Ok, so, we all know
Hannibal Lecter, right? The brilliant psychiatrist turned cannibal, made famous
in the early 90s movie “Silence of the Lambs” by Anthony Hopkins? The first
movie showed us an imprisoned Hannibal Hannibal ” Hopkins
reprises his role, as a now fugitive serial killer running around Europe ‘causing all sorts of trouble. Only a year later
yet another Hannibal Lecter movie is released, this time a prequel, telling the
story of a pre-incarcerated Hannibal based on a novel with the same name “Red
Dragon”. And it is that same novel that has sprawled this year’s tv series
which features a very refined, calm and generally non-creepy version of the
iconic character, at least in the very beginning.
So the story focuses on this former police investigator named Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), currently a teacher, too stressed out by real police work due to his incredible ability to empathize with killers, going deep into their mind, predicting their behavior, examining their reasoning, putting himself in their shoes. Coerced by one of the FBI’s top agents, Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne), into helping them catch a murderer, Graham is forced to deal with his own fears and frustrations going deeper and deeper into his own twisted mind for the word’s better good. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), an established psychiatrist, is also brought on by top FBI investigator Jack Crawford to help with the investigation and whilst doing so becomes intrigued by Graham’s ability as they form an unlikely team. The premise for the show sounds simple enough, but the show is anything but. From the dialogues to the crimes that are being investigated, this is the first time i watch a procedural crime-drama and feel that it has absolutely no relation to CSI, even though the constant reminder of the comparison is one of the main players himself, Mr Laurence Fishburne (having been on the other show as well). The killers an their crimes on this show are so dark and twisted that i’m actually surprised they’re allowed to be shown on TV. The blood is everywhere, bodies sometime pile-up the screen yet Hannibal never becomes a gore-fest, it manages to be artistic, realistic and twisted and the same time. Each episode ties in very well with the next, the balance of a case-per-episode and the overall story of the season is done with excellence. No time is ever wasted for the viewer and the dynamics between the 3 main characters are constantly evolving. The overall season-arc is anything but predictable leaving you excited for the next episode without even a small hint of what is going to happen next. This is suspense-drama at it’s very best. What makes the show great besides the incredibly twisted and original killings in each episode is the complexity and unpredictability of the show’s best character, Hannibal himself. By the end of the very first episode you will be asking yourself the same questions about Hannibal that Will Graham has to answer to himself every time he examines a new killer, why is he doing this? When did he decide to do it? How has he done it? Who is this guy ? The overall art-style of the series reminds me of David Fincher. The deep heart-beat-like base that you hear every time Graham is investigating a crime scene combined with his visual hallucinations of a deer covered in crow feathers gives the series a very specific feel. There’s a lot of dark subject matter but the series doesn’t feel bleak, it doesn’t have that grey “the road”-ish feeling to it, the colors are very bright, the blood is very red yet it never feels over the top or unrealistic. The “Graham’s Mind” scenes also feature very bright coloring and intense score and are one of the highlights of the show, doing a very good job at placing you in the emotional context of what a murderer must feel when committing his heinous deeds.
So the story focuses on this former police investigator named Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), currently a teacher, too stressed out by real police work due to his incredible ability to empathize with killers, going deep into their mind, predicting their behavior, examining their reasoning, putting himself in their shoes. Coerced by one of the FBI’s top agents, Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne), into helping them catch a murderer, Graham is forced to deal with his own fears and frustrations going deeper and deeper into his own twisted mind for the word’s better good. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), an established psychiatrist, is also brought on by top FBI investigator Jack Crawford to help with the investigation and whilst doing so becomes intrigued by Graham’s ability as they form an unlikely team. The premise for the show sounds simple enough, but the show is anything but. From the dialogues to the crimes that are being investigated, this is the first time i watch a procedural crime-drama and feel that it has absolutely no relation to CSI, even though the constant reminder of the comparison is one of the main players himself, Mr Laurence Fishburne (having been on the other show as well). The killers an their crimes on this show are so dark and twisted that i’m actually surprised they’re allowed to be shown on TV. The blood is everywhere, bodies sometime pile-up the screen yet Hannibal never becomes a gore-fest, it manages to be artistic, realistic and twisted and the same time. Each episode ties in very well with the next, the balance of a case-per-episode and the overall story of the season is done with excellence. No time is ever wasted for the viewer and the dynamics between the 3 main characters are constantly evolving. The overall season-arc is anything but predictable leaving you excited for the next episode without even a small hint of what is going to happen next. This is suspense-drama at it’s very best. What makes the show great besides the incredibly twisted and original killings in each episode is the complexity and unpredictability of the show’s best character, Hannibal himself. By the end of the very first episode you will be asking yourself the same questions about Hannibal that Will Graham has to answer to himself every time he examines a new killer, why is he doing this? When did he decide to do it? How has he done it? Who is this guy ? The overall art-style of the series reminds me of David Fincher. The deep heart-beat-like base that you hear every time Graham is investigating a crime scene combined with his visual hallucinations of a deer covered in crow feathers gives the series a very specific feel. There’s a lot of dark subject matter but the series doesn’t feel bleak, it doesn’t have that grey “the road”-ish feeling to it, the colors are very bright, the blood is very red yet it never feels over the top or unrealistic. The “Graham’s Mind” scenes also feature very bright coloring and intense score and are one of the highlights of the show, doing a very good job at placing you in the emotional context of what a murderer must feel when committing his heinous deeds.
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