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Dexter


Dexter Information

Dexter is an American television drama series which debuted on Showtime on October 1, 2006. The series centers on Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a blood spatter pattern analyst for the fictional Miami Metro Police Department (based on the real life Miami-Dade Police Department) who also leads a secret life as a serial killer. Set in Miami, the show's first season was largely based on the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the first of the Dexter series novels by Jeff Lindsay. It was adapted for television by screenwriter James Manos, Jr., who wrote the first episode. Subsequent seasons have evolved independently of Lindsay's works.

In February 2008, reruns (edited down to a TV-14 rating) began to air on CBS, although the reruns on CBS ended after one run of the first season. The series has enjoyed wide critical acclaim and popularity. Season 4 aired its season finale on December 13, 2009 to a record-breaking audience of 2.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched original series episode ever on Showtime. Michael C. Hall has received several awards and nominations for his portrayal of Dexter, including a Golden Globe. On November 18, 2011, it was announced that Dexter had been renewed for two more seasons. Season 7 premiered on September 30, 2012. The Season 7 premiere was the most watched Dexter episode ever with over 3 million viewers.

On January 12, 2013 it was revealed that Season 8 of Dexter would be moved from its originally planned Autumn airing to the Summer of 2013. Season 8 will begin on Sunday, June 30, 2013.

Plot

For the seasonal plots, see Dexter (season 1), Dexter (season 2), Dexter (season 3), Dexter (season 4), Dexter (season 5), Dexter (season 6), and Dexter (season 7).

Series outset

Orphaned at the age of three by the murder of his mother, Dexter Morgan is adopted by Miami police officer Harry Morgan and his wife Doris. After discovering that young Dexter has been killing neighborhood pets for several years, Harry tells Dexter that he believes the need to kill "got into" him at too early an age, and that he believes Dexter's need to kill will only grow. To keep Dexter from killing innocent people, Harry teaches him The Code: Dexter's victims must be killers themselves who have killed someone without justifiable cause and are likely to do so again. Dexter must also always be sure that his target is guilty, and thus he frequently goes to great lengths to get undeniable proof of his victim's guilt. Most importantly, Dexter must never get caught. Flashbacks throughout the series show Harry (who died several years previously) instructing Dexter on how to masquerade with typical human behavior, how to cover his tracks after a kill, and even how to stranglehold a target to knock them out and capture them. Dexter has followed The Code religiously to satisfy his "Dark Passenger" (the name he has assigned to his urge to kill). However, in Season 4, he hastily kills a photographer who then proves to be innocent.

Like many serial killers, Dexter keeps a trophy of each kill, by cutting his victim's cheek with a scalpel and collecting a drop of blood, which he preserves on a blood slide. He stores his collection in a box concealed inside his air conditioner.

In the beginning of the series, Dexter believes that he has no emotions, and he has to work non-stop to appear normal and blend in with the other people around him. Initially, Dexter is (with varying success) able to fake 'normal' emotions and maintain his appearance as an unremarkable friend and neighbor. He does maintain a few personal relationships early on, stating that he is "fond" of his adoptive sister Debra. She is unaware of Harry's training but harbors lingering jealousy of the perceived preferential treatment Harry gave Dexter. As part of his "disguise" in Season 1, Dexter dates a woman named Rita who is too traumatized from years of abuse at the hands of her ex-husband, Paul Bennett, to be intimate with Dexter. This suits Dexter, who believes getting intimate will reveal his darker side to Rita. He is fond of (and good with) children in general, particularly Rita's two children, Astor and Cody. However, his attachments to Debra, Rita, Astor and Cody (and later his biological son, Harrison) complicate his double life and cause him to question his "need" to kill.

Early Cuts

Dexter: Early Cuts is an animated web series that premiered on October 25, 2009. Michael C. Hall reprises his role as the voice of Dexter.

