Hannibal Season 2 Thread

[pale boy]

One of the best shows around is back for its intense second season. If you aren't watching Hannibal, you are missing out. Spoilers ahead! You have been warned.

Season 2, Episode 1: Kaiseki

Air Date: 28 February 2014

The first few minutes start off with an intense fight scene between Jack Crawford and Hannibal Lecter, which, to my surprise, didn't cut away to reveal a dream sequence. Instead, the words "Twelve Weeks Earlier" get splashed on the screen in the next scene.

Which means that Lecter is going to get found out this season. Ah, a flash forward and a bit of in media res always kicks things off nicely, wouldn't you say? Both work well here. Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal Lecter are so ingrained in pop culture that the only way for this story to be told is to take what you know and make those mere transitions to the larger story going on. In this TV show, knowing what will happen just makes it better.

There is so much going on in this episode that I can hardly describe it all. Hannibal is a dense show, layered with meaning that I can never catch just on the first viewing alone. That isn't to say that it requires repeated watching to enjoy. Not at all. The story is tight and intense from the get-go, even when there aren't major fight scenes.

Or I should say, especially when they're aren't any fight scenes. Horror is back, baby, and Bryan Fuller and everyone else working on this know just what to do. Gore doesn't make for intense scares. Tension does. From the acting to the cinematography to the dialogue and to the music (anyone catch those menacing church-like bells that play whenever someone is on the edge of knowing just what Hannibal is?) everything serves a purpose.

What's more, it makes a grand case for "short form" television working quite well on a major network rather than just something like HBO or Showtime. This is television adults can watch and enjoy.

2014 is going to be an excellent year. Let's savor this vintage all the way through.

[grimmfreak]

I'm going to have to check it out when and if I have time

[pale boy]

I'm going to have to check it out when and if I have time

Do. It's unbelievable television.

Season 2 Episode 2: Sakisuke

Air Date: 7 March 2014

The second episode of the second season brings the story into fuller bloom. There is something to be said for the depth of understanding those on this show have for the source material. There are constant calls toward Silence of the Lambs and, in the last episode, Hannibal Rising. That attention to fine detail is one of the best parts about this show. Everything is important.

Detail is also important to Lecter. He disrupts it to tell Will that he's still in this game. The psychiatrist/confessor exchange between Will and Lecter also really reminds me of Job in the Bible, amongst other things in Judeo-Christian themes. During the first season, I read that Mads Mikkelsen decided to play Lecter not as a killer, precisely, but as a Devil figure, which fits perfectly into the role the character fills for Will Graham. Take, for instance, the appearances of the man-deer, aka the Wendigo, that assumes Lecter's form complete with horns. Not only does this creation touch upon folklore involving man-eating creatures, but it also recalls Garret Jacob Hobbs, associated with the feathered stag, and certain Celtic and Greek myths of horned gods that were allegedly devoured and repurposed by Christianity into demonic features.

Ha-Satan, the original Hebrew term for Satan, translates as "the adversary", and that figure exists more to test the resolve of humanity than to lead it astray into evil without reason. (Not only that, but he works for God.) Why is this relevant? Well, again, we have the lines that god is a destroyer, uttered by Lecter to Will. Who has God destroyed? Once more, Job is on my mind. His own God handily harmed calling back to an example given earlier. Will is being tested, but for what?

On the edges of everything is a sense of greater purpose. Lecter is doing what he does for some currently unknown objective. Keeping in mind that he's meant to be a Satanic figure, the line about his "person suit" make me wonder if he's simply testing the limits of humanity through the one person who is closest to being like him: Will.

Dream-like qualities have suffused this show from the beginning. Will mostly experienced these visions, but now we also see that Lecter can visualize scenarios much in the same way. He found himself standing in a cornfield thanks to smell alone. The metaphors and symbolism create a greater whole, depths that can be delved for hours, much like a complex dream. One neat touch was the inclusion of the bodies in the real world haunting the river of Will's dreams. It's a fascinating, albeit disturbing show that uses it's medium to the fullest extent.

[salar521]

My favorite three shows right now are Mad Men, Game of Thrones and Hannibal, and while they are vastly different in subject and style, they share several traits that make them a cut above the rest.

[Hyndara]

Huge Fannibal here !