You know the serial killer that murders bad guys alone, saving the world in the process? He is quite literally, a disarming anti-hero.
http://www.sho.com/site/dexter/home.do
It’s sick. But wonderfully sick.
I’ve been a supporter, but when I saw their latest marketing push, I became a fan-atic.
As someone who does pesky “ads” for a living, I appreciated the power of the singular idea and more importantly, the dedication in their dollar-spending.
They created a series of fake magazine covers that had Dexter Morgan as the cover boy. Following the likeness of some very popular magazines like New Yorker, Rolling Stones, Esquire, GQ, Wired etc., they went to town with it. All over the town in fact.
In some places, they even had faux magazine stands. http://www.cherryflava.com/cherryflava/2008/10/page/3/
The whole campaign flaunted the poster boy notion of a perfect idol, while the captions of the magazine covers were all about sick puns (now of course, in advertising, ‘puns’ are "deadly" wrong—but in this case, they work).
I wonder if somehow, these covers also reflect the way America seems to idolize people they hardly know? Makes you think…
To look at the opening title sequences of the TV show, you marvel at the chill it gives you. All trite, seemingly everyday routine stuff are shot in a way that makes you think of perverse gore.
The sequence was created by Digital Kitchen, a company that won numerous awards first for their title sequence for Six Feet Under, then most recently, Dexter. Eric Anderson was the Creative Director for both. How I wish I had created them. How I wish I had his job.
Dexter is a study in contrasts. A character that is soooo frightening when you really think hard about it. But at the same time, he is but a lost, vulnerable being, who is at once saving himself, as well as the rest of mankind from true evil.
Michael C. Hall is the only man for the role as he brings such depth and believability to the character. He could win you with one sparkling boyish grin, and send chills down your spine within seconds, with a fleeting devilish look. A superb supporting cast rounds up the right combination.
I love that both their ad campaign and the TV show make people think. Not everything is wrapped up in a neat, nice conclusive package—it leaves viewers the room to breathe and to take in the information however way they’d like.
I appreciate being treated with due respect for my brains.
It’s my current favorite show. Maybe because I love flawed characters.
And dark sides. Everyone has one. Anyone who says they don’t is lying or in denial. How else can we define the light, if not for the dark?
