Christians in Cinema

Lots of crazy things are happening because of the writers’ strike. Things like: an awards show where no one actually receives the award; they just have their name mentioned. Production companies are backing away from the “company line” of the studios and making their own deals with writers. (David Letterman’s WorldWide Pants) New “reality” shows are being introduced every day. Do we really need more of those?

How upside-down are we?

Television networks are scrambling to fill their primetime hours with programming, and are starving for something their audiences haven’t seen. Enter made-for-cable shows. CBS Television recently announced its plan to add “Dexter” to their Sunday night line-up. Dexter is an original Showtime series about a serial killer.

Go to their site and you’ll see the smiling face of a good-looking man marred by only one thing - blood splatters. Oh, and the music sounds like something from your favorite serial-killer movie.

This caption appears: “Am I a good person doing bad things, or a bad person doing good things?” Basically, he’s a guy obsessed with stalking and murdering the guilty. That’s the premise of the show.

Apparently his adoptive father (a policeman himself) realized Dexter’s “passion for vivisection” and helped “channel his homicidal impulses in a more constructive pursuit: Delivering vigilante justice.” You can even “give the Dexter treatment” by sending a friend a news video showing your friend as the next victim of this killer.

I’m not kidding. All this is on the show’s website.

Showtime is known for its unique programming, but CBS? Home of “Touched by An Angel?” Now there’s a show that shouldn’t be on television - they talk about God! How upside-down have we become?

I am a fan of police procedural shows: “NCIS” and “NUMB3Rs” are my favorites. Seems most evening line-ups are full of police procedurals. So is “Dexter” just the next level? Are we like the frogs who get boiled alive because we don’t notice the water temperature gradually rising?

The Parents Television Council is encouraging concerned viewers to let CBS know they don’t want this kind of programming. Who knows? In the wake of a recent judgment by the FCC against 52 ABC affiliates, perhaps CBS will listen.

Situations like this make me wonder about our role. How far down the path of protest do we go? Or is there another tool we can use, another weapon in our arsenal, that will be effective?