Dexter: Love American Style (Season 1, Episode 5)

The film Dexter: Love American Style Season 1, Episode 5 (2006) as directed by Robert Lieberman is a precursor of the challenges in the modern world, where overreliance and scientific developments to logic threatens the flourishing of human compassion, love, and emotions. In this film, Robert Lieberman invades how insecurity, greed, and corruption are common problems affecting the society. Quintessentially, the plot began on the heels of investigating a crime scene that occurred in the hospital. The series creates insights about the cultural identity of the main characters. The television series Dexter depicted on October 2006 to present explores fictional life, white serial killer, and a blood spatter analyst in Miami. Maria LaGuerta is a notable character who engages in inappropriate sexual behaviours towards her work colleagues like protagonist. The film is a reminder of the perils of evil happening in the society. The film portrays an admirably multiracial cast, which features White, Asian, Black, and Hispanic characters and this reflects Florida’s demographic.

In essence, the depictions of the critical categories are stereotypical in that each race is well- presented. For instance, as the rest of police team works hard to find the Killer, Dexter is busy finding evidence for his next victim. As the film continues, Dexter discovers about love, relationship, and making wealth. At this point, Dexter gets hilarious advice from many sources and this pushes him to kill two people at a given span of time. Dexter is one character who has and still provokes emotions such as terror, loathe, and despise. These emotions are elicited by the societal reflections of racism among the whites and not from individual experiences. In essence, Dexter is a character admired by some viewers due to his reputation of pursuing evil. He is a character who demonstrates cultural identity.

In the film, Dexter presents the Cuban identity, which is a significant proportion of the entire population in Florida. It is vital noting that, the show is depicted in Miami county. Cubans are portrayed as deviant and immoral. A perfect illustration is Maria La Guerta whose identity is presented in a negative way. Additionally, Angel Betista is a notable character who risks his integrity and reputation because of sexual appetite. As the film continues, the character of Castillo Jorge reveals the reference of American freedom based on the vision or idea of the American dream. Castillo embraces the life of white Americans and rejects his identity and background. For instance, Castillo refutes speaking in Spanish after meeting Dexter. This scene indicates how Castillo rejects Spanish background and identity and instead establishes the importance of speaking and living like most Americans. Intrinsically, the depictions in the film are useful as they illustrate how the modern society is. For instance, Dexter is a white serial killer who works hard to protect the society. In great effort, Dexter collects evidences of the crime happening in the society. Even in that era, Dexter finds himself in a complex situation where Maria LaGuerta seduces him. As Maria seduces Dexter, Dexter wishes that Maria would stop that.

It is crucial to note that, the character identities such as gender and race are important to the roles they play. For instance, the film portrays women as immoral in the society. Unfortunately, the film regard women as sex objects in the sense that Dexter wishes Maria to stop seducing him. However, Dexter reveals his interest when he stares at Maria and becomes sexually aroused. At this point, the music and sound effect play a crucial role in representing Dexter’s character. From the film, one can affirm that Dexter is a principled man but easily attracted by women. Although he is busy in his normal duties, Maria distracts and divert his attention. As Maria seduces Dexter, the music effect reveals how attractive Dexter finds Maria. With this, readers comprehend that women are immoral and they can do anything they wish to attain their goals. From a personal perspective, I do not see any mixed messages being presented. This is because women are portrayed as immoral and seductive while men are portrayed as hunters and great warriors. For instance, Dexter works hard to protect his society, attain wealth and success, and protect his ego. In psychology terms, this presents the Ego ideal that seeks for power, recognition, and success. However, women demands attention, love, and romance and this explains why they are busy going to men.

After viewing the film, the question that lingers in mind is why the producer, writers, and studios wanted to present the characters and situations the way they do. In response to this, it is clear that the modern social context helped in shaping the director’s decision. The director realized how the modern society is a mixture of many races and gender with different needs, wants, and desires. Visual languages such as clothing and costumes play a crucial role of representing the characters based on races and gender. The opening plot of the fil reveals bombard viewers with lyrical and visual display of American patriotism. The images such as the American flag as well as fireworks symbolize the American aspect of independence and freedom. Additionally, the opening song has lyrics that reveals love message mentioning the words red, blue, and white, which are the main colours of the American flag as shown in the following diagram. The poster also portrays that Dexter is a White Serial Killer.

Retrieved from: http://pollystreaming.com/Dexter-01×05-Season-1-Episode-5-Love-American-Style_v4782

Works Cited

Lieberman, Robert. Dexter: Love American Style (Season 1, Episode 5). Retrieved from http://pollystreaming.com/Dexter-01×05-Season-1-Episode-5-Love-American-Style_v4782, 2006. Print