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Sep. 25th, 2007 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenAs this week is massive premiere week on the tee-vee, my thoughts turn to easily the most anticipated show premiere in my house. Which would be the season two premiere of Dexter.
But this has gotten a little more complicated.
I picked up the second book in the literary series about Dexter Morgan this weekend--Dearly Devoted Dexter (the alliterative titles alternately amuse and aggravate me). I finished it about a day and a half later (it's not a hard read and I couldn't put it down). While the show is better, the book has its charms.
There is something liberating about Dexter notbeing a human being. Michael C. Hall is brilliant, as I've said, but there's a different requirement in a visual medium than a written one in creating a character. The television Dexter is a lot more human than he admits to being, and Michael C. Hall makes him just that much more human. It sets up his constant declarations of sociopathy as hollow and possibly even deluded, maybe self-preservational against the horrors he commits and enjoys committing.
There is a sense that, were the right combination of factors to come into play, Dexter might grow a conscience and learn to abhor the need he has always had to kill things. The TV-Dexter is on a path to be redeemed. Now, the show is valiantly trying to stop that from happening any time soon, and the frequent, brutal reminders of Dexter's violent anti-social behaviors keep us from fully embracing him as a fallen sinner. The second you start liking Dexter, he murders someone to remind you that he is, despite appearances, not a good guy. However, that bad boy is steadily, at a good pace, being undermined by the gradually solidifying ties he's making to true humanity. So, yes, don't fall for the good-guy face, but understand that, eventually, he will as good throughout as he appears on the surface. That is definitely the narrative/developmental tide the show is riding.
The books, on the other hand, are much more rigorously adherent to the notion that, yes, Dexter is as close to a human being as a human being is to a turkey (in his eyes, anyway). Specifically, all of the little actions that TV-Dexter does that betray a hint of humanity are adequately and reasonably explained away in the books as self-aware psychological hang-ups. Just because he can't help them doesn't mean he isn't aware of them. The best example is his treatment of children. It's only just hinted at in the television show, but Dexter does really love kids. Book-Dexter is aware that there is some sympathy of sufferers between himself and his girlfriend's kids, but it's more the emotional innocence and lack of depth that he has in common with them that provokes him to something like affection for children. It's a weakness, and he sees it as such.
Book-Dexter is so much more aware of himself in general than TV-Dexter, and, being so calculatingly shrewd about himself, he is less human and more the sociopath that he was set down to be when he was created. Book-Dexter is a more accurate example of a sociopath than TV-Dexter. It would be hard to imagine Book-Dexter ever having a good cry and feeling remorse. So, while I love the TV-Dexter, Book-Dexter has his appeal, too. There's jus something freeing about not being forced to accept the redemption plot line. Don't get me wrong--I think that when and if such a moment occurs, TV-Dexter will make me buy it (Michael C. Hall could sell me anything in my spam folder, and there's no way in hell I need a bigger penis). Just that I like the comfort of knowing that Book-Dexter is who he is forever. It makes him easier to "find" as a reader.
I wish I could explain that better. When I say I can "find" a character as a reader, do people know what I mean? It's the sort of familiarity you have with a character you know inside and out. You can get that from a good series with consistent characterization or from a story with a familiar archetype. You know them at once, even though they can and often do surprise you. But there's always a home, a centralized notion of that character's self that you can return to. That's what I mean by "finding" the character.
Anyway, I was talking about Dexter. So, yeah, I'm wondering if one of the subplots in Dearly Devoted Dexter is going to happen in the show's second season.
The books and show have diverged already in several signficant ways--LaGuerta is still alive, and Biney is not; Deborah has no idea that Dexter is a killer; Rita's ex-husband has an impact on hers and Dexter's relationship; and Dexter has not strayed, not even a little, from Harry's code. Okay, all of these things can be worked with, seeing as Dearly Devoted Dexter relies on none of those things to further its plot especially. You could still work the plot of the second book into being the plot of the second season of the show.
