Dexter vs. The Walking Dead

Get your hero into trouble. They tell you that at every writing seminar, and they are right. No trouble – no drama.

Two shows that emphasize this guideline to the extreme are Dexter and The Walking Dead.

I like both shows (and I'll keep watching both of them), but I like one of them better. Here is why:

In the Walking Dead the hero(s) are doing more or less only one thing: they suffer. They are nearly gnawed at by zombies every episode, they continue to narrowly escape death. They don't only get gnawed at by zombies, they even manage to hurt themselves otherwise: The black guy cuts his arm and gets a fever, Rick's kid gets shot and suffers seizures and what not. The heroes of the Walking Dead are alone in a hostile world and fight for survival every day despite their horrendous suffering. The characters are overwhelmed by suffering and yet they don't give in, that's why we root for them.

In Dexter the story is a bit different. Here we have a psychopath killer whom we find sympathetic and whom we can identify with because the people he kills are even worse than he is. The game in Dexter is not suffering but "will he finally get caught?" We don't want him to get caught and we (or at least I) sit at the edge of the seat when Dexter gets almost almost almost caught and we wonder, "how the hell is he gonna get out of this this time?". Sometimes he has a bit of luck, but mostly by his own design he manages to evade capture in the last possible moment. Dexter is a great character (in my opinion) because of that. He is "super active" he acts upon his desire to kill, then he acts to avoid being captured. That's what (most) readers and TV viewers and movie goers want most of all: An active hero who almost fails but then succeeds to live on for another season/sequel.

Though Dexter season 5 had its flaws, (especially the ending, where "poof" Lumen's "dark passenger" leaves her) I loved it, just like the other four seasons (with season four being the best so far, John Lithgow is just amazing).

I'll keep on watching The Walking Dead, since all that suffering is just amazing, but I much prefer Dexter and am looking forward to season 6