Why "Hannibal" deserved to be cancelled

One of network television's innovative, stylish and creative dramas in the first two seasons, Season 3 was a big disappointment. Beautifully shot and designed but it's no fun any more. No more devilish dinner parties and psycho-of-the-week.
Sure, Florence looks gorgeous and Gillian Anderson is very watchable as the ice-queen (like in "The Fall") but it's same-same after that.
Episode 2 dragged painfully. Will is becoming a bore. Lots of torrents of blood and the stag-critter is back (looking like some hybrid-beast from "The Thing").
Why do US series drag out over so many seasons (10-13 episodes each)? The Brits keep things short and sweet (6-8 episodes a series).

The problem with TV second seasons

Okay, the first season was great, there was a teaser to get you to watch the second season.... then you tune in.....
It could go either way.
First there's disappointment. Exhibit 1. (as Rod Serling used to say) "Bates Motel"
It was a flimsy idea to start with, but the charisma of Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore must have convinced producers. It seems this show is treading water. Where is it going? We know what happens to Norman, but the journey is no fun anymore.
Exhibit 2 "The News Room"

Then there's surprise:
"Hannibal" Struggling with the ratings, many thought it wouldn't return. The quality and style of this show has always been consistent. This new season is compelling and, if anything, richer than last year. This is a prequel that works, unlike Season 2 of "Bates Motel".
Season 2 of "Orphan Black" is better than the first season, fleshed out characters and more complicated setups.

Jury's out:
"Banshee"
"Da Vinci's Demons"
(Even though both have been given a third season.)
BBC3's "In The Flesh" (3 extra episodes in this series, was it a good idea?)

"Hannibal", NBC, 13 interesting things about Season 2

1. A suspenseful opening scene, it seems cornfields are mandatory in thrillers.
2. "I love your work" intones Hannibal from the top of the silo. We all laughed.
3. An elegant departure from Dr Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson). Or is it?
4. Now I know how to cook Osso buco.
5. The photography and design in this show is top shelf. If you see the eye/death/mural in the Tate Modern I wouldn't be surprised. 
6. The beehive man, the flight into the hive scene. Stunning/macabre.
7. I'd forgotten how great Amanda Plummer is at doing deranged characters on screen. See "Pulp Fiction".
8. The body cross-sections under glass (a real "Oh my God! moment) in Episode 5.
9. Michael Pitt ("Seven Psychopaths" and Jimmy Carmody from "Boardwalk Empire") as Mason Verger giving the creepiest performance of the season, a psycho-Willy Wonka. Making the little boy cry in the stable in order to take a tear sample, then tossing him a chocolate. An inspired turn. He seems to be channelling Christopher Walken/Robert Downey Jr, with a touch of Jerry Lewis's Nutty Professor. Love the Dr Strangelove hair. Mason Verger is definitely standout psycho of both seasons. The face-feeding scene was almost too hard to watch in Episode 12.
10. Freddie Lounds' resurrection, didn't see that one coming.
11. The huge Shiva statue rearing up at Will and Hannibal in Episode 11.
12. The return of Gillian Anderson. She now specialises in playing the ice-queen character (see BBC's creepy and compelling "The Fall").
13. Spectacular (and gory) season finale. Don't turn off when the credits roll!

"Hannibal" Season 2, Episode 1, NBC A great opener

For me the standout in his show is its visual style. This season opener is just as beautifully shot. The stunning image of the antlered demon (Hannibal?) rising out of the stream or the closing image of the entwined corpses (think Saul Bass meets mad old Ken Russell's "The Devils" meets Dante's Inferno/William Blake).
What a brave idea (the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink fight between Jack and Hannibal) jumping forward to the climax of Season 2 (I'm assuming, as the rest of the episode flashed back to 12 weeks earlier).
Observations:

• Last year it was French gastronomic titles, this season it's Japanese.
• Great to see Gillian Anderson is back, calmly paring back Hannibal's layers. It was fun to see Cynthia Nixon playing the icy investigator (describing her job as 'putting down' the battle wounded). Bet she'd be a riot at the FBI Christmas party.
• Will our hero, Will, being locked up slow down the pace in this season. Solving cases behind bars is tricky. Liked the sorting of photos according to colour palette.
• Prissy Dr Frederick is still annoying (but I suppose he serves his purposes).
• 'Psycho of the week' has been tweaked so it carries over to the new episode.

Still thinking of that stunning final creepy tableau. Quite groundbreaking for network television. Hope Bryan Fuller can keep this standard up.

