Television that matters

As an ethicist I always have my eyes out for movies, music, and television shows that offer nuanced perspectives on issues that I regularly explore in my academic work. No show has captured my attention in the last year more than Dexter, a Showtime original series that will soon be entering its third season. The premise: Dexter is a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police department whose life revolves around investigating violent crime scenes.

The twist: Dexter himself is a serial killer whose inner life is determined by a compulsion to kill.

A further twist: Dexter's adopted father taught Dexter a strict moral code that leads Dexter to channel his compulsion to kill toward those who victimize the innocent.

Dexter is a mass murderer, but his victims are themselves killers, rapists, pedophiles, and those who have slipped through the cracks of the conventional justice system. Dexter is a vigilante, but unlike other vigilantes who populate the American pantheon--consider Batman and Spiderman--the justice he brings is ambiguous indeed. Is Dexter killing his victims out of a deep sense of the gravity of their injustice, or is Dexter rather motivated by his own need to answer his own demons, to "feed the beast," as it were?

The series raises in narrative form a range of questions basic to ethics. Does it matter if Dexter is motivated by his own desire to kill if he lives by a deontological code in which he only kills those who deserve it? What about character? Dexter is a very likable protagonist, but one that lacks real empathy for those around him. Is Dexter a good person who does bad things, or is he a bad person who does good things? What makes a person "bad" or "good?" Do Dexter's traumatic childhood experiences mitigate his culpability for the actions that he performs? Dexter is tailor-made for students of ethics wanting to explore the nature of moral character and agency.

Seasons 1 and 2 of Dexter are currently available on DVD. Be forewarned--the series is not for the faint of heart.