And I'm wondering exactly how much of the big changes in the book are going to be incorporated if they do. I don't think that any harm will come to Doakes. I just don't. He's far too interesting a character on the show to write off at this point. There's a real Admiral Cain vibe about him--the show is better for having him as a contrast to its "hero" than it would be if he conveniently went elsewhere. Dexter under pressure is more interesting to watch, and no one applies the pressure quite like Doakes. Also, if the show doesn't capitalize on Doakes' similarities and very important differences with Dexter, it would feel like a cheat. How much harder, and how much more emotional tension and moral quandry would there be if both men were exposed to the other and they had to live with that never changing?
Like I said, there's a real Admiral Cain thing going on. If she's always there, you have to deal with her. And her point of view, and the complications she brings with. If you get rid of her yourself, you have to live with that violation of your honor (and violation it would be, especially for Dexter who wears the cloak of righteousness only so long as he adheres to Harry's Code). BSG copped out and had someone with good reason and no moral high ground to defend kill Admiral Cain. if the baddie of Dearly Devoted Dexter takes care of Doakes for Dexter, the clash has been averted, the tension drained away, and the possibilities shot down. Such a cheat. There, at least, I hope that, while the story should still involve Doakes as it does in Dearly Devoted Dexter, I don't want him in the least permanently harmed.
The other major development, however, I think willbe put through and it worries me. Dearly Devoted Dexter discovers that Cody, Rita's son, is a Dexter-in-training (and, indeed, Dexter can hardly wait to train him). Astor, Cody's sister, is not far off, though she seems to abhor the act of violence and prefers to see Cody carry it out. This means she's Harry to Cody's Dexter in a way--she is complicit in his violence and murders, even desires them, but cannot do it herself. Her encouragement of Cody and ready acceptance of what he does make her more bloodthirsty than Harry only if you believe that Harry wasn't in the least motivated by revenge or his thwarted sense of justice in training his foster son to be a killer of killers. Personally, I don't see Harry as a white knight. There might have been a way to help Dexter that didn't involve murder. Sociopaths can be helped with therapy. Harry chose not to see that option just as much as he actually believed it wouldn't help Dexter.
Anyway, back to Cody. Word is that the little boy playing Cody has been replaced this season, which makes me suspect that they are going to go with the Cody being Dexter's apprentice plot. There's two big problems with this. One, the show already addressed Dexter's latent desire to reach out to a future killer in need with Jeremy Downs. Yes, he could see helping Cody as a way to make up for not helping Jeremy, but the emotional heft and development for Dexter has already been opened and closed as an avenue. Unless done very well (and hey, it is possible with this show), I don't think the impact will be as strong as it was in the book where there was no other protege character.
The other main problem is that the television show has portrayed Cody as a consistently optimistic, cheerful, healthy young boy. Rita says that, being so young, he really was sheltered from the worst of his crack-head father's rages. There shouldn't be any traumatic event big enough to turn Cody to killer when he's still so excited to have his father in his life that he runs away to try and be with him even when the father's gone back to jail. It would be very difficult to turn that portrayal upside down to have Cody be a withdrawn loner like Dexter.
However, I had this delicious idea while thinking about this dilemma after I finished the book. While Cody is too upbeat and emotionally whole to support the concept of his being a killer, his sister is not. Astor has, from the first, been a sullen girl with serious emotional problems. She's also perhaps more savvy than anyone realizes. The first time we meet her, she seems unimpressed by Dexter's chivalrous charm. I can count on one hand the number of times you see her smiling and happy. More often than not, her unhappiness is the center of her personal story within the show. She's the one who's borne the trauma of an abusive parent. Not physically, but she's had responsibility from a too-young age and she's witnessed an unhealthy amount of traumatic things happening to a loved one for a girl her age (hmm, sound like anyone we know?).
Astor is so displeased by the thought of her father getting out of jail that she wets the bed. The mere possibility of his attending her birthday party is reason enough for her to want to cancel it. It takes time for her to warm to her father, and she does but is the first to turn on him again when he's thrown back in jail. Astor has all the makings of disappointed, disaffected heir to Dexter's legacy. And I think it would be fabulous if, in a nod to those folk who have read Dearly Devoted Dexter, they did a winking nod to the book but twisted it on its ear to suit the character development of the show. Absolutely delicious.
Whew. That was my big meta-dump on Dexter. I need to finish rewatching the show before the next season starts. It's funny to watch Dexter and then something light-hearted like Psych right after. I'm seeing parallels where there probably aren't any (and certainly not very strong ones where there are). I kind of need the break. Watching too much Dexter is like watching too much Battlestar Galactica. It just wears you out.
