Dexter
When Dexter was a boy, his mother was hacked to pieces while he watched. After two days of being locked in a packing crate with her dismembered body, he emerged pissed off and off kilter, determined to deliver justice to people who kill people. During the day, Dexter is an affable, good-looking homicide detective. He is gainfully employed, married, has a kid and lives a nice suburban life. Of course the rivers of weird that rush beneath his surface surge when the office fails to get the bad guy, and that’s when he indulges his night gig: Serial Killer. Testosterone gushes when he gets mad. He has a tough time with relationships in general, and finds that the only person he can really discuss his killing hobby with is his infant son. He’s detached in a very signature macho way.
Mad Men
John Hamm has nailed his version of the manly man. He is gorgeous in that sparkly, metrosexual, ‘50s, New Yorker kind of way. He is decisive, risky and harbors creative talent even he can’t seem to control. He pulls chicks – effortlessly. Roughly half of postwar America seems to be tossing her panties into his office. He also never, ever brags. He drinks, like any good advertising creative, and he can hold his liquor. When he gets mad he is mean, and when he is sad, he drinks. He does not cry openly. He chain smokes and swims. He’s married, a few times, but someone is always creeping into his sphere hoping to ease him out of his perfectly pressed trousers. He’s always got a fresh shirt in the drawer and a gal on the couch, all the while coming up with ad slogans nobody can top.
The Sopranos
The world has lost one of its greatest manly men. Tony Soprano could whack a snitch, bed a brunette, drive his kid to school, take out the trash and pour it all out in therapy in an hour. His sleepy eyelids, the wiseguy lisp and a fierce look of real power seduced women (his wife and otherwise), before he ever opened his mouth. He could sass the law like no other, and he gripped a handgun much like he did the remote – an easy toughness that is hard to copy. Tony Soprano was an everyman and a terrifying gangster at the same time. We identify when he doesn’t understand his kids, but know we’re out of our league when he wanders right past the dead body of a former friend to head home for dinner. With the recent earthly loss of the man who played Tony Soprano, a character legend stands in his stead. Rest in peace, James Gandolfini. 87 A