First Look: Hannibal (TV Series)

(Scenes from Season 1 Episode 1 - Aperitif)

Year: 2013 | Studio: NBC | Directed by David Slade 

For fans of the Thomas Harris series and the Anthony Hopkins' version of the titled character, stop comparing this to The Silence of the Lambs, and please give this series a try and let yourself be blown away. Of course I was enchanted by the visually bloody preview, but before that let's give some kudos to Bryan Fuller for adapting this for TV. I think what we can expect from NBC's Hannibal (that you won't usually get from the film adapation) is the in depth character study of Hannibal Lecter, a tour de force and larger than life persona who lives for the vanity of his intellect and his unparalleled taste, and Will Graham, the NBI profiler with a damage of his own making.

I know there are so many police procedural series out there, which I don't watch by the way. But you have to take into account that this show is loosely based on the novel, so we would be seeing stories, subplots and other elements that were not included in the movie interpretations. Hannibal Lecter has always been one of my favorite fictional character, and now we have the chance to know him well before he was put behind bars. He is so good in playing cleverly mind games with his patients and because of his smart's he can get what he wants from them. 

I refuse to give in to the criticisms I've read about Mads Mikkelsen's thick accent. Hannibal was born and lived most of his life in Europe, it is inevitable for him to sound that way. Mikkelsen dove into the character in a way how a Hannibal Lecter would act and think like for the 21st century. Then there is Hugh Dancy who showed such flexible mind muscles for his role as Will Graham. I'm used to watching him in supporting roles, playing the nice guy so this is an actual change of paced for him. We know that he is not the killer, but Graham's antihero qualities, his fight with his inner demons stretches out Dancy's talent as an actor, something that we rarely get a glimpsed of from his earlier repertoire's. 

Everything is so gory it makes me wish that series like this could get its playtime every week on the big screen. I also like the fact that it has a gorgeous cinematography that made it look very much like a movie. Fuller and his episode 1 director David Slade took advantage of the technology and used it evidently well to make a very tasteful show that is a notch higher from every serial crime series out there. As I've said, it has more of an appeal of a movie than a TV series - and I am enjoying every minute of it. 

xoxo, Chin