Last time we looked at a mother in the media.. now we'll take a look at a father in his various mediums.
If you're unfamiliar with this series, it began as a series of books by Jeff Lindsay and then spread into primarily a TV series but then also to a series of virtual games and comic books etc.
Please be warned there may be spoilers for both the TV show and the book series in this post.
There are always some differences between TV and book adaptions - some work out well like how Deborah (books) is meant to be blonde, busty and voluptuous while Debra (TV) could not be skinnier or more of a brunette however, she was clearly meant to play the foul mouthed ass kicking detective.
Rita and her kids - Cody and Astor are a hell of a lot more likeable in the TV show and TV Lundy replacing Book Only Chutsky was fine by me, even though I'm a fan of Chutsky. The Dark Passenger element was a bit hit and miss with the books... sometimes going off on tangents and involving a sort of mystical element and constant descriptions of dark things rearing up. Brian has more than a one cameo deal with the books and I love it because he's a great character, but I understand why the show couldn't do that.
Other differences like literally every character on the show banging literally every other character on the show is a TV drama thing for ratings and thank heavens for that because I'd like to think my local cops are doing more than just being impossibly incompetent at crime scenes, having forced arguments and banging all the time.
My husband and I have just re-watched the entire run of Dexter TV and I've been re-reading the novels as well. As well as stark differences in the quality of some of the characters I've come to notice that the writers of the show are terrible when it comes to writing the women. I know there was some sort of time lapse where the show basically follows the first book (more or less) but then deviates harder than The Walking Dead from that point on so I don't know if it was just meant to be loosely based off the book or if the writers said we can't wait until the sequel, let's just run with something else that we come up with!
What I wanted to focus on today was the Daddy Dexter aspect and how it differs from book to show.
First of all - a bit of a recap.
Character wise - Dexter in the books is perhaps less likeable than in Season 1 of the show. We get more of the glib, superficial sociopathic charisma and less of the quirky, good natured charmer that the TV shows us.
He openly tells us how Rita is basically his murdering-beard and part of his act - he feels nothing for her while TV Dexter clearly started this way but then grew fond of her and was devastated when she was murdered. Book Dexter was far more cool about her death, and was more worried about the fall out/being the main suspect.
Book and TV show Dexter both win over Rita's existing kids Astor and Cody. As I mentioned earlier, the kids are a lot more likeable in the TV series because they aren't burdened with their own Dark Passengers. Astor and Cody function more like two people in one body while in the show they have more personalities of their own. Book Cody is already a sociopathic murderer and shows gleeful abandon when he kills - getting frustrated when Dexter fails to 'teach' them Harry's code properly.
Meanwhile, Astor gets her own suitably dark story-line that seemingly comes out of nowhere.
In both book and TV - Dexter does get his own biological child from Rita. Lily Anne Morgan is a book only character though, replaced by a son called Harrison Morgan in the television series.
I gather this is just a nod to 'Harry's son' and hopefully not just writing out female characters for the sake of it.
Lily makes Dexter doubt his Dark Passenger, and makes him feel like he needs to protect her from the evils out there (like himself, ironically) while Harrison is there to... hmm.
This brings me to my next point.. Dexter Daddy. The books and the series both take time to tackle how Dexter interacts with these damaged adoptive children of his - yet after a certain time frame in the TV show, the children are spirited away to live with grandparents and only heard of in passing from there on in. Harrison stays with Dexter.
There is a certain element of life-drama watching Dexter try to juggle fatherhood alone as well as work and his avenging nightlife. This worked well when Dexter had to find a nanny that he felt comfortable leaving Harrison with and who he could spend time sneaking around in order to get knife happy. This was Sonya - played by the awesome Maria Doyle Kennedy - and all the hard yards she did for Dexter and the ground rules she lay down were just shat upon by Season Six's inclusion of Jaime Batista in the nanny role.
Yes. Dexter - who is usually so cautious about the ties he has to others, decides to hire one of his co-worker's never-before mentioned little sister, who is also going to date a number of his other co-workers and start drama with his sister.
As well as the obvious problem of Dexter's lies about working late being so easy to uncover should Jaime just happen to mention his 'working hours' to her brother (who likely sets and approves his overtime) she's just an enablist crutch who skips around in a bikini and heels half the time.
