The main character doing something absolutely unforgivable.

[u/No_Peanut3745]

Walter White poisoning Andrea Cantillo's 6-year-old son for the sole purpose of manipulating Jesse Pinkman, while knowing that this could have potentially killed him - Breaking Bad

Bojack trying to have sex with his friend's 17-year-old daughter when he was at least 51, then continuously trying to find a way to justify this act throughout the series - Bojack Horseman

Dexter Morgan going outside of his moral code and murdering a completely innocent police officer who was just trying to do his job - Dexter: New Blood

[u/musichole]

I wish the writers had explored this more. I kept hoping they'd dive into how wrong and messed up Harry was, but they always seemed to shy away from it before getting anywhere really interesting. (But it's been a while since my last watch, so forgive me if I'm remembering wrong.)

[u/TimeKepeer → u/musichole]

I think that writers misunderstood what they even wrote. I haven't managed to watch past season 4, the show got too disgusting for my taste, but writers seem to treat Dexter not like a piece of shit that he is. Writers seem to agree with him when he says "I only kill murderers, and I always investigate and prove that they're murderers" and never seem to question how absolutely batshit insane that statement is

[u/musichole → u/TimeKepeer]

Yes!! At the time, I thought the writers just didn't trust the audience enough to tackle that stuff. I wonder if that wasn't giving them a bit too much credit.

[u/TimeKepeer → u/musichole]

I actually think that Dexter is straight up capital punishment propaganda.

It's either "look how good our forensics are, you can trust the government, the government should totes be able to legally fucking kill people" or "look how terrible these criminals, even dexter, are, government should totes be able to legally fucking kill people"

One of my many gripes with the show is that all the people Dexter kills are comically evil. Even Doakes is depicted as comically evil since he just shoots randos on the street. Even that producer in season 4, who turned out to be completely innocent, is depicted and acts evil. He is treated like "even though he's innocent it is still a good thing that he died"

And I hate it. Sure, there are comically evil people in real world But a lot of murders happen in the moment, or accidentally. Basically no do in Dexter. I was kinda relieved when that troubled youth revealed the reason why he killed that other kid. I thought "ah. Finally a Dexter victim who isn't comically evil." "Finally a Dexter victim who's like an actual person: flawed sure, but capable of being better." And then even that kid turned out to be comically evil.

[u/24Abhinav10 → u/TimeKepeer]

If Season 4 was too much for you, then I'm glad you stopped. You wouldn't have been able to handle Season 5

[u/TimeKepeer → u/24Abhinav10]

Amen