Is The 'Dexter' Revival Teaser An Homage Or Goof?

- Dexter -
Is The 'Dexter' Revival Teaser An Homage Or Goof?

Help! My family is in danger and I can't get a read on the Dexter revival teaser trailer. OK, fine, my family isn’t in any danger, but this whole Dexter thing is absolutely an emergency. Earlier today, the Showtime revival dropped a new teaser trailer, and it’s 31 seconds of straight mind fuckery. Or maybe it’s just my mind that’s being messed with, because I absolutely cannot tell what the tone of this promo is.

When we last saw Dexter, the character had left behind everything he knew to run off and become a lumberjack in the wilderness. The final minute and a half of the 8 season run ended with the killer-of-killers retreating from his manual labor to the solitude of a lonely cabin, where he stared sullenly out a window before turning to look straight into the camera in silence.

In the new clip, much of the same thing happens. Well, sort of. It opens as the camera pans out from snowy wilderness to show Michael C. Hall in character as he, again, gazes pensively out a window. We see his reflection in the glass first, and then he turns to lock eyes with the camera lens head on. “I’m just a soul whose intentions are gooood,” the music croons in the background. As singer Nina Simone croons, “Oh, lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood,” Dexter suddenly shares a tight smile with the viewer — and then his eyebrows give a mischievous little shrug of a motion as a chime sounds in sync.

But what does this mean???????????

It’s clear the teaser intentionally mirrors the last scene of the show, but what is most definitely NOT clear is whether it is an homage or a goof.

[video Embed]

Is Nina Simone warbling about good intentions meant to show us that the show’s creators know what they’re doing when they decided to stick to that lumberjack ending that many fans (myself included) would rather pretend never happened? Are they telling us that we just didn’t get the original ending and that it can actually be redeemed with a fresh storyline that picks up a few years down the road from where that scene left off?

Or are they actually clowning the whole lumberjackness of it all by throwing in that pseudo-eyebrow-wink and returning Dexter back to his bloody origin story? Are they letting us know that they also know that the Dexter finale — in fact, the whole Dexter final season — was Game of Thrones-level WTF disappointment before Game of Thrones did it next?

I just can’t tell — and I’m both intrigued and terrified to find out.

Join For Free
Sign up for a free account on our new, female-founded site to personalize your feed and get access to our community and conversations.

Discover More