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Do we have a thread for this already? Probably not. Whatever. You guys need to start watching this show yesterday. It's a really smart exploration of the effects of violence and violent imagery on the psyche disguised as another in a long line of recent gory horror-cop dramas. Also, Mads Mikkelsen's Hannibal takes Anthony Hopkins' to the fucking cleaners.
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Man, this is my favorite show on TV right now, and I'm in total agreement on Mads Mikkelsen. I think this is easily the best Hannibal Lecter material to hit the screen, Silence of the Lambs included. Don't get me wrong, great film, but I really love this show. As Doc says, very smart psychology presented in a gorgeous package, it's amazing to look at. It manages to maintain the perfect balance between a grounded reality and the totally absurd, over-the-top macabre. And while I single out Mads, the whole cast is fantastic. So psyched for season 2 tonight.
The thing is that this show shouldn't even be GOOD. NBC produces a Hannibal Lecter prequel. It's such an obvious, shameless cash grab that it almost makes you angry. Then they cast Mads Mikkelsen as Lecter and I sat up and took notice, decided to watch it, and the pilot had me hooked. It's so easy to write it off if you haven't seen it, but it's worth checking out.
I think the show makes a fantastic counter-part to True Detective. True Detective tackles its surreal material subtly, using it as an undercurrent to enhance the mood. Hannibal fully embraces it, though. It's a dreamy opera of gore.
So, last night's season premiere was incredible. To build on my True Detective comparison, I think that Hannibal is just as beautiful (the final shot of the episode was gorgeously shot, which made it all the more horrifying) but the writing is much, much better.
It looks like DocSub and I are the only ones here who watch this show. 
Last night's episode was yet again fantastic, probably one of the better ones in the series' (admittedly short) history. The opening was tremendously strong, and while I'm not usually one to be bothered by gore, they actually managed to make me cringe.
A few disparate points to hightlight: It's nice to see Will Graham starting to take a more proactive role, and I'm curious to see what his game plan is. Mads Mikkelsen got to deliver several very funny lines this week, on top of some of his best menacing work. The scene where Bedelia says goodbye in his office was possibly the scariest Hannibal Lecter's ever been for me, and he did so little. The subplot with Bedelia has not played out as I expected, and I'm hoping that's not the last we'll see of her.
There really is nothing else like this on television and it's the first show in a long time that I HAVE to watch live, I find the week-long wait so unbearable.
Totally agree. This season is shaping up to be a big improvement on season 1. The fact that the characters are actually developing without the show making a point of it is kind of shocking for network television. Hannibal is getting dangerously cocky, and Will is becoming much more sly and manipulative.
The scene where
So as not to leave you two lonely, I managed to catch up on all of season 1 and the first two episodes of season 2 over the weekend. 
I don't have any kind of history with the source material for this series. Of the movies, I've only seen Silence of the Lambs once when I was in middle school. So, I can't compare Mads Mikkelsen's Hannibal to Hopkins or anyone else, but it's a fantastic performance. Part of me wishes I hadn't known anything about the character at all, because the first season does such an excellent job of introducing you to what an evil man he is.
And this show has to be just about one of the cruelest things you could show to a foodie.
I also think that Hannibal is clearly so menacing, it seems a little silly for everyone to talk about him as if he's benign. At the very least, I wish they'd acknowledge that he's a strong presence and forceful personality. But that's really a very minor quibble.
Overall, season 1 was very good, and I'm glad I'm watching the show. 
I like how we're seeing little glimpses of how Hannibal will ultimately meet his downfall. Clearly, leaving Will alive was a mistake. Making it look like Will had killed himself after realizing what he'd done to Abigail would have been so easy and believable. Instead Hannibal frames Will and now has a resentful enemy. It's such a lovely parallel to Abel Gideon, who so resented being manipulated by Chilton. For the whole first season, Will feared turning into Garrett Jacob Hobbs/Hannibal, but instead he's become Gideon. Ugh, such a shame they killed him off. I love me some Eddie Izzard.
So, yeah, anyway. Now there are three. 
Seriously though, imagine if this season of House of Cards started with a hint as to Frank's downfall. It would have made his invincibility much more palatable, at least to me.
I agree with you about the procedural stuff in season 1. Around episode 10 they wisely dropped it. I guess it's kind of necessary, though. The network wants to sell the show on these crazy cases, and it's a good framework for setting up the characters. Now that we have that foundation, we can get to the real meat of the story. The show is being planned way ahead of time too, which I appreciate. Bryan Fuller said that he has a good idea of what season 3 will be, and that season 4 will be the show's version of Red Dragon. Assuming they run that long.
The procedural nature of the first half of season one bothered me a little too. I let them get away with it because the characters were so compelling and the storylines were stronger than what you typically see in Law & Order or CSI or whatever. But I'm very glad they're moving away from it.
At the same time, that kind of thing IS what Jack Crawford and his team DO, so it needs to have some presence. I think the way season 2 has handled it so far has been pretty perfect.
Season OneI also think that Hannibal is clearly so menacing, it seems a little silly for everyone to talk about him as if he's benign. At the very least, I wish they'd acknowledge that he's a strong presence and forceful personality. But that's really a very minor quibble.
I don't necessarily agree with this. I think Hannibal does a good job of hiding the menace from anybody he doesn't want to show it too. He's clearly an imposing, intelligent figure, but most people I've known with PhDs (not that there have been many) give off a similar aloofness.
Season TwoFor the whole first season, Will feared turning into Garrett Jacob Hobbs/Hannibal, but instead he's become Gideon. Ugh, such a shame they killed him off. I love me some Eddie Izzard.