KTV Media International Bullseye Art produced and animated the webisodes, working closely with Showtime for sound editing, Interspectacular for direction, and illustrators Kyle Baker, Ty Templeton, Andrés Vera Martínez, and Devin Lawson for creating distinctive illustrations. The webisodes are animated with 2.5D style, where flat 2D illustrations are brought to life in 3D space. The first season was created and written by Dexter producer/writer, Lauren Gussis. She was nominated for a Webby for her writing on the first season.

The first web series precedes the current narrative of the show and revolves around Dexter hunting down the three victims that he mentions in the sixth episode of season 1, "Return to Sender". Each victim's story is split into four two-minute chapters.

A second season of the web series titled Dexter: Early Cuts: Dark Echo, one story in six chapters, premiered on October 25, 2010. It was written by Tim Schlattmann and illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz and David Mack. The story begins immediately following Dexter's adoptive father Harry's death.

Production

Association with actual crimes

Several comparisons and connections between the TV show and its protagonist have been drawn during criminal prosecutions. Andrew Conley said the show inspired him to strangle his 10-year-old brother. In an affidavit filed in Ohio County court, police said Andrew stated that he "watches a show called Dexter on Showtime, about a serial killer, and he stated, 'I feel just like him.'" In Norway, Shamrez Khan hired Håvard Nyfløt to kill Faiza Ashraf. Nyfløt claimed Dexter inspired him and that he wanted to kill Khan in front of Faiza and in a way Dexter would, to "stop evil". Prosecutors compared Christopher Scott Wilson to Dexter when they charged him with the February 2010 first-degree murder of Mackenzie Cowell.

Mark Twitchell

See Mark Twitchell for more information Association was established between Twitchell, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, during his first-degree murder trial, and the character of Dexter Morgan. After weeks of testimony and gruesome evidence presented in court, Twitchell was found guilty of the planned and deliberate murder of 38-year-old Johnny Altinger on April 12, 2011. Twitchell, an aspiring filmmaker, had adopted the persona "Dexter Morgan" on Facebook and made a movie that was similar to how Dexter operates. Prosecutors alleged that Twitchell had begun a secret double life inspired by Dexter. Twitchell wanted to reenact the life of Dexter Morgan, and after writing a script for a Dexter movie, began posing as a woman online interested in having affairs with married men. Detective Mark Anstey of the Edmonton Police Service was quoted as saying, "We have a lot of information to suggest he definitely idolizes Dexter," and Twitchell had posted a Facebook status stating that he believed he had "way too much in common with Dexter Morgan."

Exterior filming

Although the series is set in Miami, Florida, many of the exterior scenes are filmed in Long Beach, California. Many landmark buildings and locations in Long Beach are featured throughout the series.

Marketing

In preparation for the UK launch of the series, Fox experimented with an SMS-based viral marketing campaign. Created by digital advertising agency Ralph & Co, and promoted by online PR and social media agency Hot Cherry, unsuspecting mobile phone owners received the following unsolicited SMS messages addressed to them by name with no identifying information other than being from "Dexter": "Hello (name). I'm heading to the UK sooner than you might think. Dexter." The SMS-message would be followed by an email directing the user to an online video "news report" about a recent spree of killings. Using on-the-fly video manipulation, the user's name and a personalized message would be worked into the report " the former written in blood on a wall near the crime scene, the latter added to a note in an evidence bag carried past the camera. While the marketing campaign succeeded in raising the profile of the show, it proved unpopular with many mobile owners who saw this as spam advertising aimed at mobile phones. In response to complaints about the SMS element of the campaign, Fox issued the following statement:

