I was just thinking how Dexter reminded me a tiny bit of Fraility, just for the element of having a father encourage a child to become a serial killer. (or course the circumstances were quite different)

I also have never seen Profit but, while not a serial killer, I heard that was another attempt to do a tv show with a clearly evil main protagonist. And of course there's American Psycho and Hannibal as movies with serial killer protagonists.

One thing I rather like about Dexter that unlike with the Law and Orders you rarely ever get this ripped from the headlines/ahhh, this is a reference to this and this real life murder impression off that various killers Dexter meets. They are usually quite recognizable types (like the killer nurse) but they feel like they were created for the show rather than just being a copy of a real life person.

Then again, Dexter usually doesn't hunt the typical serial killer like we know from the movies, but rather people that wouldn't usually be identified or considered serial killers (like the people smugglers or the vehicular manslaughter guy or the psychiatrist).

I have the dvds & while Profit was indeed ruthless, I wouldn't compare him to Dexter in any way. In fact despite the fact that Dexter is a killer, on tv his character doesn't even strike me as dark, his killing is more of a necessity. The book depicts a bit of darkness when his "dark passenger" takes over, but that's not really displayed on tv.

I love Profit and recently rewatched the entire series - Jim Profit and Dexter Morgan have a few things in common, both are highly intelligent and both can blend in easy in their respective environments. However, Jim Profit is completely amoral and really only out for number one, while Dexter lives by Harry's code and cares for some people around him.

And Dexter's a serial killer while, from what I remember, wasn't Profit just a real scumbag?

As far as real life serial killers, there really isn't any correlation to Dexter since he's vigilante cum serial killer cum suuuuuuper geeeenius, but I do see a direct link between Ted Bundy and Brian. Both were attractive, smart, manipulative, preyed on young, vulnerable women and utterly soulless.

Well, while Jim Profit didn't go around serial killing he was much more a true sociopath than Dexter is. Let's put it this way - if serial killing would have advanced him in his life objectives he would have been a serial killer in a New York minute.

On the dvd commentaries the producers/writers make it quite clear that Dexter is not devoid of feelings and humanity - he just thinks he is.

Just pointing out the differences.

Dexter Vs. Norman Bates. Would be a doozy of a match-up, but given Dexter's proficiency at hand-to-hand combat I'd put money on him to come out on top. Just jumping him with a knife wouldn't do the job, even if Bates does have the theme music and Hitchcockian camera-angles on his side.

Dexter vs. Jigsaw. I have NO idea how this one would play out. Jigsaw's elaborate set-ups are second to none, but if anyone could turn the mechanics of the game back on their creator, Dexter could.

Dexter vs. Sylar. Sylar has superpowers. Dexter does not. Dexter would get his ass handed to him, possibly literally.

Dexter's real life counterpart would probably be H. H. Holmes, in method and in the care he took to not get caught. HH Holmes was a charming sociopath, married several times, who set up an entire building with trap doors, secret rooms and his own crematoriam in his basement. His place of operations was set up so he would not get caught, much in the way Dexter carefully plans out his murders. Obvious differences being that Dexter kills for a quasi-moralistic reason and HH Holmes was just an opportunist/businessman who looked to profit from his crimes.

H.H Holmes's victims were also mostly women. He seems to have gotten a sexual thrill from murdering women.

I disagree he's a real-life counterpart to Dexter. Dexter does his job in numerous venues and is intoxicated by the ritual of preparation, whereas in his Death Castle HH Holmes had all the preparation he needed. Dexter enjoys the lead-up to the death almost as much as the death itself, whereas Holmes liked just the death and would often kill slowly.

Sylar in the "Heroes" finale gets taken out, not by super powers but, by a sword thrust. In an earlier episode Sylar is tied up and tortured by Mohinder Suresh with the aid of some poisoned chai. It didn't turn out to well for Mohinder for awhile but the scenario ended with Mohinder knocking out Sylar(again!) with a map board on wheels(!) and rescuing clueless Peter who had wandered in at an opportune moment.The point being that Sylar can be handled by non-powered people or at least by non-powered forms of attack.

I think that if Dexter followed his usual procedure of studying his "new friend" and could plan an attack, I would give Dexter more than an even chance against Sylar.

I'm not even sure H.H. Holmes meets the definition of a serial killer. He killed for profit, for the most part.

Dexter is sui generis, as far as serial killers go.

How is ITK like Dex? How are they both as compared with real serial killers?

Both are like Ted Bundy, but in different ways:
A handsome, educated psychopathic law student who stalked and murdered dozens of young college women who looked very much like a young woman who broke off her relationship with him.

ITK targets prostitutes; for what reason, we don't know. Dex is handsome, educated, and socially adept.

Both are like The Zodiac Killer, but in different ways:
The Zodiac was a very bizarre serial killer. For years the Zodiac taunted the police with weird ciphers, phone calls, insulting and cryptic messages. Even though police investigated over 2,500 potential suspects, the case was never solved. There were a few suspects that stood out, but the forensic technology of the times was not advanced enough to nail any one of them conclusively.

ITK taunts the police, and Dex specifically. They both are able to evade police investigations.