But this has gotten a little more complicated.
I picked up the second book in the literary series about Dexter Morgan this weekend--Dearly Devoted Dexter (the alliterative titles alternately amuse and aggravate me). I finished it about a day and a half later (it's not a hard read and I couldn't put it down). While the show is better, the book has its charms.
There is something liberating about Dexter notbeing a human being. Michael C. Hall is brilliant, as I've said, but there's a different requirement in a visual medium than a written one in creating a character. The television Dexter is a lot more human than he admits to being, and Michael C. Hall makes him just that much more human. It sets up his constant declarations of sociopathy as hollow and possibly even deluded, maybe self-preservational against the horrors he commits and enjoys committing.
There is a sense that, were the right combination of factors to come into play, Dexter might grow a conscience and learn to abhor the need he has always had to kill things. The TV-Dexter is on a path to be redeemed. Now, the show is valiantly trying to stop that from happening any time soon, and the frequent, brutal reminders of Dexter's violent anti-social behaviors keep us from fully embracing him as a fallen sinner. The second you start liking Dexter, he murders someone to remind you that he is, despite appearances, not a good guy. However, that bad boy is steadily, at a good pace, being undermined by the gradually solidifying ties he's making to true humanity. So, yes, don't fall for the good-guy face, but understand that, eventually, he will as good throughout as he appears on the surface. That is definitely the narrative/developmental tide the show is riding.
The books, on the other hand, are much more rigorously adherent to the notion that, yes, Dexter is as close to a human being as a human being is to a turkey (in his eyes, anyway). Specifically, all of the little actions that TV-Dexter does that betray a hint of humanity are adequately and reasonably explained away in the books as self-aware psychological hang-ups. Just because he can't help them doesn't mean he isn't aware of them. The best example is his treatment of children. It's only just hinted at in the television show, but Dexter does really love kids. Book-Dexter is aware that there is some sympathy of sufferers between himself and his girlfriend's kids, but it's more the emotional innocence and lack of depth that he has in common with them that provokes him to something like affection for children. It's a weakness, and he sees it as such.
Book-Dexter is so much more aware of himself in general than TV-Dexter, and, being so calculatingly shrewd about himself, he is less human and more the sociopath that he was set down to be when he was created. Book-Dexter is a more accurate example of a sociopath than TV-Dexter. It would be hard to imagine Book-Dexter ever having a good cry and feeling remorse. So, while I love the TV-Dexter, Book-Dexter has his appeal, too. There's jus something freeing about not being forced to accept the redemption plot line. Don't get me wrong--I think that when and if such a moment occurs, TV-Dexter will make me buy it (Michael C. Hall could sell me anything in my spam folder, and there's no way in hell I need a bigger penis). Just that I like the comfort of knowing that Book-Dexter is who he is forever. It makes him easier to "find" as a reader.
I wish I could explain that better. When I say I can "find" a character as a reader, do people know what I mean? It's the sort of familiarity you have with a character you know inside and out. You can get that from a good series with consistent characterization or from a story with a familiar archetype. You know them at once, even though they can and often do surprise you. But there's always a home, a centralized notion of that character's self that you can return to. That's what I mean by "finding" the character.
Anyway, I was talking about Dexter. So, yeah, I'm wondering if one of the subplots in Dearly Devoted Dexter is going to happen in the show's second season.
The books and show have diverged already in several signficant ways--LaGuerta is still alive, and Biney is not; Deborah has no idea that Dexter is a killer; Rita's ex-husband has an impact on hers and Dexter's relationship; and Dexter has not strayed, not even a little, from Harry's code. Okay, all of these things can be worked with, seeing as Dearly Devoted Dexter relies on none of those things to further its plot especially. You could still work the plot of the second book into being the plot of the second season of the show.
And I'm wondering exactly how much of the big changes in the book are going to be incorporated if they do. I don't think that any harm will come to Doakes. I just don't. He's far too interesting a character on the show to write off at this point. There's a real Admiral Cain vibe about him--the show is better for having him as a contrast to its "hero" than it would be if he conveniently went elsewhere. Dexter under pressure is more interesting to watch, and no one applies the pressure quite like Doakes. Also, if the show doesn't capitalize on Doakes' similarities and very important differences with Dexter, it would feel like a cheat. How much harder, and how much more emotional tension and moral quandry would there be if both men were exposed to the other and they had to live with that never changing?
