Hannibal

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Saw the first episode of Hannibal and at first was confused but as the story developed started to clarify. The physco talk seemed a bit over done. I'll watch the next show before I decide what I think. What about your thoughts?

 

Please tell me 'Will' is not Will Graham from Red Dragon/Manhunter ... doing exciting new things in a world that didn't exist before Hannibal Lector became popular.

 

Oh god no.

There are movies of the same name for each if you want to see what the real Will Graham did back in the day without reading the books. 'Red Dragon' is named after the book (first in the series by Thomas Harris that featured Lector) and came out in the 2000s I believe. It stars Edward Norton as Graham and Anthony Hopkins reprising his role as Lector.

'Manhunter' is also based on the book and came out in the 80s, before Silence of the Lambs. It stars William Peterson (CSI) as Graham and Brian Cox as Lector. I much preferred Cox's performance over Hopkins' - very cold, less campy, and more scary in a real-world way as opposed to horror. Plus, Cox's Lector was a f*cking *sshole compared to Hopkins' more stereotypical horror villain. All IMHO of course.

It should be noted that Lector's role in Red Dragon the book was entirely as a second tier support character, which is reflected in Manhunter. They greatly expanded the role in the Red Dragon film in order to feature the Hopkins/Lector celebrity. Hannibal Lector was actually not that big a deal in the beginning, as envisioned by Thomas Harris.

Anyway, Will Graham's history with Lector in Red Dragon was that he was the guy who caught him originally. From memory it was nothing more than Graham talking to Lector about a patient of his who was a suspect in some murders and then suddenly having a Eureka! moment and figuring out it was Lector. Lector injured him badly and caused severe psychological trauma though before he was apprehended. Graham then went to see him in jail a couple times to consult about 'The Tooth Fairy' serial killer, but what he was really doing, to his own detriment, was trying to sort of get into Lector's skin in order to get closer to the psychotic mindset of the Tooth Fairy - something he was already uncomfortably familiar with. Pretty powerful stuff actually, and it makes Lector's later theatrics (Hannibal the movie) look silly in comparison.

So I'm pretty sure that any shenanigans you're seeing between Graham and Lector in this show are ad-hoc. LOL, I didn't mean to write that much.

 

I found it a bit odd. Strangely paced and weird. I hope one or two things get explained in the next one or I'll probably shelf it.

BTW, whats the deal with US shows constantly casting British actors in the main parts?

BTW2 - Gaear is right, by far the best representation of Lector was by Brian Cox in Manhunter.

 

I've enjoyed the episodes I've seen so far. Mads Mikkelson is a fine actor, and the rest of the cast is solid. For those who haven't seen it, it is prequel material to Red Dragon. At the time this is set, Lector is a respected consultant to the FBI, and Will has a decent, developing relationship with him as they strive to catch a variety of killers. It's leading up to Will's eventual identification of Hannibal as a killer, but how many seasons they plan to milk this prequel material for is open to debate. They'd be foolish to do it for more than 2 seasons tops, IMHO, but stranger things have happened.