Dexter Questions

[perzephone]

I got a Netflix subscription & so far it's working out fantastically. Love Torchwood, love it, love it, love it. Rob's motored his way through four seasons of Doctor Who, the Sarah Connor Chronicles & The Dresden Files. Now we're looking for new stuff to watch when we're done w/Torchwood.

For those of you who watch Dexter religiously... does it have graphic scenes of animal abuse or killing? I ask this because of Rob. Seeing animals being hurt or abused in t.v. & movies freaks him out. Watching The Men Who Stare at Goats was touchy - fortunately the goat just tipped over & that was that (other than that scene, it was a great movie). I'd hate to get into Dexter only to have him flashback to being a kid & doing horrible shit to a bunny or something & Rob having a panic attack over it.

Anyway, if you know let me know... it's a serial killer 'thing' which is why I ask...

Comments

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Dexter - yes, to graphic scenes of killing. Also graphic scenes of death and body parts, sometimes, depending on what season you're in. To date, no icky animal abuse (in fact, in one episode, Dexter and Rita advocate to save a neglected dog). Everything that would fit into the R category, but not go above into NC-17 territory. So they are either brief scenes, or only shown once per episode, etc.

I would hate to think I've missed something, but any animal cruelty is referred to and not shown. Dexter as a child refers to hurting the dog because it wouldn't shut up, but you never see anything (not even a flashback scene), and by the time he's an adult, there are no animal cruelty scenes.

He's also not a serial killer in the classic sense that he's not a classic sociopath (though he's conditioned to believe he is). So while he was cruel to animals as a child, you actually find that he is quite able and capable of defending animals, children (his first victim is a pedophile) and sometimes even humans as an adult.

Hope this helps!

Killing People is Fine... Animals Not So Much

[perzephone.livejournal.com]

Rob's fine w/blood, gore & dead humans, cannibalism, necrophilia, all that good stuff. He just can't handle animal abuse or death. The animated Watership Down still traumatizes him. There was some anime thing he was watching - a bunch of kids beat a puppy to death w/a vase & that ended that series for him. He started watching the Robin Hood series, within the first episode someone crushed a bird & he turned it off. He's been obsessing about it for a week now.

When he was little, he lived in a tiny community in upstate New York, where apparently people are still barbaric. A little boy brought a rabbit to show & tell, and other kids on the bus stomped it to death - without getting in trouble for doing it. His mother used to make him go out & kill the garden snakes w/a shovel, made him watch a downed nestful of birds get run over, that kind of thing. Real nice neighborhood for kids to grow up in.

Re: Killing People is Fine... Animals Not So Much

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

He just can't handle animal abuse or death.

Yeah, there's absolutely no beating to death of puppies with vases, no stabbing of dogs (though Dexter runs from dogs in an episode), that kind of thing.

When he was little, he lived in a tiny community in upstate New York, where apparently people are still barbaric.

The rural neighbourhoods here are still a lot like that. And teens still regularly organise 'pipe bashings' as a social event (i.e. get together at night with torches, get PVC piping, beat to death any animal that you run down with your car or clip with your gun, and the beating takes forever because it's plastic PVC piping). It's horrendous. Just...freaking horrendous. I think it's officially called 'bush bashing.' :( :( :(

Even my Dad came from a family where putting down mice and rats and birds involved getting a heavy boot and crushing the skull. And that's the way I used myself during some of the stuff Neil did, and also when Smokey caught animals but wouldn't kill them.

Ugh. :(

Beating Around the Bush

[perzephone.livejournal.com]

The whole beating things w/a PVC pipe?

Yeah... I could see myself organizing a little social get-together to hunt down 'bush beaters' with torches and large aluminum baseball bats.

That could take a long time, too, if done right.

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Also, with Dexter, it's worth watching the first two or three episodes before making a decision (or any of their seasons), the first episode is often a poor way into the show and for some reason, it only really comes into its own per season by episode three (with the exception of season 2, which was just awesome).