Like I said, there's a real Admiral Cain thing going on. If she's always there, you have to deal with her. And her point of view, and the complications she brings with. If you get rid of her yourself, you have to live with that violation of your honor (and violation it would be, especially for Dexter who wears the cloak of righteousness only so long as he adheres to Harry's Code). BSG copped out and had someone with good reason and no moral high ground to defend kill Admiral Cain. if the baddie of Dearly Devoted Dexter takes care of Doakes for Dexter, the clash has been averted, the tension drained away, and the possibilities shot down. Such a cheat. There, at least, I hope that, while the story should still involve Doakes as it does in Dearly Devoted Dexter, I don't want him in the least permanently harmed.
The other major development, however, I think willbe put through and it worries me. Dearly Devoted Dexter discovers that Cody, Rita's son, is a Dexter-in-training (and, indeed, Dexter can hardly wait to train him). Astor, Cody's sister, is not far off, though she seems to abhor the act of violence and prefers to see Cody carry it out. This means she's Harry to Cody's Dexter in a way--she is complicit in his violence and murders, even desires them, but cannot do it herself. Her encouragement of Cody and ready acceptance of what he does make her more bloodthirsty than Harry only if you believe that Harry wasn't in the least motivated by revenge or his thwarted sense of justice in training his foster son to be a killer of killers. Personally, I don't see Harry as a white knight. There might have been a way to help Dexter that didn't involve murder. Sociopaths can be helped with therapy. Harry chose not to see that option just as much as he actually believed it wouldn't help Dexter.
Anyway, back to Cody. Word is that the little boy playing Cody has been replaced this season, which makes me suspect that they are going to go with the Cody being Dexter's apprentice plot. There's two big problems with this. One, the show already addressed Dexter's latent desire to reach out to a future killer in need with Jeremy Downs. Yes, he could see helping Cody as a way to make up for not helping Jeremy, but the emotional heft and development for Dexter has already been opened and closed as an avenue. Unless done very well (and hey, it is possible with this show), I don't think the impact will be as strong as it was in the book where there was no other protege character.
The other main problem is that the television show has portrayed Cody as a consistently optimistic, cheerful, healthy young boy. Rita says that, being so young, he really was sheltered from the worst of his crack-head father's rages. There shouldn't be any traumatic event big enough to turn Cody to killer when he's still so excited to have his father in his life that he runs away to try and be with him even when the father's gone back to jail. It would be very difficult to turn that portrayal upside down to have Cody be a withdrawn loner like Dexter.
However, I had this delicious idea while thinking about this dilemma after I finished the book. While Cody is too upbeat and emotionally whole to support the concept of his being a killer, his sister is not. Astor has, from the first, been a sullen girl with serious emotional problems. She's also perhaps more savvy than anyone realizes. The first time we meet her, she seems unimpressed by Dexter's chivalrous charm. I can count on one hand the number of times you see her smiling and happy. More often than not, her unhappiness is the center of her personal story within the show. She's the one who's borne the trauma of an abusive parent. Not physically, but she's had responsibility from a too-young age and she's witnessed an unhealthy amount of traumatic things happening to a loved one for a girl her age (hmm, sound like anyone we know?).
Astor is so displeased by the thought of her father getting out of jail that she wets the bed. The mere possibility of his attending her birthday party is reason enough for her to want to cancel it. It takes time for her to warm to her father, and she does but is the first to turn on him again when he's thrown back in jail. Astor has all the makings of disappointed, disaffected heir to Dexter's legacy. And I think it would be fabulous if, in a nod to those folk who have read Dearly Devoted Dexter, they did a winking nod to the book but twisted it on its ear to suit the character development of the show. Absolutely delicious.
Whew. That was my big meta-dump on Dexter. I need to finish rewatching the show before the next season starts. It's funny to watch Dexter and then something light-hearted like Psych right after. I'm seeing parallels where there probably aren't any (and certainly not very strong ones where there are). I kind of need the break. Watching too much Dexter is like watching too much Battlestar Galactica. It just wears you out.
