The red symbolizes blood, the grey and black symbolize mystery, and the font symbolizes being
SO FUCKING EDGY!
Ok, so I am going to dive into this review right after a couple of qualifying statements.
1) There are spoilers ahead. Duh.
2) In order to write a comprehensive review I would have to remember names of characters, specific plot point details, and read/watch side material related to this title.
3) In order to achieve the points outlined in qualifying statement #2 I would have to rewatch the episode.
4) I do not want to watch this episode again, so prepare for a more impressionistic review/recounting of Hannibal.
5) Deal with it.
6) Or, you know, don't.
Alright, now we can get into the definitely well-outlined details of my review! Woo! So, here we go. Hannibal the show follows Professor Twitchy, an FBI lecturer who occasionally does psychological profiling on the side (presumably to pay for his bohemian dog whisperer hobby).
"Tell us that one about Jeffrey Dahmer again" -Says the Aphex Twin dog on the right
Apart from the protagonist's Baha Men membership card, we are also reminded that he possesses a drama-viable position on the autism spectrum. In what is a seemingly recent fad of media, the protagonist is written on a hotspot within the autism spectrum where he is able to affect an affinity for dissociative disorders while also being empathetic to viewers. Almost always being labeled as autistic or having Asperger's syndrome guarantees that the character in question will also be a sociopath (a stereotype I find about as offensive and removed from reality as all native American characters being shamans, all Jewish characters being money hungry, all elderly black janitor characters being a wise deity, or Tom Cruise being seen as an actual person). Sometimes this 'affable sociopath' characteristic is charming due to clever writing (see: Community's Abed or Sherlock's Sherlock), sometimes it is charming primarily due to the caliber of acting (House of Card's Frank J. Underwood), sometimes it isn't charming despite the acting ( Lie to Me's Dr. Cal Lightman), and in this case it is not charming because of both the writing and the acting.
Hugh Dancy's nervous and twitchy portrayal of a character with an acute form of Asperger Syndrome is about as graceful as trying to stick shift a dick to climax, his line delivery is as forced as the plot in a Pride & Prejudice porn parody, and his premonition dream sequences are about as poorly framed and gratuitous as the previous two analogies.The protagonist switches from frantic anxiety to introspective reservation in what appears to be an attempt at character depth, but instead comes across as lazy writing and poorly executed acting. At one point, Laurence Fishburne's angry police chief trope of a character is informed that the protagonist is some sort of 'super empath'. They really wrote a character whose primary conflict was that he understands everyone but no one understands him? The combination of these elements reminds me less of a intellectually intriguing FBI profiler, and more of a teenager writing poetry about how no one understands him.
"What do you think you are doing?"
"Being complicated."
The first portion of the show introduces Professor Twitchy and his FBI friends as they are drawn into the apparently related disappearances of several young women. They discover a body, something about antlers, and are able to figure out that there is cannibalism involved somehow by the fact that one body returns with a cancerous lung. I may have been drunk by this point, (having played the 'drink anytime Professor Twitchy has an amazing epiphany because of his super-human empathy' game) but it seems like a weird jump in logic to have one body return without anything eaten and decide that because nothing was eaten from this body and that the lung was cancerous, that the killer is a cannibal. I guess what would I know, I am not a super empath. Either way, the conclusion (as off the deep end as it should have been) is completely right. The FBI is impressed with Professor Twitchy's powers (even though they never in the entire episode find any evidence to back up the cannibalism claim). After Professor Twitchy's complete and total success in the case thusfar, they decide they need some mega psychologist, Hannibal Lecter (played by a man with a badass and awesomely alliterative name, 'Mads Mikkelsen'), to ominously offer advice and leer at the visibly shaken protagonist. This is when the show really gets into its strong suit: cutting to people eating food after talking about the serial killer.
Juxtaposition à la carte.
Hannibal and Professor Twitchy prove to have decent buddy cop chemistry. Mikkelsen's Hannibal plays it cool and smooth which draws out the hammier tendencies of his more irritating counterpart. At first this dynamic forced me to focus on what frustrated me about Professor Twitchy, but it really served as a wonderful vehicle to make Hannibal seem much more collected and menacing in all of their scenes together. When Hannibal decides to drop threats on the copy cat killer it truly felt threatening, when Hannibal brought food over for Professor Twitchy it felt pervers (I had meant to write 'perverse', but 'pervers' seems pretty good too). Mikkelsen added a much needed element to the show- tension. The first act and a half felt like a scramble for a thin veil of characterization of inherently flat characters, meaning that the show's namesake's introduction felt both refreshing and haunting. Unfortunately, the show was not able to ride this dynamic out for too long before peeving me again. The show's climax had to do with Professor Twitchy and Hannibal going to the home of who they suspected as being the serial killer (or Hannibal's copycat). The psychologist and the FBI profiling lecturer. Without police. Or backup. With a gun. Of course it quickly turns into a bloody shootout. I am not sure what the in-world explanation for such an action would be. From the FBI's perspective they just sent in some random psychologist and someone whose only competence seems to be in figuring out crimes based on feeling bad for people.
"Take one more step and I will empathize you in the fucking face!"
I understand the drive to have a climax in this kind of a show be action-packed and bloody but it also has to be both a logical culmination of the narrative and be emotionally deserved. This fails in both regards. The ending is brief and shallow, while hinting at what is to be the overall arch in terms of the complicated serial killer/buddy cop dynamic. There is potential here, but that potential will be wasted if it is anything like the episode's clunky and soulless beginning or its preposterous and ill-conceived conclusion. Hopefully the series can come to focus more on its nominal character instead of his sweaty and histrionic counterpart.
Cheers!
Nathan
P.S. It puts the comment on the blog or else it gets the hose again.
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