Their Media Portrayal

In various crime shows on tv, every so often there will be a serial killer case. Or there are even tv shows about serial killers.The source that I found talked about serial killer crime shows where the serial killers are the main characters. These shows included Hannibal, Dexter, and Bates Motel (none of which I have actually seen because they break my creepiness scale, but for the sake of this project I have researched them).

The source is actually a prezi presentation and not a website article like the others. Nonetheless, I got the information that I needed for this blog post. I also found another source titled, “Here’s Why We Love Serial Killers.” This source explains the people’s fascination with serial killers.

The prezi explains that in the crime tv shows, serial killers are portrayed as masterminds. In reality, not all of them are, in fact, most of them aren’t. A lot of them just kill on impulse and drive without even making a plan. In comparison, in tv shows, they are shown with large planning boards and tons and tons of research on their victims. The website article said that the media exaggerates serial killers which has cause people to get confused between fact and fiction. Despite the differences, there are some similarities in serial killers on tv and real life.

The show “Hannibal” is a tv show where a criminal profiler named Will Graham is able to empathize with anyone, even psychopaths. He looks to the psychiatrist, Hannibal Lector, for help. The becomes partners and catch may criminals together, but Hannibal actually has more in common with the criminals they try to catch. He is actually a secret serial killer himself and eats his victims. The prezi compared the character Hannibal to real-life serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. What they both have in common is cannibalism, psychological damage from childhood, and they both use dismemberment. The differences include that Hannibal was seen as a classy man and he was a full time psychiatrist. On the other hand, Jeffrey Dahmer was necrophiliac, which means he was interested in sexual intercourse with corpses (EWW EW EW).

Another comparison made from the prezi was about the charter Dexter Morgan from the show “Dexter” and Ted Bundy, a serial killer in real life. Dexter was actually a vigilante killer (but that still didn’t make his killings justified). He doesn’t kill children and he actually knew his victims. The tv show character Dexter Morgan was motivated by impulse and was a sociopath who suffered from childhood trauma. Ted Bundy, the one who actually exists in real life, killed and raped more than 30 women. He didn’t know his victims like Dexter did and instead of acting on impulse, he was motivated by sexual impulses. Ted was not a sociopath, he claimed to be a normal human being. They had many differences, but what made them similar was that their good looks and charms made them into celebrities (not like a Taylor Swift celebrity).

Even though serial killers are not accurately portrayed in the media, some aspects of them are true. Some of the serial killer characters in tv shows or movies are actually based off of a real serial killer that exists or once existed in reality. They serial killers on the tv shows or movies though, have some slight differences to intrigue the audience.

 Citation: Phan, Angela. “Serial Killers in the Media.” Prezi. Prezi, 10 Mar. 2014. Web. 17 May 2016.