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***NO REAL PLOT SPOILERS, MINOR REFERENCES TO ACTUAL STORYLINE***
Long a fan of the original books by Thomas Harris and the three films, 'Silence of the Lambs', 'Hannibal' (which unlike some I consider equal to the first film), and 'Red Dragon' (which while still very well done I don't think managed to capture the horror of Michael Mann's 'Manhunter' and was somewhat hampered by its noble aim to be true to the original), but not a fan of 'Hannibal Rising' - I approached this first series out of curiosity and some degree of trepidation due to doubts as to whether it might have been a bit of a rip-off feeding off the success of the films (no pun intended).
The first two things to say about it is that I think Hugh Dancy emerges as the definitive Will Graham very quickly. A very fine actor who inhabits his character from the word go and it is left up to the audience to keep up with him. A tortured soul, but not to the frenetic extent that an actor like Jeremy Davies ('Helter Skelter') might have interpreted the role. Yet he is suffering, just keeping his head barely above water, assaulted by what he sees and what he is able to interpret.
I could make one observation that Hollywood tends to wade into issues to do with mental illness usually not pulling it off and ending up putting across a very misleading 'story' of what mental illness is to sufferers. I do not want to get all 'PC' about this - it is only television after all - except to make the observation that the show walks a fairly fine line with the core feature of Graham's illness - that he can think like serial killers and reconstruct crime scenes because he is teetering on the edge or falling into the chasm of a episode of mental illness.
On the one hand, it is making a very valid observation that great investigators (in the real world) work on gut instinct, become fine interpreters of human beings; so that any investigation's success is not according to the evidence trail alone. A suspect may betray themselves by their behaviour, for example, which may lead investigators down paths the accumulated evidence, at that point in time, would not otherwise have suggested as to be warranted examination.
I guess, personally, I had in the back of my own mind, somewhere, this slight feeling of: 'if this version of Will Graham is so unstable, why on earth would the FBI touch him with a bargepole?'...
BUT, it is a fiction, it is Hollywood, it is a fable, and the folks who bring 'Hannibal Season 1' together do it so extraordinarily well that within the world they have created, the intensity of Will Graham's descent into 'the arena of the unwell', whilst fighting to retain his place as a highly-gifted special agent, works very, very well.
Not that I try to find things to criticise about a show, but I really cannot find anything to point a finger at with Series 1.
It was a refreshing and superb choice to have Lawrence Fishburne as Jack Crawford - an intimidating, tough presence on screen who works wonderfully well in the role.
Of course, Mads Mikkelson (I think I spelt that correctly, apologies if not) is extraordinary as Hannibal. He is everything you expect Hannibal pre-capture to be - charming, learned, manipulative, dangerous, worldly, obsessive, complex, frightening - and the actor's physical appearance and European accent adds a great deal to the sense of '' apartness', of his uniqueness, if I can put it like that.
The rest of the supporting cast, from top to bottom are also outstanding. Gillian Anderson as Hannibal's own psychiatrist is also quite extraordinary. Not a job I would want....
Now for the warnings for those perhaps tempted to wander into the dark world of 'Hannibal S1' unawares - think of the darkest, most explicit moments of the original Jonathan Demme 'Silence of the Lambs' - an outright masterpiece, of course. But it was perhaps restrained by the times in terms of what the studio, and thus the censors, and finally the cinema-going public, would be able to stomach.
It is therefore unfair to indulge in any sort of comparison between the earlier films and this latest incarnation of Dr Lecter.
But this series is brilliantly written, wonderfully acted, superbly paced, cinematography, music, production design - you name it - it is all first class.
What I should flag is that you will see everything that those who arrive on each crime scene see. It is not just bloody and hard to watch. This is very graphic, visually disturbing, truly horrifying stuff that takes you into the world of not just one but several serial killers. The fact that the viewer does not for some of the time know which killer is responsible for what crime scene ratchets up the tension to an almost unbearable degree.
Like truly disturbing horror films, this series I would argue is definitely for adults only, as minors simply will not understand the full meaning of what is going on here and why, and the crime scenes are both incredibly constructed by the team behind the series but also horrifying.
These are adults, highly trained adults, trying to deal with and overcome the most ghastly crime scenes perpetrated by very disturbed (other) adults who are hiding in plain sight amongst us, if you like, Hannibal included.
