Verisimilitude in movies and TV

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Anyone else get really hung up on realism when watching things?

I've been rewatching Dexter lately, and while I enjoy the show, it also drives me slightly crazy how sloppy Dexter himself is when stalking his victims; lurking around their houses in his killing clothes with his black gloves on looking shady as hell, making huge paper trails linking him and his targets, following people from very close distance and parking directly in front of where he plans to kill them, keeping evidence of his crimes poorly concealed in his home, using his cell phone while committing crimes, etc. TV Tropes calls this "assumed ability", the show tells us that Dexter is a very careful and methodical criminal, but what it shows us is sloppy and careless and would get a real person caught very quickly, which wouldn't make for much of a show. Contrast with The Wire, where the criminals are shown being surveillance conscience, paranoid, discreet, clever, etc and it just gets more egregious, as it's not that difficult to demonstrate those traits in a character rather than just say he has them while showing something different. I know that realism isn't the focus of the show, but when it's not that difficult to portray, why wouldn't a writer strive for it?