{"id":54,"date":"2010-08-31T06:38:05","date_gmt":"2010-08-31T06:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/08\/showtimes-dexter-gets-an-action-figure-1.html"},"modified":"2010-08-31T06:38:05","modified_gmt":"2010-08-31T06:38:05","slug":"showtimes-dexter-gets-an-action-figure-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/08\/showtimes-dexter-gets-an-action-figure-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Showtime’s serial killer \/(slash)\/ hero “Dexter” gets an action figure"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve come a long way from G.I. Joe<\/i><\/a> and Captain Action<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dexter<\/i><\/a>, Showtime’s critically-acclaimed serial-killer-as-hero crime drama, has gotten the action figure treatment<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Now,
\nI’ve got to be honest. I don’t get Showtime and wouldn’t watchthis show
\nif I did —  though at least one person I respect who claims it’s
\nexcellent.  It’s just that I, basically, abhor the concept: A Miami
\nP.D. blood spatter analyst\/obsessive serial killer works out his
\ncompulsion by killing killers.  That, I guess, is supposed to qualify
\nas moral ambiguity — and, we’re told by critics, to be truly
\nsophisticated is to love this kind of stuff.  Well, count me out.  <\/p>\n

I
\nsee enough moral ambiguity in the real world, thank you, and I actually
\nbelieve we would all benefit from more moral clarity in our
\nentertainment. Good guys win. Bad guys lose. Crime doesn’t pay. I go to
\nbed happy.<\/p>\n

But, even if the show somehow works as adult drama,
\nthe idea of creating an action figure (sold at Toys R Us) modeled after
\nits main character strikes me as disturbing — and unworthy of a toy
\nstore chain seeking family business.<\/p>\n

BTW, the serial killer is reportedly being marketed not at kids but at adults 18 years of age and older. Is that supposed to be reassuring? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve come a long way from G.I. Joe and Captain Action. Dexter, Showtime’s critically-acclaimed serial-killer-as-hero crime drama, has gotten the action figure treatment. Now, I’ve got to be honest. I don’t get Showtime and wouldn’t watchthis show if I did —  though at least one person I respect who claims it’s excellent.  It’s just that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nShowtime's serial killer \/(slash)\/ hero "Dexter" gets an action figure - Catholics Media and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/08\/showtimes-dexter-gets-an-action-figure-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Showtime's serial killer \/(slash)\/ hero "Dexter" gets an action figure - Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We’ve come a long way from G.I. Joe and Captain Action. Dexter, Showtime’s critically-acclaimed serial-killer-as-hero crime drama, has gotten the action figure treatment. Now, I’ve got to be honest. I don’t get Showtime and wouldn’t watchthis show if I did —  though at least one person I respect who claims it’s excellent.  It’s just that…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/08\/showtimes-dexter-gets-an-action-figure-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-31T06:38:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","caption":"John W. Kennedy"},"description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media & Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations & Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}