Every now and again (mostly now), something small and insignificant will waft in front of my snark radar and won't go away until I point it out to someone. Right now, something with the new season of Showtime's Dexter has found its way through my skull and is gnawing on parts of my brain, and the only way to kill it is to expose it for the brain sucking parasite that it is. This is exactly like the first time I voluntarily watched Blossom.
So Dexter 4.0 kicked off last Sunday and the episodes I've seen are highly entertaining on just about every level (emotional, comic, spiritual, etc.). It's interesting watching Dex play the role of daddy in a non-fun stepfather kind of way while trying to juggle the needs of his dark side, which lead him and his other relationships down all sorts of roads you don't see coming.
It's feels like I'm watching a really f-ed up version of The Dick Van Dyke Show, only Mel's not there because he discovered Rob was the Bay Harbor Butcher and Rob's old high school sweetheart blew Mel up in order to save Rob and tear him away from Laura and Ritchie.
Now that Dexter's new life is unfolding before our very eyes, something is chewing away at me: the opening.
First off, it's a great opening. It's easily in my personal "Top Five" list of the greatest TV openings of all time. It's shot in this ultra-creepy close up real time mode that's doubly creepy when you realize the things Dexter is doing are probably things that you do everyday (if you're a girl and you have to shave the way Dexter does everyday, then it's probably three times as creepy ... for me at least).
It's the very end of the opening that's gnawing at me. We see Dexter slowly pulling a key out of a deadbolt lock. Then the shot goes wide and there's Dex strolling away from his domicile in his happy-go-lucky mask, ready to take on the day. Except the domicile in this picture is still his apartment. He moved to the burbs at the beginning of the fourth season so he and Rita could have more room for the kids and the new baby without having to live on top of each other like crates on a loading dock.
I know Dexter hasn't completely given up his old apartment since he needs a place to store his blood slides and research his kills, but he's still eating breakfast and getting ready for the day before he leaves his apartment. Shouldn't that shot end with him leaving his new house? Is he going back in time suddenly or something? Are the writers going to weave some bizarre Slaughterhouse Five time warp structure into the narrative? Is there something bigger in my life that I should be complaining about right now?
So I asks ya...
[Watch clips of Dexter and other shows at SlashControl.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
9-29-2009 @ 3:16PM
Sean said...
Danny, what an unfair thing to do to someone. I want my two minutes back, and I want them back now. Holy hell was that a worthless thing to write.
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9-29-2009 @ 5:51PM
MacGuffin said...
Exactly!
Someone has too much time on their hands to be writing about something so banal as why the title sequence hasn't kept up.
As though it should be updated every season like the Brady Bunch did to account for the bad perms of the Brady boys.
9-29-2009 @ 3:17PM
The Deej said...
I loved the slight variation we got in the premiere. Dexter's expression on his face after putting on the shirt and realizing there was baby puke on it was priceless.
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9-30-2009 @ 12:34PM
asta said...
yes it should be changed. But only It's my favorite opening of all time and I don't want it to become something else entirely.
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9-29-2009 @ 3:23PM
Crazy Jew said...
I think this is one of the stupidiest posts i've ever seen. Bob Sassone must be proud.
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9-29-2009 @ 4:50PM
MJL said...
Wow, I'm so relieved to find out there are other TV Squad readers who feel the same way I do! Yet another worthless post...and this time not written by Bob!
This one had it all...Danny's awful metaphors, complete lack of relevance/importance, etc.
By the way Danny, how the hell is the Dexter opening in "real time mode?" It's one jump cut after another...do you get ready for work in one minute and 55 seconds?
9-29-2009 @ 3:25PM
Midnight13 said...
I don't think they need to change the opening at all. All it really represents is close examination of a psychopath, doing all the same things we do, only he does it to pass himself off as normal. Which is what he's still doing. The promo for the season, them getting ready to go to the beach and play family man pretty much says the same thing the opening credits do.
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9-29-2009 @ 3:31PM
Brian Winkeler said...
They should add a small sequence to the credits showing Danny Gallagher splitting hairs.
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9-29-2009 @ 3:33PM
MikeD said...
Worst. Article. Ever.
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9-29-2009 @ 3:50PM
Phil J Leitch said...
Don't think this was a stupid post at all, there should be more posts about show openings. For example I think Raising the Bar has an awesome opening, it's no more than 10 seconds long. Not that they have to be short to be awesome, but that one is pretty good.
Look any show going on it's fourth season should update the intro, regardless of the situation. I'd love if the parody in the season opener took place of the original. I think it fits.