This is however one of the great strengths of this series - it is dealing with horrific issues, ghastly material - it shows you what law enforcement has to deal with (hopefully less often than the characters in this series) and it does not let us as the audience off one little bit. Basically, 'you wanted to watch a TV series about serial killers? Well, don't say we didn't warn you....'.
The dust jacket for the DVD I purchased from Amazon quoted one reviewer as calling the series as 'deliciously disturbing' - a clever reference to Hannibal's main pastime, and a very accurate summation of the effect this show has on the viewer.
I found I couldn't stop watching - it was riveting, horrifying, appalling, and yes, very disturbing.
At times, I was reminded of what Hannah Arendt observed about the 'banality of evil' - I don't want to push that comparison too far by comparing a fictional TV Show to one of the most appallingly barbaric periods of world history since the dawn of time (The Holocaust), except to say that with the capture of one particular killer played with beautiful understatement by Lance Henrikson, who is caught sitting almost nonchalantly in his armchair, it makes the horror of what his character wrought, which we have already seen multiple times in preceding scenes, in some ways all the more horrifying and unfathomable.
If I am not mistaken, at some point in one of the early episodes, one of the staff working at the Behavioural Sciences Lab at the FBI (Jack Crawford's lair, if you will) makes the oft-observed comment that the FBI estimates that at any point in time there are around 13-15 serial killers operating within U.S. borders (a real statistic, apparently, not TV make-believe).
When you contemplate a statistic like that (and I am writing all the way from Australia, and we have had our fair share of serial killers proportionate to our relatively tiny population...) it adds to the plausibility of everything put before us as viewers indulging in this bone-chilling series.
But this series achieves something more than that. By the end of the final Season 1 episode, which I will not spoil for you, I really felt a little like Will Graham's character - in need of a good lie down, a few sessions with a Psychiatrist (whose background I had thoroughly checked first, of course), and a lot of time in the sun smelling the roses.
I consider myself a fairly seasoned, psychologically tough viewer and cinema-goer who has seen just about everything those with a slightly twisted/demented sensibility like to throw at us.
Well, the folks behind 'Hannibal' have taken things to a whole new level, have not just pushed the envelope but eviscerated it. It is expertly crafted.
The creators of 'Hannibal' have successfully achieved the premise that those in pursuit of serial killers are to varying degrees caught up, and thus either permanently or periodically crippled, by the horrors they have to confront in order to catch the perpetrators. There is much psychological pain and suffering on show, most superbly captured by Hugh Dancy's powerful performance in the lead role.
This series was full-on, do not underestimate its brilliance but also its impact. It will leave you shaken, but also stirred by the superbness of what has been achieved in a series like this.
The team behind 'Hannibal' took the subject matter entirely seriously, chose an absolutely stellar cast to bring their vision to the screen, and it is quite simply one of the most disturbing yet brilliantly executed shows I have seen in a long, long time.
I am looking forward to S2 - by the time of the release date of the S2 DVD, I should have just about recovered sufficiently from S1...
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A Must Watch Series!!
Great delivery, arrived on time, in brand new condition.The premise of the series is of course, based off of the novels and films but it has its own individual tone throughout the series. Mads Mikkelson, Lawrence Fishburn and Hugh Dancy gave consistently phenomenal performances. Mads Mikkelson conveyed the perfect amount of darkness and mystery throughout the series and Hugh Dancy, by season 3 had evolved into a different version of himself (avoiding spoilers).I highly recommend this series to fans of the books or films but please, do not expect this series to have the same presence as Sir Anthony Hopkins. No one is as good as him when it comes to being Hannibal (or any character for that matter).I wish this show hadn't gotten cancelled!
Top reviews from other countries
christian
Great 5 star show but only average picture quality for a bluray...
Reviewed in Mexico on September 4, 2017derAiled
„BEVOR WIR BEGINNEN EINE KLEINE WARNUNG: KEINE DER SPEISEN IST VEGETARISCH. BON APPETIT“
Reviewed in Germany on November 30, 2013
L. Hubbard
Hannibal is the best US TV show I have seen in years. It has a brilliant story arc executed with style, gore and great acting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 5, 2013