I personally hate her character. It's one thing to have a bland character who bends over backwards for Dexter (Can I shine your shoes Dexter? Wipe your arse Dexter?) and basically LIVES in his house despite apparently being super busy with her studies but is not busy enough to not be a full time mummy for Harrison, even when Dexter is actually spending time with his son for once. It's a whole other thing when she cancels her own plans at last second notice, does all of the house work, again, actually lives at Dexter's during the week and the weekend and doesn't mind driving across states for Dexter and having no life of her own.
(Later on, it gets worse when she dates the worst guys in Miami, acts terribly (fake-devastation over her friend's murder only to flip a switch and get bitchy about Debra) but not only that it's an excuse for Angel to be the over protective brother and give us THOSE terrible story lines but hey)
I understand that a small child is going to be a problem for someone like Dexter but the question remains.. why does no one realise he spend so much time away from his son? He uses Harrison as an excuse for every time he has to get away from something but he doesn't seem to actually care for him.
It really bothers me that at the end of season eight - Dexter decides that the only way Harrison can have a happy life is if he's not in it, and he moves overseas to leave with a fugitive he barely knows.
Look, that season of Dexter is frankly terrible but seriously.. at no point does Dexter think about this.
"Oh right! Rita's relatives that currently have custody of Astor and Cody! Maybe they could also look after Harrison while I fake my death! No, better leave him with this murderer that I wasn't able to trust at all during last season and this season. That makes sense. I'm sure he'll be fine."
The logical part of my brain that says hang on, what about all of Harrison's documentation? He's going to need things to start school overseas surely. Sure, they might be packed into his little backpack but what about when questions emerge about who Hannah is to Harrison? Where are his biological parents? Does Hannah know Harrison's medical history or is she just going to wing it?
Things like that absolutely annoy me.
Especially since Hannah absolutely fits Harry's code and should have been offed ages ago.. and probably would have been if Dexter could keep his damn boner in check.
Harrison constantly asks about or for Hannah, he even runs to her in one scene, stating that he wanted her to be his mommy, that sort of thing.
Debra, his aunt, walks in the door and gets nothing more than a 'hi.' What even is that?
Dexter in the TV show replaces his 'Code' students from the books (Astor and Cody) with two older male proteges.. Jeremy (who rejects it and kills himself) and Zach (who tries to embrace it but gets killed himself before he can) and both of these boys get more attention than Harrison seems to.
Debra isn't even considered as an option to leave Harrison with, she wasn't even thought about when Dexter decided on leaving Miami. Deborah in the books - by contrast has her own pregnancy storyline and has a little boy - continuing to be a kick ass cop as well.
I thought it was a shame that the TV show didn't have something similar to this because they sure weren't shy about exploring Debra's daddy issues as long as it involved having sex with multiple or older guys. (Or messed up storylines about being in romantic love with one's adopted brother...)
Let's face it - Dexter's childhood shaped Dexter himself and the show. Debra/Deborah herself lost her own biological father to Dexter - not just because he spent so much time with Dexter to try to mould him into an idealised solution to crime cops can't get to - but also because it's revealed that Harry - Debra/Deborah's cop hero dad - ended up killing himself because he couldn't deal with the hand he played in creating Dexter.
Dexter also interacts with other serial killers who have families throughout the series - most notably Arthur Mitchell but there were others like the policewoman etc. I don't think he does this in the book series, so I believe it's to draw more of a comparison to them and himself.
In conclusion, I feel like while Lily Anne changed book Dexter's world and made him re-evaluate what he was doing or what he was going to do.. Harrison was just there to hand off to random people. Maybe it was some kind of commentary on how Dexter was too socially inept to raise a child and would inadvertently go on to raise yet another damaged kid like himself. But going back and watching the earlier seasons, you don't get the impression the series was leading up to this. Dexter admits he likes kids, and genuinely interacts with Astor and Cody well, even if he doesn't always understand what they want.
I think we can all agree that Dexter writers dropped the freaking ball in every regard on the last two seasons of the show.
If you're unfamiliar with this series, it began as a series of books by Jeff Lindsay and then spread into primarily a TV series but then also to a series of virtual games and comic books etc.
