Mads Mikkelsen as Dr Hannibal Lecter
I have an insatiable appetite for television, and have welcomed back Game of Thrones and Mad Men with great joy, although another one of my favourites, The Hour, sadly will not return for a third series. Amidst all this, I’m still eager to sink my teeth into new series, happy to absorb myself in as many different genres as possible, and a friend suggested I check out NBC’s new series Hannibal due to my love for BBC’s Luther, a similarly eerie crime thriller. Hannibal apparently serves as something of a “prequel” to the well-known films about the infamous Hannibal Lecter and is based off one of the novels of the series that inspired the films.
Starring Hugh Dancy as the perpetually sullen Will Graham and Mads Mikkelsen as Dr Hannibal Lecter, the series also features Laurence Fishburne as Dr Jack Crawford. Hannibal centres primarily around Will Graham, whose personal struggles increase in severity as his vivid imagination enables him to mentally re-create murders and empathise with killers to determine their motives. He joins Jack Crawford in hunting down serial killers who commit unspeakably gruesome crimes, and Dr Hannibal Lecter soon steps into the picture to help Will cope with his psychological troubles, although there is something rather dodgy about the doctor…
Graphic and vivid with a macabre aesthetic, Hannibal spares no detail in its intriguingly gruesome subject matter, so it’s in no way for the squeamish, nor is it very appropriate for young audiences. There’s something oddly fascinating about the disturbing specifics, be it young women stripped bare and impaled upon deer antlers, or rows of victims buried alive (and kept living via force-feeding of sugar) to serve as fertiliser for mushrooms. It’s quite unlike anything I’ve seen from American television thus far, imaginative and original with an uncanny ability to worm its way under my skin with its clever and unique cinematography. Though I would not classify it as horror, it still taps into the primal recesses of our mind to find what makes us squirm and what pushes the very limits of our comfort zones.
The cast of Hannibal
The story itself has yet to unfold entirely, as only two episodes have aired thus far, but I still find myself intrigued. The dialogue is not particularly clever or sharp, but the series so far is high on suspense and mystery. It’s the level of uncertainty that still shrouds the characters and the situations they’re in that is keeping me hooked. Hopefully, as the episodes reveal more and more about the relationship between Mr Graham and Hannibal Lecter, the pieces will begin falling into place. My worst fear is that the show will rely too heavily on its visuals and eerie elements to tell the story, neglecting good writing, but I have strong reason to believe that it will not be the case. And I don’t mind a slow burn very much, most of the time.
Hugh Dancy, who I have only seen alongside other personal favourites Ben Whishaw and Andrea Riseborough in The Pride, is good at looking glum and moping about on hospital couches, but has yet to make a solid impression on me despite a few moments of convincing emotion. Hopefully, as his character continues to struggle with his own “terrible imaginings” a la Macbeth, he will have a proper chance to give an impressive performance, because he does appear to have potential – he’s just not been given the means to show it to its full extent yet. Mads Mikkelsen is a perfect fit for the role of Hannibal Lecter: well-dressed, polite, and poised with an impenetrably collected exterior, yet something about him is positively unsettling and satisfyingly creepy.
I’m not totally sure what my feelings are about Hannibal yet, but so far, I have no major criticisms (unless you count how I am rather unreasonably annoyed by Graham’s catch-phrase “This is my design” in re-imagining murders). It hasn’t unfolded itself fully yet, and perhaps it is that lure of the unknown that has piqued my interest and is keeping me hooked. In any case, it’s a refreshing change of pace in American television, and a smart move for NBC. I look forward to seeing the strange, dark places that future episodes will take us, and I am quite hungry for more.
♬ Song of the Day: In The City by The Jam
The Tragedy of Errors. 