Dexter: Good or Bad?

Oh, Dexter. You are my source of entertainment lately. Lost, where? 24... hours of what? Entourage, who all?  You get the point. It's a show of great magnitude, and I always am very pleased to hear the instrumental theme song. It's genius, dark, and strangely resounding.

Dexter is a show that portrays a serial killer that lives by the code. The code was instilled unto Dexter by his deceased cop father, Harry. Harry adopted Dexter as a young boy who was tarnished by the experience of seeing his own mother murdered right before his eyes. It was a gory murder, and Dexter was changed ever since then. Harry took on the task of raising Dexter with his odd darkness and urges. Harry honed Dexter's urges to kill into a code of killing those who killed others. This code molds Dexter's life in a deep degree, and it helps him to not be an unorganized, sporadic serial killer. Instead, he is portrayed as a vigilante. 

The audience follows his frequent murders which clean the streets of Miami so to speak. As an audience, we may be disgusted by the methods of killing and the abundant blood. Over time, you find yourself immersed in the character development of the Dexter cast, and you can't help the addiction of wanting to watch more and more. I even questioned myself as I watched it. How am I so interested in something that is obviously so wrong? We all should know that murder is simply wrong, but I believe the actions of "justice" tend to disperse into different directions of opinion. Some people believe in the death penalty. Others may believe in confinement.  Even so, we can't help but like Dexter and this is successful story-telling. If you capture the audience, you have won gold. We side with a serial killer. Hello?!

On the other hand, Dexter goes through Season 2 and 3 with finding people who "understand" his darkness. For example, Lila believes they are soul mates. She understood his darkness, but it didn't work out. (Was I the only one that found her so inexorably irritating?) Miguel Prado was supposed to be his new buddy he let in, but it wasn't as it seemed. Miguel had used and abused him, and this led to his ultimate fate. Dexter never has anyone to truly keep his secret with.

He keeps it with us, and we can't stop watching. Vigilante or serial killer? Take your pick. I'll say it's wrong in reality, but hey, that's not going to stop Dexter from topping the TV show charts or me from complaining that Netflix won't supply my Season 4 Disc 1 fast enough. Let's delve away from the vampires for now, shall we?