InsaneJournal

I wrote most of this in August but only just got around to finishing it up. I’m currently into Season 3 of Dexter--

I recently watched the first two seasons of the Showtime series Dexter. At roughly the same time I was also reading the manga Death Note (I’m on volume 9 of 12) and I find myself sort of fascinated by the striking similarities and differences between these two series.

First, a brief summary of each series--

Dexter, an American television series focuses on Dexter Morgan (the always excellent Michael C. Hall of Six Feet Under) a forensics expert with the Miami police department who is also a serial killer. However there are specific rules he kills by.

These rules were instilled in Dexter from childhood by his adopted father, Harry. A police officer, Harry recognized Dexter’s sociopathic nature and compulsion to murder early on. Unable to change his son, Harry taught Dexter survival skills to minimize his changes of getting caught, helped him to learn to blend in and pass as normal and established a code of conduct for when he killed. According to “The Code of Harry”, Dexter can not kill the innocent only other killers and even then he must meet a high standard of proof before he can commit a murder.

While killing is his primary joy, his true self, Dexter goes through the motions of a regular life. He seems to have a close relationship with his foster sister Debra, like their father, is a police officer. He is nurturing to his girlfriend, Rita (Julie Benz—Darla from Angel in a very different role as a fragile single-mother recovering her confidence anfter an abusive relationship) and devoted to her two children. He is well liked at work with one exception, there is a homicide detective named Sgt. Doakes who instinctively (and correctly) senses that there is something off with him. Much of the series deals with the taunt tightrope that Dexter walks as he tries to maintain his double life despite revelations about his past that rise doubts about his code of conduct and his very nature.

The Japanese manga series Death Note deals with a highly intelligent high school student named Light Yagami who finds a note book dropped in the mortal realm by a Shinigami (a death God). Anyone whose name is written in the notebook will die. Further, a cause and time of death can be specified and the person’s actions may be controlled before their death.

Light decides to use the death note to create a perfect world my eliminating all evil-doers, killing criminals whose names he learns through television and the internet. The authorities realize that the slate of deaths is not accidental and that some sort of murderer with a mysterious power is at work. The killer Kira is dubbed Kira and viewed as a hero by some, a mass murderer and criminal by others. Light’s father is a member of the task force that is assembled to investigate and capture Kira. A masterful manipulator, Light is able to use this connection to work with the task force from the inside and gain access to privileged information on the Kira case.

Light primary adversary is an enigmatic super-detective known only by his initial, L. L deducts that Kira must be on the task force or a family member of someone who is; he gradually draws nearer and nearer to Light. Because Light doesn’t have L’s name, he can’t simply kill him so an elaborate (occasionally contrived) battle of wits ensues.

There are many similarities and differences between these two series. Primarily, both of them deal with anti-heroes who seemingly kill within justifiable moral boundaries (only killing “bad people”) but who actually have their own motivation for the murders they commit. In Dexter’s case it is a compulsion, in Light’s it is because of his delusions of grandeur (he sees himself as a God) as well as his drive to win at any cost.

Both Light and Dexter lead double lives, secretly killing while maintaining the appearance of law abiding citizens. Even more than this, both have an inside position at the law enforcement agencies that are pursing them. Dexter is part of the police department and Light is a member of the task force that strives to capture Kira. This gives them access to inside information though in both cases, this proves to be a double edged sword. While both Dexter and Light are able to use their insider status to defuse threats, it also brings them both close to the brink of capture when it’s realized that the killer has privileged information.

Both deftly use and manipulate the people around them, co-workers, lovers and family, to further their own ends and to deflect suspicious. Light is a brilliant liar and is particularly apt at getting others to do what he wants even when they know that he is Kira. These characters include the Shinigami who gives him the Death Note, his girlfriend Misa who is in possession of a Death Note of her own (and who should be more powerful than Light as she traded half of her life-span for “Shinigami’s Eyes” which allows her to know someone’s name just by looking at them), and later in the series a prosecuting attorney who becomes his acolyte and a television reporter.

Unlike Light, Dexter doesn’t get a lot of help from others. In fact sharing his secret with anyone tends to bring him a world of grief. In the first season, he feels a kinship with another serial-killer who is stalking him, leaving clues linked to his past. This murderer turns out to be his long-lost, even scarier older brother Brian who unlike Dexter kills without a code. There’s some wonderful scenes where Brian tries to lure Dexter over to the dark(er) side (it’s a sort of seduction and God knows I love me some homosexual incest subtext). In the end Dexter stands by his code though revelations about his childhood have shaken his faith in his father. Brian becomes one of his victims. In season 2, Dexter feels an affinity to Lila, a recovering addict who likes to start fires. At first it seems like she’s setting him free but ultimately she proves to be a very dangerous woman. Both Brian and Lila seal their fates by threatening those close to Dexter, his sister, Rita, her children. Though he professes not to care about others Dexter actually seems to crave normalcy, a real life, friends, and family. He seems to want to care, to love, and to belong as badly as he wants to kill.

In a way, Light and Dexter are yin and yang to each other. Brilliant as he is, Light makes a convincing argument that he’s a good person doing the right thing but at his core, he’s a megalomaniac. Dexter on the other hand firmly believes that he is a monster but watching the show it’s hard not to believe that in his heart of hearts he’s really a good person.