Hannibal, as one would guess, is an adaptation of the Hannibal Lecter story, set when he is a practicing psychiatrist and well before his capture. In the series, Hannibal is played wonderfully by Mads Mikkelsen and created by Bryan Fuller, who created some other wonderful cult classic series like Pushing Daisies and Wonderfalls, that were loved by a small group of fans and critics, but never received wide acclaim.
The series is set around FBI Special Investigator Will Graham ( played by Hugh Dancy), who in this iteration has the ability to empathize with killers and mentally re-create their crimes with vivid detail Graham is drawn into the investigation of a series of missing college girls by Special Agent Jack Crawford (played by Laurence Fishburne), who has basically exploits Graham's ability to solve cases. Crawford, by recommendation of Dr. Alana Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas), enlists the help of Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), who helps Crawford and Graham with the case, and from there the series goes on with additional murders, and Lecter both "helping" the FBI investigation and acting as a psychiatrist for Graham.
Of course, anyone who is familiar with the Hannibal Lecter stories knows full well who is responsible for many of the murders, so the suspense aspect of the series is more about when will the other characters figure it out and when will he get caught. There is a lot of misdirection and twists, even in a relatively short season, and the season ends on a big cliffhanger.
For those who get the Blu-Ray set, the A/V quality is wonderful. The series has a lot of stunning visuals, many of them very gory, that look great in HD. The extras include commentary tracks on two episodes, approximately 40 minutes of behind-the-scenes featurettes, a short gag reel, and one deleted scene.
Overall, the series is great. It is well written and acted. Given it is about a serial killer, it is very gory, with many staged murder scenes that look very realistic. And, you know what is for dinner even when the characters in the show do not (and there are a lot of dinners). Mikkelsen takes the character of Lecter and makes it his own, and does not try to recreate or channel what Anthony Hopkins did in the movies. The characters of Crawford and Graham are also much deeper and more complex than they were in the movies. So, while I cannot say this is a show that will appeal to everyone, if you like the Hannibal Lecter series, either in the books or any of the movie adaptations, this is definitely worth watching.
The series is set around FBI Special Investigator Will Graham ( played by Hugh Dancy), who in this iteration has the ability to empathize with killers and mentally re-create their crimes with vivid detail Graham is drawn into the investigation of a series of missing college girls by Special Agent Jack Crawford (played by Laurence Fishburne), who has basically exploits Graham's ability to solve cases. Crawford, by recommendation of Dr. Alana Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas), enlists the help of Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), who helps Crawford and Graham with the case, and from there the series goes on with additional murders, and Lecter both "helping" the FBI investigation and acting as a psychiatrist for Graham.
Of course, anyone who is familiar with the Hannibal Lecter stories knows full well who is responsible for many of the murders, so the suspense aspect of the series is more about when will the other characters figure it out and when will he get caught. There is a lot of misdirection and twists, even in a relatively short season, and the season ends on a big cliffhanger.
For those who get the Blu-Ray set, the A/V quality is wonderful. The series has a lot of stunning visuals, many of them very gory, that look great in HD. The extras include commentary tracks on two episodes, approximately 40 minutes of behind-the-scenes featurettes, a short gag reel, and one deleted scene.
Overall, the series is great. It is well written and acted. Given it is about a serial killer, it is very gory, with many staged murder scenes that look very realistic. And, you know what is for dinner even when the characters in the show do not (and there are a lot of dinners). Mikkelsen takes the character of Lecter and makes it his own, and does not try to recreate or channel what Anthony Hopkins did in the movies. The characters of Crawford and Graham are also much deeper and more complex than they were in the movies. So, while I cannot say this is a show that will appeal to everyone, if you like the Hannibal Lecter series, either in the books or any of the movie adaptations, this is definitely worth watching.
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