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I just happened to catch
part of a new TV series tonight-- "Dexter". As far as I can tell, this
is a new low or high in television drama: Dexter is a heroic serial
killer splatter-analyst who only tortures and murders "deserving" victims.
And there it was-- in the first episode I watched-- Dexter duct-taping a
slime-ball to a table in some remote location and perusing his collection of
knives and then asking the victim if he was guilty. The victim tried
to be evasive-- for a second or two-- but a quick jab in the head clarified
his position and he confessed. He did it. Yes, he offed the
girl. Now kill me please.
Dexter does not fly.
He does not have x-ray vision. He can't transport himself from one
location to another in the flick of an eye. He can't bend steal rods
with his bare hands. If he did those things, the show would be a
fantasy instead, and many people would not watch because they would find the
premise silly. I think. But these same people see a man taped to
a table being threatened with a knife and somehow believe that he would
confess to a heinous crime right away because... because why? Because
he believes the man wearing the saran wrap on his face is going to let him
go if he only tells the truth?
No wonder over 30% of the
population supports George Bush and Dick Cheney. Bush and Cheney are
right. If you catch an Islamic fundamentalist and torture him, he will
tell you the truth. He won't make anything up. And it's
enjoyable to inflict unspeakable suffering on deserving individuals,
regardless of whether we have an investigation and trial first.
Do most Americans believe
this scene? Do they actually believe that torture makes people tell the truth,
as opposed to what they think their torturers want to hear so that they will
stop the torture?
The CIA doesn't even do us
the courtesy of demanding new information to prove that that the adduced
evidence has any kind of validity. They supply the names. "Is
Ahmed Mohammed from Egypt a terrorist?" "No? Yes? Which is
it you want me to say?" "Whatever is the truth Hamdi."
"Yes, he is a terrorist." "Are you telling the truth?" "Yes,
yes, please don't hurt me." "Okay. Thank you. Call the
White House and tell them we kept America safe for another day."
Dexter's adoptive father
knew that he had problems. But Dexter's problems aren't the result of
an addiction to porn-- James Dobson didn't consult on this series, though he
should have-- but the result of some kind of mysterious abuse he suffered
before his wise adoptive father steered him towards a constructive
expression of his dark impulses: there are evil people out there... people
deserving of your deviant attentions.... So Dexter resolves to join the police force so he can find out
who, exactly, out there, is "deserving". And no one is more deserving
in Bush's American than the mythical serial killer -- who everybody knows
dun it-- who gets off on a technicality. Hell, why doesn't Dexter just
off all the lawyers, and the ACLU, and journalists, and environmentalists... and get it over with?
Because, in this tract of American entertainment, I'll bet you Dexter is an
environmentalist-- but not one of those extremist tree-huggers! He
believes in clean coal, and planting grass on those open pit mines once
we've extracted all the metals.
All this beauteous
dismemberment and sadism, and the concomitant warnings about "adult"
content... and Dexter, it turns out, like Bush, is hilariously chaste.
No sex education here! Dexter is dating a lovely blonde mother of
two-- after all, sooner or later someone Dexter personally cares about will
have to be imperiled-- it's as inevitable as Dr. House himself becoming
sick-- but he doesn't want to have sex with her. Alleluia. At
last a program with some family values. At last something James Dobson
can approve of for white middle America to watch in between spankings!
Go Dexter Go!
Copyright © 2008 Bill Van Dyk All rights
reserved. |
