Spoiler-Free General Review:
I’d be hard-pressed to think of a concept more preemptively played out than a Hannibal Lecter TV series. For one, the Hannibal character has been exhausted in two mediums already. While the franchise peaked tremendously in 1991’s Silence of the Lambs, even Anthony Hopkins’ electric performance as Hannibal Lector could not sustain the subpar plotting of Hannibal or the pedestrian Red Dragon. Even worse, they gave the notoriously mysterious character an absurd origin story in Hannibal Rising, explaining away elements of the character that nobody wanted or needed to know in the first place.
Beyond mere franchise exhaustion, this season of television offered up a glut of serial killer themed programming. There were a whopping SEVEN new shows this season alone centered around serial killing*, in addition to several others that were still on the air from prior seasons. Hell, one of the new shows in that group was ALSO a prequel/reboot for another cinematic serial killer (Norman Bates of Bates Motel).
Finally, any TV re-imagining of the Hannibal Lecter character has to deal with the fact that, to most people, Anthony Hopkins IS Hannibal Lecter. Despite not being the first actor to portray him onscreen (Brian Cox beat him to it in Michael Mann’s film Manhunter), Hopkins relished in the role and earned himself a Best Actor Academy Award despite only appearing in 16 minutes of the film. Another actor appearing onscreen as Hannibal seemed about as appealing as somebody taking over as Tony Stark for Robert Downey Jr.
Even with cult-favorite Bryan Fuller on-board as showrunner, there was a lot of doubt as to whether Hannibal would work as a TV series. So, how is it that Hannibal ended up being one of the absolute best shows of the season? Well, there are lots of reasons to elaborate on, but Hannibal primarily succeeded by not even attempting to imitate what had come before.
Hannibal does several things to differentiate its universe from the one in the films. The most apparent is the production design: the world of this show is gorgeous. Yes, it’s dark, but it rarely looks as plain as the locales in the movies. Colors pop, props contrast beautifully with each other, and even the less colorful and diverse sequences have a somewhat dreamy feel to them.Next to the relative realism of the films, the heightened reality on display here is refreshing. Even with former CSI lead Lawrence Fishburne onscreen regularly, it would be impossible to mistake Hannibal for any standard murder procedural on TV due to its aesthetics alone.
The show’s take on Hannibal as a character also works because of how significantly it contrasts with what audiences are familiar with. Unlike Hopkins’ showy performance, Mads Mikkelson portrays Hannibal as a very stoic, reserved presence. While the audience ultimately receives lots of clues about what makes him tick, he’s still a bit of an enigma, his motivation just cloudy enough to make him fascinating. Hannibal is most comfortable acting from the background, quietly pulling strings so that events unfold in his favor.
Having such an enigmatic title character could have caused issues as well, had he actually been the main character. Instead the show performs another masterstroke by primarily following Will Graham and making him just as fascinating as Hannibal himself, if not more so. To prove that Will is a plenty-interesting lead character in his own right, the Hannibal writers don’t even introduce Hannibal into the narrative until over halfway through the pilot. It does not hurt the show one bit.
Finally, Hannibal works brilliantly as both an episodic show AND a serial. This is a balancing act that few shows even attempt these days, but it follows in the footsteps of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost, and the still-running Justified as a program that’s satisfying on several storytelling levels at once.
If you haven’t watched Hannibal, I strongly recommend seeking it out. In addition to all the strong points I’ve already mentioned it has consistently great performances from the entire cast and a great sense of pacing. My praise below goes into details better left unspoiled if you haven’t given the show a chance yet.
In-Depth Deconstruction: Spoilers Abound!
As mentioned above, Hannibal is gripping from the very first scene. Will Graham, the “hero” of the series, is brought to a homicide to look over the crime scene and determine what happened and why. Director David Slade uses several techniques to set the opening sequence apart from the standard CSI flashback. An unsettling crackling/buzzing sound rings out (if you have surround sound even the rear speakers come to life, almost as if your system is failing). What looks to be a pendulum swings repeatedly in front of the camera, wiping away details of the crime, as if we’re being taken back in time piece-by-piece. And most notably, Will himself begins taking the action of the serial killer.
