Hannibal (TV series)

2013-14 series based on Thomas Harris' famous character Hannibal Lector, and Will Graham, the detective who catches him.
==First season (May-July 2013)==
===Format===
At home, with Mum at first then on my own.
===Journal===
Found out about it in early May but didn't think much of it (I'm almost universally disappointed in modern TV dramas), but when I saw the cast (Laurence Fishbourne, Mads Mikkelsen, Gillian Anderson) I was more than prepared to give it a try.
Episode 1
Watched the first episode with Mum on May 8th 2013. It was certainly watchable, and I'm looking forward to the rest, although I was a bit puzzled about there being another cannibal (assuming there was).
1
Episode 2
Watched with Mum on the 9th. Surprisingly gruesome! Bit sceptical about every episode having a different weird serial killer, this one was pretty unconvincing. Also Hannibal is pretty ham-handed in his attempts to manipulate Will.
0
Episode 3
Watched on the 10th. Still really unconvinced. It all seems set up to have this tension of Lector being around without anyone realising, but it's totally unbelievable. Why would they send this random psychiatrist to escort a girl home? Why's he around so much? Why is Crawford such a dick? It just isn't believable.
0
Episode 4
Watched on the 14th. Not enjoying this series. Nonsensical. Characters are weird and unrealistic. There is no subtlety. It does not do justice to the source material.
-1
Episode 5
Watched on the 30th of May. Probably about time I stopped watching it. It's so carelessly put together.
-1
Episode 6
Watched on the 9th of July. I was musing on how much I like the Hannibal films and novels and my curiosity about Gillian Anderson's character in the series was piqued again. I found a clip from her appearance in the 7th episode and was sufficiently interested to try watching the next episode in my watchthrough of the series.
I really detest this series.
-2
Episode 7
Watched on the 12th of July. I don't know if I've just sufficiently lowered my expectations, or if this one just benefited from having simply too much interesting stuff to divulge, or if it's genuinely picking up at last, but this one wasn't bad. Gillian Anderson made a very brief appearance but it was intriguing.
0
Episode 8
Watched on the 13th of July. Continues to intrigue. Are they showing some skill, or have they just accidentally stumbled on a good episode? We'll see if it goes anywhere that keeps my interest...
1
Episodes 9-13
I watched 9 and 10 together shortly after 8, then the final 3 together on the evening of the 16th of July. I was honestly enjoying it by the end. Which frustrates me a little, because the beginning annoyed me so much that I had mentally completely binned it. Was I wrong? Have I come to realise how I should have been watching it? Or was the first half of the season terrible, despite the good masterplan which came through in the end? I'll give myself the benefit of the doubt and assume the latter.
Either way, I am very interested in this interpretation of Hannibal Lecter and look forward to finding out what happens in season 2.
2
===Rating===
1
==Second season (14th April - 27th May 2014)==
===Format===
At home, on my own.
===Journal===
Episode 1
I realised the second season had started about 4 episodes in, but didn't get around to starting it myself until mid-April, just before setting off for New Zealand. I enjoyed this episode quite a lot, but it'll be hard to keep up. It's working by maintaining a strong atmosphere, but without a good plot I'll lose interest.
1
Up to Episode 6
Watched a couple more before going to New Zealand, I think, and then watched up to episode 6 by the end of April while in New Zealand. It's really compelling at the moment, really well put together I think. I'm much more impressed than I was with the first season and can't wait to see where each next episode is going to take it.
2, bordering on 3 if it keeps it up!
Episodes 7 and 8
Watched on the way back from New Zealand. Not sure about these two, unfortunately. Seems to be diverging from the source material pretty radically, which I wasn't expecting. It's like they've pulled all these characters to use from the books but need to write a whole new story for their series, but that means they've lost some of the inherited awesome from my love of the books and films. Their story could dissolve into shite now, since they've decided they know better than Harris.
0
Episodes 9 and 10
Well it seems to have thoroughly abandoned any attempt at remaining a prequel to the existing canon. I didn't think they had the rights to the second 2 books but they seem to be drawing basically every character and event from them for their own use. But it's not even that they're just taking Red Dragon as the destination, since now Will is (apparently?) joining Hannibal to some extent. I'm half sure that that's just a long con, though. Still, Chilton seems to have been shot.
0
Episodes 11-13
Watched the last episode on the 27th of May.
Well. Christ. That's one way to end a season.
Probably 1. Only cos I just have to see where it's going now.
===Rating===
1
==Third season (July 2015...)==
===Format===
At home
===Journal===
Started season 3 some time in mid 2015, watching episode 5 on the 8th of July. It was the first episode of the season to give me a hint of enjoyment, at the end. I didn't mind how the finale of Season 2 ended up panning out, I was just mostly not that keen on the dream-like quality of it all. I'm kinda desperate for someone to just talk straight.
Watched episode 7 on the 18th. Wow! That is an unexpected and interesting turn of events. Didn't see it coming at all. So far I haven't particularly enjoyed this season, but maybe it'll get back to normal now.
Watched episodes 10 and 11 on the 3rd of October, weeks since watching episode 9. Got busy with school and things and, even though the final episodes were all out and ready for me to watch and I knew it was basically the finale of the whole show, I just didn't feel like watching it any time. Episodes 10 and 11 were meh, for me. I think the moon and aesthetic of the show sometimes gets a bit much. Like Bedelia's lecture in episode 10 - what was that for?
I had like 2 episodes left when I ended up just giving up, not really feeling able to make it through another episode of the dreamy, ungraspable aesthetic, until around late March time in 2016 when I was in Japan and finally decided to fire up the last episodes. The ending was interesting - I really liked the image of Hannibal and Will fighting together - but I don't understand why the threw themselves off the cliff and I was at basically no point in the whole series sure of what was going on and what were the characters actual motivations. Right up until the end I was still wondering things like why Hannibal and Will were willing to stand so close to a cliff in each other's presence, and whether one of them was going to attack the other again. Like even now they seem to have accepted they love each other, I wouldn't be surprised if they still tried to kill each other again some time in the future.
I do think it was an extremely interesting series and I'm glad someone went so far off the beaten track with it. If it gets renewed I'll be watching, and scratching my head over it, and wondering whether to bother continuing, all over again I'm sure.
===Rating===
I dunno. Maybe a 1.
Category:Works
Category:TV series
Category:American TV series
Category:Thriller TV series
Category:Serial killer TV series
Category:2010s TV series
Category:TV series watched in 2013
Category:TV series watched in 2014
Category:TV series watched in 2015
Category:TV series watched in 2016
Category:TV series with 1 rating