Hannibal S1 (2013) Review

 

Hannibal S1 (2013)

Hannibal follows Will Graham, a special agent for the FBI, as he solves serial murders while struggling with his own demons, a side effect from getting too close to his cases. 

If you go into this seeing the name Hannibal and thinking “Ooo Silence of the Lambs”, don’t. This is a vastly different, more psychological and metaphorical reimagining of the books from Thomas Harris that focuses more on the happenings before Silence, while still tackling the source material in an imaginative way, bordering on shows like True Detective. 

Like many prequel shows, the focus isn’t on Hannibal Lector but on Will Graham, whom he spends the season grooming as friend but also preparing as a fall guy. It’s never really explicitly stated that Lector is a serial killer but thanks to snappy editing and subtle hints he drops throughout, he is not only (I believe) the Chesapeake Ripper but also our notorious copycat killer. There is something about him, from the very beginning, with there always being more than he lets on, playing an excruciating long game with Will’s crumbling mind. 

Which is the even deeper focus of this first season: his mental state. Will’s brand of psychoanalysis is dependent on not imagining how a killer killed their victim, but for a few seconds, being them and understanding why they did it. Naturally this will take a toll on anyone’s mind, especially the damaged and demented mind of Will Graham. So building this madness up, case through case, from the murder of Abigail’s family, to the murder (?) of Abigail herself, creates a level of disconnect for the viewers and for Will, where reality is often obscured just enough to never see the full truth. 

The show sports an incredible cast, starring Kacey Rohl, Lara Jean Chorostecki, Laurence Fishburne, Caroline Dhavernas, Hugh Dancy, and Mads Mikkelsen. Mikkelsen boasts a vastly different Hannibal than Anthony Hopkins but I’d argue that he plays him almost better. There’s an elegance and horror behind his cold, dead eyes where you know there’s something off, just can never place it (aside from his casual feeding of humans to his guests). Dancy is also magnificent, portraying all the telltale characteristics of high functioning psychopath, an aspect that makes his maddening spiral into insanity work all too well. 

Hannibal Season 1, directed by Bryan Fuller, is a horrifyingly gruesome and deeply metaphorical take on the blossoming friendship of Hannibal and Will in the events before the Red Dragon, not only setting up this characters for the events of the book, but also reimagining Hannibal for a dark and twisted modern age. 

9.1/10