This last piece is perhaps one of the most significant visualizations that the show offers, and it is a device utilized throughout the run of the show to remind the audience that there is something coming unhinged in Will’s psyche. The concept of homicide investigation slowly wearing on a detective’s soul is something of a cliche, so it was important to actually visualize Will’s empathy for the killers. It’s one thing to be able to think like a killer, it’s another to embody them emotionally and have the weight of their kills on your mind.
Had the show stuck to Will simply informing Hannibal of these feelings, it would not have connected in the same way. It also would have prevented one of my favorite fake-outs of the season. Will eventually begins suffering black-outs as a symptom of his diseased mind, and at one point the show cuts from Will in his own home to Will in an unfamiliar place, murdering somebody. Of course, he’s not ACTUALLY killing anybody; he’s reliving a murder at a crime scene. But he doesn’t realize this, and neither does the audience at first. This scene is excellent misdirection, and it would be impossible without the already-established visualization of Will’s method.
In addition to its visual continuity, Hannibal does a superb job of slowly putting the narrative pieces on the table and piecing them all together at the finale. There are several episodes that focus on Abigail Hobbs, a girl who served as bait for her late serial killer father. Her connection with Hannibal is probably the most substantial (and the most tragic) of all, but the relationship set up between her and Will is very significant as well. We understand that Will may have wanted to protect Abigail, but it’s also completely believable that, to others, he may have had reason to kill her. By the end of the season, even Abigail is afraid of Will’s behavior.
Finally, I have an immense amount of appreciation for Hannibal, simply because it does not treat the viewer like an idiot. It’s never spelled out that Hannibal is feeding his friends the remains of his human victims, nor is it actually shown that he murdered Abigail Hobbs. The show simply trusts that you are a regular viewer, and that you probably have these things figured out.
(Kill Bill: Vol 2 spoilers in the following paragraph)
The same trust is applied in the character of Hannibal himself. In a lesser show, Hannibal’s methods and motivations would be made very obvious, in case slower audience members did not pick up on them. Instead, the show leaves a lot of Hannibal’s thought process unspecified, and some of it is very much up for interpretation. My personal take is that Hannibal is a sociopath. He lacks most all of human feelings, but he is intensely curious. In the case of Will Graham he has a certain fascination about his abilities and empathy, and he is primarily driven by a curiosity over what Will will do under various circumstances. Hannibal seems to have little regard as to whether these circumstances will be destructive, because he values his own curiosity more than Will’s well-being. He’s like B.B., The Bride’s daughter, in Kill Bill Vol 2, stepping on goldfish just to see what would happen. It’s only appropriate that the most emotion we see out of him in the season is at his own therapy session, crying quietly over Will’s predicament. These are not tears of a man who has lost a friend, they’re tears of a child who broke his favorite toy.
(end Kill Bill: Vol 2 spoilers)
There are other interpretations of Hannibal’s character, too. I’ve seen others who are convinced that Hannibal genuinely cares for Will, and that his actions in concealing his mental illness were an extreme form of therapy. I’m not sure that I buy this (the relative ease with which he eliminates Abigail Hobbs, who he had also “bonded” with, seems to speak against it), but I’m also not sure I WANT the show to provide a definitive answer. Hannibal ends the season as a fascinating character, and it’s in large part to the holes left in his characterization.
Finally, despite being very much its own beast, Hannibal is not afraid to use imagery and circumstances often associated with the franchise if they help empower the narrative. The season ends with a sequence where Hannibal visits Will Graham in prison. The camera movement and editing are purposefully evocative of the scene in Silence of the Lambs in which Clarice first visits Hannibal Lecter, but now the tables have turned: it is a free Hannibal who is now visiting an imprisoned Will Graham. Many are expecting Will to be exonerated early in the second season, but I hope that Will’s imprisonment remains the status quo for some time. The idea of making Jack Crawford (Fishburne’s character) the lead for the second season, with Will in the Hannibal Lecter role, is fascinating.
Whatever direction Bryan Fuller decides go, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s earned it.