Both are like The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run:
This murderer killed by decapitation unique in the annals of serial killing but then, he was a surgeon by training, brought down by alcoholism and drug addiction, and knew the human anatomy like the back of his hand. Reduced to eating out of garbage cans after his surgical career was over, he took out his anger on the human refuse that lived in the industrial wasteland of Kingsbury Run.

ITK uses surgical skill to blood-let and carve up his victims; Dexter also cleans up human refuse.

Dexter, at least, is like John Wayne Gacy:
One of the most notorious serial killers, "respectable" Chicago-area businessman hires young men to work in his contracting company, then rapes and murders scores of them, burying their bodies on his properties. In prison, he became the focus of researching the psychopathic mind. It was discovered that Gacy was emotionally damaged at a young age.

I can almost see the Gacy comparison. Although young Jeremy was closer to being a match on the MO at least. Dex himself almost reminds me of Hannibal Lecter. Charming, intelligent, seemingly devoid of emotion. And both are fond of taking their time with the kill itself, showing an almost obssesive focus on the details of each scenario.

Hee hee, there's a matchup I'd pay real money to see. Yeah you'd think Dex would stand no chance, but...

Sylar wouldn't go after Dex. Dex has no superpowers. What would he want with Dex's brain?

But Sylar is just Dex's type. So Dexter would have the element of surprise in his favor. Well, as long as Sylar never gloms onto Matt's mind-reading powers... Just make sure to render Sylar unconscious before he knows what hits him, and whatever you do, do NOT decide to keep him alive "for a while" in the interests of science and/or revenge. Or allow him to wake up, if you value your collection of (metallic) cutlery.

Dex is smarter than Sylar - more self-contained, disciplined, cunning. Sylar can't even go five minutes around a normal person without babbling about karma and destiny and basically acting like a total freaking weirdo and giving himself away. So I'm backing Dex for the win.

On the other hand, unless Sylar is pumped to the eyeballs with whatever power-sapping chemical you can get your hands on, Dexter had better render him unconscious pretty damn fast and kill him immediately if he wants to be successful. Which he probably could if he was lucky.

Back on topic, I remember a book series (other than the one this show is based off of) with a serial killer who only targets other criminals. I'm pretty sure it was a teenager. Does this sound familiar to anyone, or am I just confusing myself?

Almost sounds like The Punisher, but that would be one fight I would hate to see.

Looks like my first post on this part of the forums is going to be a dorky one, but I can't resist. If you're talking about regular novels, I don't know. However, if graphic novels, could it possibly be this series?

Coincidentally, it was because of this series that my interest in this show was piqued when it premiered. Not having Showtime though, I was waiting on the DVDs from Netflix.

There is a similarity I guess. Although I didn't think of it at first. I've only read one chapter of Deathnote, as part of a sneak peek.

YES! That's it! Couldn't remember the title last time I posted, but that's definitely it. Thanks.

Glad I could help.

I feel like the more I watch of Dexter, the more similarities between the two characters I see, xtreme. With Light however, it's more implied in his actions so it's open to interpretation.

Let's see: How does Dexter compare with my other fave fictional serial killer -- Christopher Keller of Oz?

Well, they both clearly get a rush out of killing people. And they've both been trained to channel their urges toward more constructive ends. In Keller's case, he's trained himself to attack only those who have threatened his relationship with Beecher, or who have harmed Beecher in some way (like Winthrop, who killed Beecher's dad.)

Not so similar in their methods. Dexter has plenty of hardware at his disposal, while Keller has only a shank or his bare hands. And as far as ritual goes, Keller seems to like using the prison storage room a lot, but maybe that's just for convenience.

Unfortunately, we know next to nothing about Keller's childhood, so we can't say whether he and Dex had similar experiences.

Someone mentioned The Punisher upthread, and as a huge comic fan, I can see how they are related, but only through their actions, not their motivations.

Frank Castle hunts down and kills other killers and bad men, out of revenge and anger at the criminal underworld for the death of his family. In fact, looking at other revenge tales in modern film and comics, could give you a rather long list of vigilantes doing questionable things to people who deserved it.

Dexter is different from them. He has no real reason to kill, other than his psycopathic urges cuased by trauma as a child. He is not doing it for revenge, anger, justice, or the pursuit for the common good.

I am trying reallly hard to find a character, any character at all, from anywhere, that comes close to resembling Dexter's urge to kill and his intended targets.

My first choice is the stereotypical reformed vampire character. Like the just re-souled Angel, who only drank and killed "Rapist and Murderers" as Darla said. But the urge to kill is a biological need, so even that falls short.

I think there have been quite a few killers killing serial killer plots here and there. Not an entirely new idea, but I'd say that Dexter has taken it to a fairly unique level.

I want to say that there may have been an episode in X-Files or Millenium back in the day with such a plot. I'm blanking on it a bit though. I did just watch Suspect Zero about a month ago though, and it was essentially about a somewhat mentally disturbed dude who is like an ubar serial killer with clairvoyant-ish powers (which is actually what I thought was weak about it). He's that way because long ago govt experimentation made him obsessed with killing serial killers.