Its official: moral ambiguity has outdone heroism to the point that audiences can no longer stomach watching righteous characters unless they have enough skeletons in their closet to fill Highgate Cemetery. It has become so much of a trope that there is rarely such a thing as a classic protagonist any more; HBO turned that on its head with The Sopranos and now everyone is either an anti-hero or an out and out criminal. To be fair to all these shows, theres something immensely satisfying about seeing a villainous scheme fall into place. All of the meticulous planning and Machiavellian manoeuvring, its hard not to root for a bad guy who is always multiple steps ahead. Unfortunately sometimes these devilish machinations are seemingly thought up on a whim, and threaten to destroy everything that the villain has worked so hard for. Everyone has off days, but when the fate of an entire illicit enterprise is at stake, sometimes its best to take a few steps back before you've angrily murdered or alienated everyone within your inner circle. While its true that risks can pay off, the following decisions by seemingly brilliant criminal minds are much more crazy and ill-conceived than they are calculated.
10. Miguel Prado Provokes A Deranged Serial Killer - Dexter
For a moment it seemed like the Bay Harbour Butcher had found a buddy. Glossing over that hed killed said friends brother, Dexter and District Attorney Miguel Prado have a great time palling it up, playing golf and having some nice cold brewskies. Unfortunately, there quickly becomes a strain on the bromance when Prado discovers that the awkward blood spatter analyst hes been inviting round for dinner likes to get a bit stabby from time to time. Far from turning Dexter in or ceasing contact, Miguel turns into a clingy murder enthusiast, eager to tag along on Morgans manhunts like some sort of sinister intern. All is well until innocent people start vanishing and it becomes clear that he has manipulated Dexter from the start. This change in the hunter / prey dynamic makes it seem like giving Prado the old heave-ho won't be an easy task until, for some reason, his calculated criminality turns into erratic lunacy. Mad with his new-found bloodlust, the deranged DA sets free a rival serial killer to hunt down Dexter. Given that Prado has already had it explained to him at length that bumping off other murderers is what Dexter does as his vocation, I'm going to go ahead and call this a bad move. Predictably this merry dance ends with Miguel all wrapped up in cling-film and being choked to death. Breaking up is hard to do.
A pop culture mad writer from the North East who loves films, television and debating them with whoever will listen.
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