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I don't know why this post got the Peter icon.
I had this terrible, annoying, move-and-you're-dead headache today (I get those sometimes - I wouldn't call them migraines because 1) they're not that bad, and 2) they're not one-sided, nor do they come with any other symptoms than, well, a headache), and the only thing that you can do in a case like that is curl up in bed with your laptop and watch TV shows.
Since there was no other show on my HD I'd not at least watched twice over, I finally watched the rest of the first Dexter season.
I watched the first four episodes of this show a while back, and I wasn't exactly thrilled. I actually loved the idea of a show about a serial killer - maybe I should mention that I have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with serial killers. As in, I have read several non-fiction books about the subject, and I have an Encyclopedia of Serial Killers on my book shelf. I find this particular aspect of criminal psychology highly fascinating. In short, I NO BECUZ OF MAH LURNINS.
Anyway. I thought the Dexter writers weren't exactly doing a great job building a credible serial killer. It all seemed so forced. His neatness, his little fixations and obsessions, his assuring the audience on every turn that no, he was feeling nothing at all, and yes, he was a killer, and no, he didn't do it because the people he killed were bad, he did it because yes, he felt the urge to kill. Etc etc. And at the same time, he's being the perfect BF, the perfect brother, the perfect colleague, and what bugged me was that those things were the parts that seemed real, while the whole serial killer thing was the part that felt forced. The show was filmed from his perspective. It should have been the other way around. Even if the other characters wouldn't have noticed, DEXTER should have. And he didn't. At least it didn't feel like he did.
That's why I didn't continue to watch it. Until today. And whoa there, did that character make a 180 degrees turn or what. It was rather disappointing, really. Even if the show wasn't exactly succeeding, you could tell that it was trying to do something new. Until all that crap about Dexter's past and Debbie's BF the Ice Truck Killer and Paul the Evil Ex-Husband started. They used the cheapest plot device in history - deep relaxation technique, for fuck's sake, couldn't you think of something a little more conventional? Maybe go with X-Filesy regression hypnosis? That would have been very nostalgic. - to get the ball rolling, and in only three therapy sessions, Dexter was turned from a creepy serial killer into a poor traumatized victim who was being used by the people around him for their petty purposes, and from time to time killed the people that everybody agreed deserved to die anyway.
It was rather pathetic to watch the writers give in before they'd even really gotten started, and fall back on the old clichés. The serial killer, the original bad guy, was turned into some sort of avenging angel that nobody would have any trouble relating to, while the new bad guy was exactly the same type of character Dexter was supposed to be, but was now the boogieman, the guy to be afraid of, whose scenes got all the creepy soundtrack. Then there was this old, old plot structure of the Ice Truck Killer hooking up with the hero's closest family member - the second Debbie looked at the guy with anything other than a passing glance, I knew who he was and what was going to happen. It was so fucking obvious. And then he turns out to be his brother. Meh.
Actually, the finale wasn't badly done. Dexter regained some of his old character. It reconciled me a little. But there's this big scarring hole in the second half of the season when Dexter simply does not act like a serial killer. I realize the whole plot wouldn't have worked out if he had, but I've never been a friend of sacrificing characterization for the sake of plot. Actually, it's one of my biggest pet peeves, and I've chucked many a book in a dark corner because the author suddenly decided to butcher their character only because they were too lazy to think of a plot that would work with the characters they had. (One example? The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. He has this wonderful autistic character, and then he decides to destroy him only to be able to write a cheesy family reunion happy end. Ew. Ew ew ew. That's bad writing, right there.)
Anyway. While the show thoroughly disappointed me by throwing their premises out the window at the first sign of trouble, I did enjoy the second half of the season on a level of pure entertainment. Give me poor, used, traumatized and misunderstood avenging angels any day. They make for nice, conventional television. The irony is that I probably wouldn't be trying to acquire the second season if they'd decided to stick with their character.
There's meta in there somewhere. But let's leave that for some other time.
Since there was no other show on my HD I'd not at least watched twice over, I finally watched the rest of the first Dexter season.
I watched the first four episodes of this show a while back, and I wasn't exactly thrilled. I actually loved the idea of a show about a serial killer - maybe I should mention that I have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with serial killers. As in, I have read several non-fiction books about the subject, and I have an Encyclopedia of Serial Killers on my book shelf. I find this particular aspect of criminal psychology highly fascinating. In short, I NO BECUZ OF MAH LURNINS.
Anyway. I thought the Dexter writers weren't exactly doing a great job building a credible serial killer. It all seemed so forced. His neatness, his little fixations and obsessions, his assuring the audience on every turn that no, he was feeling nothing at all, and yes, he was a killer, and no, he didn't do it because the people he killed were bad, he did it because yes, he felt the urge to kill. Etc etc. And at the same time, he's being the perfect BF, the perfect brother, the perfect colleague, and what bugged me was that those things were the parts that seemed real, while the whole serial killer thing was the part that felt forced. The show was filmed from his perspective. It should have been the other way around. Even if the other characters wouldn't have noticed, DEXTER should have. And he didn't. At least it didn't feel like he did.
That's why I didn't continue to watch it. Until today. And whoa there, did that character make a 180 degrees turn or what. It was rather disappointing, really. Even if the show wasn't exactly succeeding, you could tell that it was trying to do something new. Until all that crap about Dexter's past and Debbie's BF the Ice Truck Killer and Paul the Evil Ex-Husband started. They used the cheapest plot device in history - deep relaxation technique, for fuck's sake, couldn't you think of something a little more conventional? Maybe go with X-Filesy regression hypnosis? That would have been very nostalgic. - to get the ball rolling, and in only three therapy sessions, Dexter was turned from a creepy serial killer into a poor traumatized victim who was being used by the people around him for their petty purposes, and from time to time killed the people that everybody agreed deserved to die anyway.
It was rather pathetic to watch the writers give in before they'd even really gotten started, and fall back on the old clichés. The serial killer, the original bad guy, was turned into some sort of avenging angel that nobody would have any trouble relating to, while the new bad guy was exactly the same type of character Dexter was supposed to be, but was now the boogieman, the guy to be afraid of, whose scenes got all the creepy soundtrack. Then there was this old, old plot structure of the Ice Truck Killer hooking up with the hero's closest family member - the second Debbie looked at the guy with anything other than a passing glance, I knew who he was and what was going to happen. It was so fucking obvious. And then he turns out to be his brother. Meh.
Actually, the finale wasn't badly done. Dexter regained some of his old character. It reconciled me a little. But there's this big scarring hole in the second half of the season when Dexter simply does not act like a serial killer. I realize the whole plot wouldn't have worked out if he had, but I've never been a friend of sacrificing characterization for the sake of plot. Actually, it's one of my biggest pet peeves, and I've chucked many a book in a dark corner because the author suddenly decided to butcher their character only because they were too lazy to think of a plot that would work with the characters they had. (One example? The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. He has this wonderful autistic character, and then he decides to destroy him only to be able to write a cheesy family reunion happy end. Ew. Ew ew ew. That's bad writing, right there.)
Anyway. While the show thoroughly disappointed me by throwing their premises out the window at the first sign of trouble, I did enjoy the second half of the season on a level of pure entertainment. Give me poor, used, traumatized and misunderstood avenging angels any day. They make for nice, conventional television. The irony is that I probably wouldn't be trying to acquire the second season if they'd decided to stick with their character.
There's meta in there somewhere. But let's leave that for some other time.
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PAIN IN GENERAL IS BAD. TRUFAX.
xD
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