Please be warned there may be spoilers for both the TV show and the book series in this post.
There are always some differences between TV and book adaptions - some work out well like how Deborah (books) is meant to be blonde, busty and voluptuous while Debra (TV) could not be skinnier or more of a brunette however, she was clearly meant to play the foul mouthed ass kicking detective.
Rita and her kids - Cody and Astor are a hell of a lot more likeable in the TV show and TV Lundy replacing Book Only Chutsky was fine by me, even though I'm a fan of Chutsky. The Dark Passenger element was a bit hit and miss with the books... sometimes going off on tangents and involving a sort of mystical element and constant descriptions of dark things rearing up. Brian has more than a one cameo deal with the books and I love it because he's a great character, but I understand why the show couldn't do that.
Other differences like literally every character on the show banging literally every other character on the show is a TV drama thing for ratings and thank heavens for that because I'd like to think my local cops are doing more than just being impossibly incompetent at crime scenes, having forced arguments and banging all the time.
My husband and I have just re-watched the entire run of Dexter TV and I've been re-reading the novels as well. As well as stark differences in the quality of some of the characters I've come to notice that the writers of the show are terrible when it comes to writing the women. I know there was some sort of time lapse where the show basically follows the first book (more or less) but then deviates harder than The Walking Dead from that point on so I don't know if it was just meant to be loosely based off the book or if the writers said we can't wait until the sequel, let's just run with something else that we come up with!
What I wanted to focus on today was the Daddy Dexter aspect and how it differs from book to show.
First of all - a bit of a recap.
Character wise - Dexter in the books is perhaps less likeable than in Season 1 of the show. We get more of the glib, superficial sociopathic charisma and less of the quirky, good natured charmer that the TV shows us.
He openly tells us how Rita is basically his murdering-beard and part of his act - he feels nothing for her while TV Dexter clearly started this way but then grew fond of her and was devastated when she was murdered. Book Dexter was far more cool about her death, and was more worried about the fall out/being the main suspect.
Book and TV show Dexter both win over Rita's existing kids Astor and Cody. As I mentioned earlier, the kids are a lot more likeable in the TV series because they aren't burdened with their own Dark Passengers. Astor and Cody function more like two people in one body while in the show they have more personalities of their own. Book Cody is already a sociopathic murderer and shows gleeful abandon when he kills - getting frustrated when Dexter fails to 'teach' them Harry's code properly.
Meanwhile, Astor gets her own suitably dark story-line that seemingly comes out of nowhere.
In both book and TV - Dexter does get his own biological child from Rita. Lily Anne Morgan is a book only character though, replaced by a son called Harrison Morgan in the television series.
I gather this is just a nod to 'Harry's son' and hopefully not just writing out female characters for the sake of it.
Lily makes Dexter doubt his Dark Passenger, and makes him feel like he needs to protect her from the evils out there (like himself, ironically) while Harrison is there to... hmm.
Is he there to bond with Dexter and show a more human side? Is he there to showcase Dexter's fears about Harrison growing up to be like him? Is he there because he's sort of cute?
This brings me to my next point.. Dexter Daddy. The books and the series both take time to tackle how Dexter interacts with these damaged adoptive children of his - yet after a certain time frame in the TV show, the children are spirited away to live with grandparents and only heard of in passing from there on in. Harrison stays with Dexter.
There is a certain element of life-drama watching Dexter try to juggle fatherhood alone as well as work and his avenging nightlife. This worked well when Dexter had to find a nanny that he felt comfortable leaving Harrison with and who he could spend time sneaking around in order to get knife happy. This was Sonya - played by the awesome Maria Doyle Kennedy - and all the hard yards she did for Dexter and the ground rules she lay down were just shat upon by Season Six's inclusion of Jaime Batista in the nanny role.
Yes. Dexter - who is usually so cautious about the ties he has to others, decides to hire one of his co-worker's never-before mentioned little sister, who is also going to date a number of his other co-workers and start drama with his sister.
As well as the obvious problem of Dexter's lies about working late being so easy to uncover should Jaime just happen to mention his 'working hours' to her brother (who likely sets and approves his overtime) she's just an enablist crutch who skips around in a bikini and heels half the time.
