New American Hero: Dexter, Serial Killer for the Masses

New American Hero: Dexter, Serial Killer for the Masses

Erika Kamph

Popular Culture

Professor Burriss

September 6, 2016

            The journal article, The New American Hero: Dexter, Serial Killer for the Masses was written by Ashley Donnelly. Ashley’s article is about how people are fascinated with vigilante characters in TV and film. She explores this concept from the book “Darkly Dreaming Dexter” which became a TV series. The TV show Dexter – is about the character Dexter who is a forensic technician, who has a secret life as a vigilante serial killer, killing people who have slipped through the justice system. This TV show was highly successful, and the author makes note that some of the highest rated TV shows are about crime and vigilante “heroes”. Her article labels these characters as deviant Others and Ashley explains “The serial killer, in particular, gave us something real to fear within our own society. The fears provoked by serial killer films are those fears we have about ourselves as human beings” (Donnelly, 2012, para. 11). Because Dexter kills those that have slipped through the justice system, he is embraced as the “new American hero” by many Americans.

            The article jumped around a lot making it choppy to follow. It started with the discussion of the TV show Dexter and then on to vigilantes throughout the history of America. The same point was made over and over about how serial killers are stereotyped as people with mental disorders or were abused at some point in their life but that vigilante serial killers are different. I felt Ashley could have done a better job explaining why Americans are attracted to these types of TV shows or movies and why Americans make the vigilantes heroes. But one good point Ashley made was with all of the ugliness going on in the United States shows like Dexter empowers all of us to cry out for justice thus characters like Dexter become heroes to many of us. 

            There were parts of the article I did agree with Ashley. One being throughout time Americans have been fascinated with vigilantes as heroes which make TV shows or movies about vigilantes very popular. In the movies or TV shows, Americans feel people like Dexter are justified to murder because those they kill are people who have committed crimes and gotten away with it. If the law does not punish them – they still need to be punished and if it takes a vigilante to do it so be it. Another point Ashley made was that Dexter is the “new American hero”. I do agree that Dexter ia considered the “new American hero” especially since acts of terrorism are so rampant today. I feel Americans label people heroes if they are doing good for society such as by getting rid of “bad people” even though vigilantes may be committing the same crime as the “bad people”.   

            I think this article is important because it showed thru the different time periods Americans were fascinated with vigilantes especially in movies or TV shows. I think this article shows where Americans have come to as a society that vigilantes are being hailed as the “new American hero” which says something about America. This article also is also important because it makes all of us look inside of ourselves to see why we like the show like Dexter so much.

            In conclusion, Ashley’s article is good because it shows the mental state of Americans and so in our popular culture deviant characters labeled Other are well liked in TV shows and movies. Americans even label vigilantes as heroes and Ashley showed this fascination throughout American history which was very interesting to me. 

             

Reference

Donnelly, A. (February, 2012). The new American hero: Dexter, serial killer for the masses. The Journal of Popular Culture, 45(1), 15-26.