Serial Killers in Contemporary Television : Familiar Monsters in Post-9/11 Culture

"This volume examines the significant increase in representations of serial killers as central characters in popular television over the last two decades. Via critical analyses of the philosophical and existential themes presented to viewers and their place in the cultural landscape of contemporary America, the authors ask: What is it about serial killers that incited such a boom in these types of narratives in popular television post-9/11? Looking past the serial format of television programming as uniquely suited for the presentation of the serial killer's actions, the chapters delve into deeper reasons as to why TV has proven to be such a fertile ground for serial killer narratives in contemporary popular culture. An international team of authors question: What is it about serial killers that makes these characters deeply enlightening representations of the human condition that, although horrifically deviant, reflect complex elements of the human psyche? Why are serial killers intellectually fascinating to audiences? How do these characters so deeply affect us? Shedding new light on a contemporary phenomenon, this book will be a fascinating read for all those at the intersection of television studies, film studies, psychology, popular culture, media studies, philosophy, genre studies and horror studies"-- Provided by publisher This volume examines the significant increase in representations of serial killers as central characters in post 9/11 television. It will be a fascinating read for all those at the intersection of television studies, film studies, psychology, popular culture, media studies, philosophy, genre studies and horror studies. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of contributors 10 Acknowledgements 12 Introduction—From the Shadows to Our Living Rooms: Serial Killers on Popular TV after 9/11 14 SECTION I: A Dark Empathy: Identification with Killer Characters 30 1. When the Monsters Are Real (and They Understand Us): The Horror of Hannibal 32 2. Born in Blood: 9/11, Trauma, Selfhood, and Dexter 48 3. “Too Much History, Too Much Remembering”: National Trauma and Individual Trauma in The Fall 64 4. From Villains to Clowns: Adapting Serial Killers to Internet Memes 78 SECTION II: Death and Sex: Gendered Bodies in Serial Killer Narratives 96 5. “He is a Murderer”: You, Fandom, and the Romanticized Male Killer 98 6. The Killing Characters of Penny Dreadful 114 7. The Subversive Powers of Killing Eve 132 8. Better the Devil You Know: Nostalgia for the Captured Killer in Netflix’s Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes 148 SECTION III: Unknown Killers: The Ambiguity of Post-9/11 Culture 166 9. Dropping the Mask of Sanity: How Mindhunter Deconstructs the Profiling Procedural 168 10. True Detective and the Post-Serial Killer Text 190 11. Unthinkable Crimes: Representation, Knowledge, Mindhunter 211 Index 229 Serial Killers in Contemporary Television,Horror of Hannibal,Dark Empathy,Killer Characters,Serial Killers,Death and Sex,Unthinkable Crimes,Post-Serial Killer