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Funny Business
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Source:CBS |
] owned subscription cable channel is on a roll. Today's Los Angeles Times reports Showtime added more than a million subscribers this year, its fifth straight year of growth. What's the secret? Americans must like aberrant behavior. Maybe it makes them feel better about themselves in tough times ("At least I'm not selling pot like that lady on 'Weeds'!")
In my case, Showtime's success comes down to one word: Dexter.
Why do I keep watching a show about a serial killer? Why do I cheer on a self-described monster? Is it a moral failing to love a show filled with so much gore? Obviously, I'm drawn in by the writing and the directing and the acting--Michael C. Hall seemingly does the impossible in making a psychopath human. Still, electric saws and Bowie knives? Yuck.
I've convinced myself that Dexter Morgan is a hero for our times. We live in troubled days, where many feel they have no control. From bombings in Mumbai to plunging home values and lost jobs, it's time to hunker down. We are angry as investors because most of us have never lost so much money in such a short period of time. Many feel paralyzed, unable to act.
Dexter has hunkered down his whole life, trying NOT to act, to control his madness. He attempts to do that through "Harry's Code," taught to him by his adopted father (who may be his real father). Dexter only kills killers, killers who've gotten away with murder. Like Jack Bauer on Fox's "24", Dexter works for law enforcement but doesn't let the rules get in the way of administering justice. Yes, it's messy, but no one's sorry to see these bad guys go.
Dexter's code contrasts with a new character this season, Miguel Prado, played by Jimmy Smits (it is fantastic to see Smits play a bad guy). Like the greedy CEOs we are keen to blame for our financial woes, Prado has no code, he kills the innocent who get in his way. Dexter will have none of it. Much of the show's power this season is the build-up to the inevitable showdown between these two.
So why watch? After all, Dexter is a sicko. But he almost always ends up doing the right thing. He knows there is right and wrong and wishes he could do right, even as his impulses pull him toward wrong. He goes through the motions of trying to be a brother, a fiance and potential stepfather, even as he feels nothing. On a much saner level, we all go through that struggle. And in an age when it seems so many of those with power have cut corners, I'm drawn to the anti-hero hero who cuts flesh, but never cuts corners on his code.
How's this for a dream team: Dexter Morgan at the Federal Reserve ("cutting" rates) and Jack Bauer at Treasury ("TARP this"). They don't believe in bailouts. They believe in punishing the guilty. Maybe they'll be brought together soon in an episode of "South Park" fixing the country's financial system, rules be damned. Hey, a girl can dream.
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