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9-29-2009 @ 4:48PM
Chelsea said...
I think the opening sequence is brilliant, but I have to admit that after watching it through once or twice and admiring how creepy they manage to make everyday acts, I now skip it every time on my DVDs. It's really well done but not something I want to watch over and over again so it doesn't really matter to me whether they change the credits or not. I do think it's nice that some shows still have a title sequence though. The whole flash the title card and move on thing has me nostalgic for shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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9-29-2009 @ 5:39PM
Niraj said...
By the way, the title sequence (and music) won them an Emmy.
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9-29-2009 @ 5:50PM
aloe54 said...
The opening credits always make me hungry for eggs and ham with ketchup...my friends think I am disturbed.
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9-29-2009 @ 6:36PM
Ashley Boyd said...
I never liked donuts until I started watching the show.
The manner in which food, death and normality are interlinked in the show is quite interesting.
9-29-2009 @ 9:18PM
Joyce N. said...
I still love ya, Danny. A more updated change might be nice but I accept the shot of him leaving his old apt. as it's where the secret side of "his work" and his souveniers are. Morning shot or not, it's a huge part of Dexter.
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9-29-2009 @ 10:37PM
Scott H said...
Why on earth fool with perfection?
You could argue that Dexter's final "pretend to be human" face is fake now, too, that he's actually developing real feelings, and no longer faking them. But...
Why fool with perfection?
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9-29-2009 @ 10:15PM
pumpkinhead said...
I guess it's just you and I. It annoyed me too. Actually, this would have been a perfect opportunity to make the slight variation that played in the show part of the full opening, with a few small variations underscoring before each episode how his situation has changed. But whatever.
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9-30-2009 @ 12:05AM
Enbee said...
no, i do not. the opener is just that... telling the basic premise for the story in 30 seconds or less (don't quote me on the time). the basic premise does not change .. even though certain details might... like a new character, or moving their residence as you suggested. the only time i might be more flexible with this, would be if there was a primary character change. (which in this case does not even apply, as he is the ONLY character in the opening). therefore, forget i said anything except "no, i do not".
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9-30-2009 @ 11:32AM
bruce said...
People who sit around on the internet telling other people that they have "too much time on their hands" (TMTOH) clearly have too much time on their hands.
Seriously, you're reading a website about TV shows and you're trying to insult the person who wrote a blog entry by positing that HE has too much time on his hands? Talk about hypocrisy. TMTOH is internet shorthand for having no life and not having sex (since American culture equates having sex with having a life - even nasty 600 pound sweaty, greasy, pimply, smelly, hairy sex validates most persons' existences). In that respect, TMTOH is the ultimate American insult - it implicitly states "your life is less meaningful than my life."
Why do so many people believe an objective determination of the value of someone's life can be determined merely by virtue of the fact that he/she spent 10 minutes writing something relatively unimportant on the internet? "You wasted 10 minutes doing something that I wouldn't do, therefore you have TMTOH and thus have no life... but I do have a life because I would not have spent 10 minutes of MY LIFE writing what you wrote on the internet."
Typically, TMTOH responses are nothing more than a mean way of displaying annoyance or disagreement with the subject matter of the original post. You see it most frequently on political blogs. Someone writes a 200 word post about abortion, and within 30 seconds the people who disagree with that person's position on abortion are spouting off about how the writer has "too much time on his/her hands."
One could go so far as to posit this is a corollary to Godwin's Law ("As an internet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1"). I posit that as an internet discussion grows longer, the probability of someone saying the original poster has too much time on his/her hands approaches 1.
In conclusion, everyone posting on the internet who is not getting paid has too much time on their hands. Having too much time on your hands is a great luxury and you should be thankful for it. It's better to be wasting time on the internet, sitting in your underwear eating a candy bar than toiling in a coal mine, covered in soot and coughing up black mucous. And it's worth noting that posting on the internet and having sex are not mutually exclusive - I could be getting a blowjob right now as I'm typing this. Thus I have too much time on my hands, plenty of fun on my penis, and an objectively meaningful life - how's that for a mindfuck!
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9-30-2009 @ 11:41AM
Panta said...
Please think before writing next time. This post was unnecessary and ridiculous, not to be mention terribly flawed.
Now, once we see where this season takes us, a re-working on the opener might work for season 5 - IF the focus of the show changes to a family, suburbanite dad by day and serial killer by night.
However, Dexter is still "alone" in this world and until he can trust Rita with his secret (if ever) the opening should remain him and his routines/apartment.
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