Not that long ago people were going on and on about how that one Community ep finally gave D&D some good representation in media. I don't know if you've ever watched Community, but I thought the episode was terrible and the implications kinda gross. I liked Community at the the time! I've revised my opinion since then, but for a while I loved that show. Also metalheads who dress like him are still often just either violent, or it's a punchline that they are actually just chill. Between all that and Satanic Panic, the show tapped into a lot of stuff that really hadn't been tapped into in a good way in any media that I've seen.

This is super dates, but when it comes to D&D players on TV shows I always think back to that one X-Files episode who was a punchline, but also people like him also exist in D&D spaces.