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| "Wait... I'm allowed OUTSIDE?!" |
I personally hate her character. It's one thing to have a bland character who bends over backwards for Dexter (Can I shine your shoes Dexter? Wipe your arse Dexter?) and basically LIVES in his house despite apparently being super busy with her studies but is not busy enough to not be a full time mummy for Harrison, even when Dexter is actually spending time with his son for once. It's a whole other thing when she cancels her own plans at last second notice, does all of the house work, again, actually lives at Dexter's during the week and the weekend and doesn't mind driving across states for Dexter and having no life of her own.
(Later on, it gets worse when she dates the worst guys in Miami, acts terribly (fake-devastation over her friend's murder only to flip a switch and get bitchy about Debra) but not only that it's an excuse for Angel to be the over protective brother and give us THOSE terrible story lines but hey)
I understand that a small child is going to be a problem for someone like Dexter but the question remains.. why does no one realise he spend so much time away from his son? He uses Harrison as an excuse for every time he has to get away from something but he doesn't seem to actually care for him.
It really bothers me that at the end of season eight - Dexter decides that the only way Harrison can have a happy life is if he's not in it, and he moves overseas to leave with a fugitive he barely knows.
Look, that season of Dexter is frankly terrible but seriously.. at no point does Dexter think about this.
"Oh right! Rita's relatives that currently have custody of Astor and Cody! Maybe they could also look after Harrison while I fake my death! No, better leave him with this murderer that I wasn't able to trust at all during last season and this season. That makes sense. I'm sure he'll be fine."
The logical part of my brain that says hang on, what about all of Harrison's documentation? He's going to need things to start school overseas surely. Sure, they might be packed into his little backpack but what about when questions emerge about who Hannah is to Harrison? Where are his biological parents? Does Hannah know Harrison's medical history or is she just going to wing it?
Things like that absolutely annoy me.
Especially since Hannah absolutely fits Harry's code and should have been offed ages ago.. and probably would have been if Dexter could keep his damn boner in check.
Harrison constantly asks about or for Hannah, he even runs to her in one scene, stating that he wanted her to be his mommy, that sort of thing.
Debra, his aunt, walks in the door and gets nothing more than a 'hi.' What even is that?
Dexter in the TV show replaces his 'Code' students from the books (Astor and Cody) with two older male proteges.. Jeremy (who rejects it and kills himself) and Zach (who tries to embrace it but gets killed himself before he can) and both of these boys get more attention than Harrison seems to.
 |
| "Am I allowed outside too?" |
Debra isn't even considered as an option to leave Harrison with, she wasn't even thought about when Dexter decided on leaving Miami. Deborah in the books - by contrast has her own pregnancy storyline and has a little boy - continuing to be a kick ass cop as well.
I thought it was a shame that the TV show didn't have something similar to this because they sure weren't shy about exploring Debra's daddy issues as long as it involved having sex with multiple or older guys. (Or messed up storylines about being in romantic love with one's adopted brother...)
Let's face it - Dexter's childhood shaped Dexter himself and the show. Debra/Deborah herself lost her own biological father to Dexter - not just because he spent so much time with Dexter to try to mould him into an idealised solution to crime cops can't get to - but also because it's revealed that Harry - Debra/Deborah's cop hero dad - ended up killing himself because he couldn't deal with the hand he played in creating Dexter.
Dexter also interacts with other serial killers who have families throughout the series - most notably Arthur Mitchell but there were others like the policewoman etc. I don't think he does this in the book series, so I believe it's to draw more of a comparison to them and himself.In conclusion, I feel like while Lily Anne changed book Dexter's world and made him re-evaluate what he was doing or what he was going to do.. Harrison was just there to hand off to random people. Maybe it was some kind of commentary on how Dexter was too socially inept to raise a child and would inadvertently go on to raise yet another damaged kid like himself. But going back and watching the earlier seasons, you don't get the impression the series was leading up to this. Dexter admits he likes kids, and genuinely interacts with Astor and Cody well, even if he doesn't always understand what they want.
I think we can all agree that Dexter writers dropped the freaking ball in every regard on the last two seasons of the show.
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