Potential Season 2 SpoilersIzzard's definitely coming back, but I think it'll probably be a hallucination by Will.
That works for me!
It absolutely blows my mind that they are able to get away with the level of disturbing topics and visuals on a basic cable network and both the makeup & effects teams and cinematographers deserve all of the awards for making damn near every death scene framable.
So episode three, while still entertaining, was not as good as I know the series can be. Episode four, however, was just full-on fucking outstanding. My favorite thing about this season so far is that there is a LOT of story going on here, they're moving things along at a rapid pace and they aren't padding this out. It's easy to look at the opening scene of the season with Jack and Hannibal and think, "Well clearly that's episode 13, and now I know they're just going to be treading water until episode 11 or so." To have Will so aggressively pushing Hannibal's buttons this early in the season is both surprising and admirable. Much like season five of Breaking Bad in that regard.
This show's treatment of death is so mature and elegiac. It's really extraordinary.
Or not! I certainly hope not. And they left it ambiguous for a reason. But I think she's gonna be on a dinner plate next week. Too bad. She was one of the show's strongest aspects, especially since the other major female presence (Alana) is kind of a weakly-written character.
Every scene with Gina Torres was beautiful and heartbreaking. I so love the character they created with her, she's a fantastic addition whenever she's on the show.
Though that reminds me, I was surprised to see Jack and Bella actually smoke marijuana on camera. The only network show I remember watching that featured marijuana use was That 70's Show, and they had to be all coy about that with their language and were only able to have the post-toke scenes with them sitting in a haze. Was it allowed just because they were using a vaporizer or have the rules softened on that sort of thing?
Having 2 characters smoke marijuana is the least shocking thing that the show has gotten away with.
Do we have a thread for this already? Probably not. Whatever. You guys need to start watching this show yesterday. It's a really smart exploration of the effects of violence and violent imagery on the psyche disguised as another in a long line of recent gory horror-cop dramas. Also, Mads Mikkelsen's Hannibal takes Anthony Hopkins' to the fucking cleaners.
I haven't heard of this , and I really don't have time to start yet another show, buuuuttt...
I just wanted to say that I agree that Mads Mikkelsen IS.. THE.. SHIT!
Don't know if any one caught the movie "Valhalla Rising"(2009), I found it while looking
for other Nicolas Winding Refn movies(I had just seen "Drive", another BadASS Movie, IMHO)
I had remembered liking him in Casino Royal,
but now the man is basically a GOD to me.
Just FANTASTIC!!
sorry for getting off topic, but I just had to put that out there
I know a couple of people have already mentioned your margins to you, but d'you think you could fix them and whatever new color anomaly is going on with your text? It's really distracting. Many thanks.
mkeithddc wrote:I know a couple of people have already mentioned your margins to you, but d'you think you could fix them and whatever new color anomaly is going on with your text? It's really distracting. Many thanks.
What are
you talking
about?
This is how
you are
supposed to type,
isn't it?
You post your way
and I'll post mine.
Having 2 characters smoke marijuana is the least shocking thing that the show has gotten away with.
On a moral level I agree with you, but I'm not sure I do on an "American ratings system" level. We've got a pretty notoriously fucked up ratings system in the way it prioritizes offenses.
I mean hell, season one of Hannibal they had to digitally alter a shot to hide the Angelmaker's victims' asscracks with blood, because somehow that makes it more palatable.
Doctor Submarine wrote:Having 2 characters smoke marijuana is the least shocking thing that the show has gotten away with.
On a moral level I agree with you, but I'm not sure I do on an "American ratings system" level. We've got a pretty notoriously fucked up ratings system in the way it prioritizes offenses.
I mean hell, season one of Hannibal they had to digitally alter a shot to hide the Angelmaker's victims' asscracks with blood, because somehow that makes it more palatable.
They had pot in an episode of Gilmore Girls a while back, if that means anything.
This show keeps getting better from week to week, it's astounding. Hugh Dancy is more deserving of an Emmy than anyone in recent memory. He won't get one, but man does he deserve it. The layers of Will Graham this season are fascinating.
And to contrast it to a similar scene in the Hannibal film, where Anthony Hopkins makes Ray Liotta eat part of his own brain... there's just no comparison. I was laughing at that scene in the movie, but I was giggling gleefully with the scene in the show. Scott played it so camp, whereas Fuller keeps it clinical and detached, with just the faintest twinkle of humor... I don't know how this show does it. They can have scenes as absurdly arch as Hannibal playing harpsichord in a cavernous, gloomy mansion and yet it's still one of the most subtle, layered dramas I've ever seen on television.
I know I have a tendency to gush in these posts, but it's rare that I feel such an unbridled enthusiasm for a piece of media. I'm usually the nit-pickiest motherfucker around.
"Hannibal" the excellent TV show and "Hannibal" the shitty Ridley Scott filmThe scene with Lecter convincing Gideon to consume his own leg was one of the most disturbing things I feel I've ever seen in fiction. I don't know why, but that really got to me. And that we have Mads Mikkelsen and Eddie Izzard playing a scene that dark in a production with this level of craft on NBfuckingC still boggles my goddamn mind.And to contrast it to a similar scene in the Hannibal film, where Anthony Hopkins makes Ray Liotta eat part of his own brain... there's just no comparison. I was laughing at that scene in the movie, but I was giggling gleefully with the scene in the show. Scott played it so camp, whereas Fuller keeps it clinical and detached, with just the faintest twinkle of humor... I don't know how this show does it. They can have scenes as absurdly arch as Hannibal playing harpsichord in a cavernous, gloomy mansion and yet it's still one of the most subtle, layered dramas I've ever seen on television.
That ending! Can't wait for next week. This season is a roller-coaster ride.
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