Beyond Dexter: Bloodthirsty TV Dads

Last week, DadCentric was kind enough to bring you a thoughtful overview of some of TV's Best Dads -- including a profoundly thoughtful, moving and Nobel Prize-winning post by yours truly on Dexter. During this selfsame post, I promised you a Dexter-themed giveaway... but we'll get to that in a couple of minutes.

During the course of the week, we also learned about several other TV Dads who fall outside of the traditional TV Dad model. As I read Mr. Big Dubya's great post on Jax from Sons of Anarchy and the great question The Daddy Complex posed in Jason's summary article, it occurred to me that there is a rich history of bloodthirsty TV Dads that's gone long under-appreciated in mainstream society. And what better place than here - and what better time than now - to begin appreciating them?

1. Leland Palmer - Twin Peaks
As rightfully and righteously suggested by The Daddy Complex. Two words: Missoula, Montana. *shudder*

2. Jack Bauer - 24
Let's be clear: although Jack Bauer is the hero of the show and has saved the country/the world/his rapidly receding hairline more than a few times, he's also a borderline sociopath whose proclivity towards torture, killing and yelling more than is probably necessary dovetail neatly with his skillz as a dad. Because in the twisted universe of 24, Jack Bauer is more than America's action hero: he's dad to the perpetually imperiled Kim Bauer, an exuberantly juicy blonde given to pouting, recklessly endangering others, and trying not to get eaten by mountain lions. In short, she's every father's nightmare - a nightmare further complicated by the fact that her mother/Jack's wife was murdered by a woman he once had an affair with (ah, yes: such glorious shades of Fatal Attraction), thereby providing her with an eternal rationale for pouting and running away/getting into trouble - and he deals with it in the only way he knows how: by continually exploding in murderous rage. High points include the time when he shoots and then decapitates a suspected terrorist, and the time when he chops off the arm of Kim's fiancee. That's good parenting, right there.

3. Tony Soprano - The Sopranos
Most of us can relate to Tony Soprano on some level. Sure, maybe not necessarily on the "I run a large mob family, and frequent the company of prostitutes, and have multiple politicians in my pocket, and have personally killed many people in the past -- including several close family members" level, but nevertheless... the idea of "family" was always a double-edged sword on The Sopranos, and his struggles with virtually every facet of his home/family life (as opposed to business/family) were both fascinating to watch and often uncomfortably familiar. Above and beyond the Greek tragedy of his near-murderous relationship with his vindictive, controlling mother - and the ongoing evolution of his relationship with his long-suffering/willfully-blind wife, Carmella - it was the nature of Tony as Dad to Meadow and Anthony Jr. that grounded his character. With Meadow, his bright daughter with a promising future, he was the proud papa, the jealous protector, the beloved daddy finding some solace in the fact that, despite his many failings, he had produced in her something truly remarkable: a young woman who would go on to far greater things than he himself would ever be capable of.

On the flip side, you had his troubled relationship with his troubled son -- a lazy ne'er-do-well destined for a life lost in his father's enormous shadow. Tony's rage and disappointment at AJ's failures as a human being reflected our own disgust at his weakness and selfishness... but like us, those feelings bent and softened at those moments when AJ's deep pain became apparent, and through that lens Tony's perspective shifted and he suddenly understood (to paraphrase the great Richard Harris in Gladiator) that AJ's failings as a son reflected his own failings as a father. And it was in those moments that we came to see Tony in his purest form: a man struggling to confront his legacy as a parent who has failed his child.

Above and beyond all this, The Sopranos presented Tony in a third light: as surrogate father to Christopher. For the majority of the series, Christopher is the son Tony clearly wishes he had: aggressive, cocksure and headstrong, imperfect but ambitious and unambiguous about his love and loyalty to Tony. The climatic moment of their relationship - in the light of all that has come before - is one of the most stunning scenes in the entire series, and a watershed moment in the long and sometimes tormented history of TV dads.

4. John Locke's Dad - Lost
Alright, so maybe he didn't technically kill him... but anyone willing to track down a son you abandoned as an infant, buddy up with him, talk him into donating a kidney to save your life, then ditch him -- only to have him track you down and confront you, at which point you push him through an 8th-story plate-glass window, leaving him paralyzed for life (kind of)... well, that's more than enough points on the "making a legitimate effort" front to qualify for inclusion here. A next-generation Leland Palmer for a show that is, in many senses, the next-generation Twin Peaks (for better or for worse).

5. Thomas Magnum - Magnum, P.I.
You'd forgotten about this, hadn't you? For shame. What started off as a "handsome, romance-friendly PI in a beautiful setting with stupid mysteries every week" series gained unexpected depth and resonance as it progressed through eight seasons, as the back story of Tom Selleck's Magnum-as-Vietnam vet became increasingly complex and relevant. His flashbacks to his time in a Viet Cong prison camp - replete with a villainous Russian intelligence agent who cold-bloodedly kills one of Magnum's friends - reached fruition in a final showdown in modern-day Hawai'i where Magnum weighed the price of vengeance... and found it worthwhile.

This storyline dovetailed (see? I'm all about the dovetailing) with the later revelation that Magnum's Vietnamese wife - who he thought had died during the war - was in fact still alive, and now married to a Vietnamese General. They reunite, she leaves... some time later, their daughter comes into Magnum's life. (It was a long time ago, and I'm a little fuzzy on the details.) As the show completed its final season, we saw Magnum as father as a completely logical conclusion to his evolution as a character and man: from the friendly surf bum of the early years to the older, wiser, scarred-but-better-for-it man ready to embrace fatherhood and the challenges still ahead.

*** *** *** *** *** ***

The question: Who am I forgetting?

The not-entirely unrelated question: Who's up for some Dexter swag? We're talking a Dexter action figure, hat, baby bib and calendar. I haven't actually seen 'em yet, as they're still floating somewhere in our postal system, but I've been assured that they're both kickass and awesome.

The deal: tell me who I'm forgetting about as a great bloodthirsty TV Dad. Best answer gets the Dexter stuff. Got it? Then go forth and respondify...