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Cast and crew

Cast

Name Portrayed by Seasons
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Dexter Morgan Michael C. Hall
Debra Morgan Jennifer Carpenter
Angel Batista David Zayas
Harry Morgan James Remar
Vince Masuka C.S. Lee
Joey Quinn Desmond Harrington
Jamie Batista Aimee Garcia
Rita Bennett Julie Benz
James Doakes Erik King
María LaGuerta Lauren Vélez
Key:
{{colorbox}} Main cast.
{{colorbox}} Recurring cast.
{{colorbox}} Guest.
{{colorbox}} Does not appear.
Besides Michael C. Hall playing the title character, the show's supporting cast includes Jennifer Carpenter as Dexter's adoptive sister and co-worker (and later boss) Debra, and James Remar as Dexter's adoptive father, Harry. Dexter's co-workers include Lauren Vélez as Lieutenant (later Captain) María LaGuerta, Dexter and Debra's supervisor, David Zayas as Detective Sergeant Angel Juan Marcos Batista, and C. S. Lee as lab tech Vince Masuka (promoted to title credits in Season 2). Erik King portrayed the troubled Sgt James Doakes for the first two seasons of the show. Desmond Harrington joined the cast in Season 3 as Joey Quinn; his name was promoted to the title credits as of Season 4. Geoff Pierson plays Captain Tom Matthews of Miami Metro Homicide. Julie Benz starred as Dexter's girlfriend turned wife Rita in Seasons 1"4 with a guest appearance in Season 5. Rita's children Astor and Cody are played by Christina Robinson and Preston Bailey (who replaced Daniel Goldman after the first season). Dexter's infant son Harrison is played by twins, Evan and Luke Kruntchev. On February 5, 2013, it was reported that Aimee Garcia was promoted to series regular status starting season 8.

Notable appearances in Season 1 are Christian Camargo as the Ice Truck Killer and Mark Pellegrino as Rita's abusive ex-husband Paul. Jaime Murray portrayed Lila Tournay in Season 2, a beautiful but unhinged, know-it-all, British "artist" who becomes obsessed with Dexter. Keith Carradine, as Special FBI Agent Frank Lundy, and Jimmy Smits, as ADA Miguel Prado, each appeared in season-long character arcs in Seasons 2 and 3, respectively. David Ramsey, who plays confidential informant Anton Briggs in Season 3, returned in Season 4, romantically involved with Debra. John Lithgow joined the cast in season four as the "Trinity Killer". Carradine returned in Season 4, reprising his role as newly retired FBI Special Agent Frank Lundy, who was hunting the Trinity Killer. Courtney Ford was featured in Season 4 as an ambitious reporter who mixes business with pleasure, getting romantically involved with Joseph while simultaneously fishing for sources and stories. Julia Stiles joined the cast a little later as Lumen Pierce, a woman who gets involved in a complex relationship with Dexter after the tragedy that culminated the previous season. In the sixth season, Mos Def was cast as Brother Sam, a convicted murderer turned born-again Christian, and Edward James Olmos and Colin Hanks guest starred as Professor James Gellar and Travis Marshall who were involved in a murderous apocalyptic cult. The seventh season features multiple guest stars including Ray Stevenson as Ukrainian organized crime boss, Isaak Sirko, Jason Gedrick as strip club owner and mob enforcer, George Novikov, and Yvonne Strahovski as female serial killer and Dexter's love interest for the season, Hannah McKay.

Brad William Henke had a role as amputee victim Tony Tucci in the first season. Margo Martindale had a recurring role as Camilla, a records office worker who was close friends with Dexter's adoptive parents. JoBeth Williams portrays Rita's suspicious mother, Gail Brandon, in four episodes of season 2. Malcolm-Jamal Warner appeared as a family lawyer, and John Marshall Jones appeared as a man who murdered his wife, to be shot by Doakes. Anne Ramsay portrayed defense attorney Ellen Wolf, Miguel's arch-nemesis. Valerie Cruz had a recurring role as Miguel's wife, Sylvia. April L. Hernandez joined the cast early into the fifth season as Cira Manzon, a police "uniform" who was included in an investigation by Debra because of her Hispanic descent and knowledge of Santa Muerte. In season 6, Billy Brown was cast as transferred-in Detective Mike Anderson to replace Debra after her promotion to Lieutenant; Josh Cooke plays Louis Greene, a lab tech and Masuka's intern; and Aimee Garcia played the role of Batista's younger sister, Jamie.

