubled character, beside the fact that it was a lot of fun.