Crew

The main creative forces behind the series were executive producers Daniel Cerone, Clyde Phillips and Melissa Rosenberg; Cerone left the show after its second season. Coming off a record-setting Season 4 finale, executive producer and showrunner Clyde Phillips departed the series to spend more time with his family. 24 co-executive producer Chip Johannessen took over Phillips' post. Head writer Melissa Rosenberg left after Season 4 as well.

After the conclusion of Season 5, it was revealed that Chip Johannessen was departing the show after a single season and that Scott Buck would take over as showrunner from season 6.

Reception

Critical reception

Although reception to individual seasons have varied, the response to Dexter has been mostly positive. The review aggregator website Metacritic calculated a score of 77 from a possible 100 for season 1 based on 27 reviews, making it the third-best reviewed show of the 2006 fall season. This score includes four 100% scores from the New York Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Sun-Times and People Weekly. Brian Lowry, who had written one of the three poor reviews Metacritic tallied for the show, recanted his negative review in a year-end column for the trade magazine Variety after watching the full season. On Metacritic Season 2 has a score of 85 with all 11 reviews positive. Season 3 has 78 with 13 reviews. Season 4 has 79 with 14 reviews. Season 5 has a score of 75 with 11 reviews,. Season 6 has a score of 63 with 10 reviews. Season 7 has a score of 81 with 7 reviews. While remarking on some of the show's more formulaic elements (quirky detective, hero with dense workmates, convenient plot contrivances), Tad Friend of The New Yorker remarked that when Dexter is struggling to connect with Rita or soliciting advice from his victims, "the show finds its voice."

On December 14, 2006, Michael C. Hall was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the category Best Actor in a Television Drama Series for playing Dexter. He was also renominated and won the Golden Globe Award for his role as Dexter at the 2010 ceremony. The show was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series for its second season (Showtime's first ever drama to be nominated for the award), and its star for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. It won neither, losing to Mad Men and to Breaking Bad actor Bryan Cranston. In 2008, it won a Scream Award For Best TV Show. In 2010, Hall won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series " Drama and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. John Lithgow won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Performance by an Actor in a Television Series for his role in the series the same night.

Popular reception

The third season finale on December 14, 2008 was watched by 1.51 million viewers, giving Showtime its highest ratings for any of its original series since 2004, when Nielsen started including original shows on premium channels in its ratings. The fourth season finale aired on December 13, 2009 and was watched by 2.6 million viewers. It broke records for all of Showtime's original series and was their highest rated telecast in over a decade. The fifth season finale was watched by a slightly smaller number of people (2.5 million). The show was declared the ninth highest rated show for the first ten years of IMDb.com Pro (2002"2012). The seventh season as a whole was the highest rated season of Dexter, watched by 6.1 million total weekly viewers across all platforms.

Awards

Main article: List of Dexter awards and nominations
Dexter has been nominated for 19 Primetime Emmy Awards, in the category of Outstanding Drama Series 3 times in a row, from 2008 to 2010 and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (for Michael C. Hall) 4 times in a row, from 2008 to 2011. Dexter has also received over a dozen Creative Arts Emmy Awards. It has also been nominated for 7 Golden Globes (winning 2), 14 Satellite Awards (winning 7), 18 Saturn Awards (winning 5), 8 Screen Actors Guild Awards (winning 1), and 5 Writers Guild of America Awards.

International broadcast

In France, Dexter is broadcast on [[Canal+]] and it is offered with both English and French audio. In India, Dexter is broadcast on STAR World. In Portugal, Dexter is broadcast on the Portuguese public broadcaster RTP and on the cable tv channel Fox Portugal both in its original version with Portuguese subtitles. In Thailand, the series is broadcast on True Series.

Criticism

U.S. broadcast

When U.S. network CBS announced in December 2007 it was considering Dexter for broadcast reruns over the public airwaves, the Parents Television Council (PTC) publicly protested the decision. When the network began posting promotional videos of the rebroadcast on YouTube on January 29, 2008, PTC president Timothy F. Winter, in a formal press release, again called for CBS to not broadcast the show on broadcast television, saying that it "should remain on a premium subscription cable network" because "the series compels viewers to empathize with a serial killer, to root for him to prevail, to hope he doesn't get discovered. " Winter went on to quote CBS President Leslie Moonves' post-Columbine comment: "Anyone who thinks the media has nothing to do with [increasing violence in society] is an idiot." Winter called on the public to demand local affiliates preempt Dexter, and warned advertisers the PTC would take action against any that sponsored the show. Following Winter's press release, CBS added parental advisory notices to its broadcast promotions, and ultimately rated Dexter TV-14 for broadcast. The show premiered on February 17, 2008, edited primarily for language and scenes containing sex or the dismemberment of live victims. The PTC later objected to CBS broadcasting the final two episodes of the first season in a two-hour block starting as early as 8 p.m. in some time zones.

Other media

DVD/Blu-ray releases

Video game

A video game based on Dexter developed by Icarus Studios and based on the events of season one, was released on September 13, 2009. It is available for the iPhone platform in the iTunes App Store. The game was released on the iPad on October 15, 2010, and on PC on February 15, 2011. The cast and crew of Dexter have been very supportive, with some of the cast providing full voice work for the game, including Michael C. Hall. The game has received many positive reviews, including an 8.0/10 from IGN. No additional content for the game has currently been released or announced as planned. Plans to release the game on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 seem to have been cancelled, as there has been no recent information regarding expansion of the game onto these platforms.

Alternative reality game

Showtime launched Dexter Game On during Comic-Con in July 2010. It was a promotion that relied on community involvement. Part of the user's involvement required the user to use the scvngr application available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android platforms to complete treks around the five cities the game was available in. The final trek lead to a kill-room where the "Infinity Killer" had recently claimed a victim. A link was found in the room to a (fake) company called "Sleep Superbly", which began an extensive Showtime-maintained alternate reality game that continued until Dexters fifth season premiere.

The alternate reality game involves players working cooperatively together to help catch the "Infinity Killer" and identify his victims. A number of other characters help. During the game, players communicate with the "Infinity Killer" among many others. There are also a few shady companies that have active roles. The game spans Facebook, Twitter, Craigslist, etc. as well as countless unique sites created for the game. There are even phone numbers players can call. The characters and companies are controlled by real people, adding an extra realism and ability for intelligent conversation. In order to maintain a realistic feeling in the game, Showtime does not put their name or advertisements on most sites and pages created for the game.

Soundtrack

Main article: Dexter: Music from the Showtime Original Series
The music from the Dexter TV series was released on August 28, 2007 in the album Dexter: Music from the Showtime Original Series. It is produced by Showtime, and distributed by Milan Records. The album is also available online on the iTunes Store. The iTunes release includes five additional bonus tracks from Season 1 and 2.

Gary Calamar, whose company, Go Music, also provides non-score music for True Blood, House and Men Of A Certain Age, music supervises Dexter (along with Music Coordinator Alyson Vidoli). The opening title theme was written by Rolfe Kent, and the score is composed by Daniel Licht and orchestrated by Joseph Trapanese.

Merchandise

EMCE Toys has planned the release of action figures based on the series. Dark Horse Comics released a 7-inch bust of Dexter Morgan in March 2010, as part of its Last Toys on the Left series, and released a Trinity Killer Bobble Head in April 2010.

A Dexter board game created by GDC-GameDevCo Ltd was released on September 30, 2010.

There is also a variety of items available from Showtime, including t-shirts, blood slide key rings and coasters, pens made to look like syringes of blood, an apron, mugs and glasses, posters, and even bin bags.

See also




This webpage uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dexter_%28TV_series%29" and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. Reality TV World is not responsible for any errors or omissions the Wikipedia article may contain.
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