"The Following" Season 2, Episode 2, Fox TV, review

Two episodes down and this show is getting mighty repetitive. The villains once again being one step ahead of Ryan again. The twin psychos (Sam Underwood resembling a young Val Kilmer crossed with Tom Cruise circa "Interview With A Vampire") creating Family tableaux (very "Hannibal" psycho-of-the-week from last year). Underwood was probably the best thing in the final season of "Dexter". How come so many film villains have to be British?
I did smile with the grumpy French assassin cooped up in the hotel room.
I cannot buy the caravan hooker mom/black teen/randy reverend setup. Joe (James Purefoy) complaining about his "dystopian squalor" in front of his hosts then going completely OTT with his orgasmic stabbing scene. "Mom won't like this..." whimpers the daughter.
This is overwrought pap. Having just watched another stunning episode of "True Detective", you sort of get spoilt by HBO quality.
I'm over this stuff. I don't even think elfen Emma (Valorie Curry) can save this series.

8 reasons "The Blacklist" will be a hit - spoilers

• James Spader (Raymond Redington) having a lot of fun as the campy criminal mastermind. And boy, doesn't he love his food and booze.
• Episode 1's truck scene on the bridge (wasn't expecting that). The opening shot on the container ship in Episode 2. Filming is as good as a Hollywood action blockbuster.
• Elizabeth Keen's husband's secret life - he certainly chose to bleed over the wrong floorboards.
• The pressie in the kid's backpack and subsequent bomb defusing scene - tick, tick, cutting the red wire cliche - lots of fun though.
• The promise of a new super villain to hunt down each week.
• Great guest stars. Episode 2 had the venerable Jane Alexander and a juicy part for Isabella Rossellini (looking more like mum, Ingrid Bergman, every time I see her, with or without insect sex).
• The FBI might be smarter than the dolts in "The Following".
• An interesting premise: Hannibal Lecter + a mysterious network of super criminals + possible father/daughter chemistry.

PS Don't trust Megan Boone with a ballpoint pen. Even Red made a joke about it in Episode 2.

"Hannibal" NBC Episode 13 Series 1 final "Savoureux" review, spoilers

Don't expect fast moving action in this series final. This is a mood piece. The beautifully executed final scene between Will and Hannibal (with Mads Mikkelsen's glimmer of a smile). He knows that he knows. And he knows that he knows....
Dr Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson) certainly knows heaps about Lecter's past.
No graphic violence, apart from a regurgitated ear in Will's kitchen sink. Toward the end, Will sees Hannibal as the darkly demonic deer creature he has been dreaming of throughout this series - the realisation of who and what Lecter is. Now you realise what Lecter was doing with Will's fishing lures in an early episode.
I suppose some viewers might be getting a bit toey (restless) - waiting for a confrontation. But I think the tension is delicious - as delicious as Hannibal's weekly gourmet treats.
Series 2 must feature the missing Abigail (Kacey Rohl).

"Hannibal" NBC Series 1, Episode 12 "Releves" review

This penultimate episode started with a horrific incineration scene. The comb of death reminded me of the comb the queen/witch/pedlar gives to Snow White in the longer version of the fairy tale.

This series has featured some stunningly conceived set pieces – Will’s surreal dream sequences are highlights. Lots of morphing and weirdly moving/speaking humans(David Lynch “Twin Peaks” territory).

Will (Hugh Dancy) has made the big link between all the copycat killings. But will he be believed? Who was the patient swallowing his tongue with Dr Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson)?  She definitely knows more about Hannibal than anyone else – apart from Abigail, but I don’t think Abigail is long for this world , from watching the final scene.

Jack (Laurence Fishburne) confiding in Hannibal, telling him his latest theories makes for delicious viewing. No, there were no extravagant dinner party scenes this week, except for Chef Lecter brewing up some exotic, but medicinal chicken soup for the disturbed Will.

Gillian Anderson is much in demand on telly at the moment. She seems to have the sexy, but knowing ice queen down pat, if you have seen BBC’s “The Fall” series. Note the lush greenery feature wall in the female psychiatrist’s office (similar to Hannibal’s dining room).  A link or just the style of the set designer?

Liked it when she tells her patient, Lecter, that he needs to “maintain the boundaries”.  Just when you think the FBI is getting closer to cracking the case, the cool, unflappable Hannibal is one step ahead, playing his trump card: Poor Will. Perhaps not that poor – he can afford Business Class seats for 2 (his misguided jaunt with Abigail).

Looking forward to final episode of Series 1.  

"Hannibal" NBC Series 1, Episode 11 "Roti" review

It is novel to find a lead character in a prime time show who is truly disturbed. Will is the real deal. As usual, the show serves up some stunning images - glaciers, tidal waves and the corpse totem. Let's not forget Will's 'wet dream'. Use of colour is powerful - wintry greys and white contrasted with deep greens and blood red.

The scene on the operating table ("Ms Lounds will be assisting") combined the gruesome with the comic - shades of the 1985 cult movie "Re-Animator". Nice to see Dr Gideon (Eddie Izzard) back (Bryan Fuller worked with Izzard in the "Mockingbird Lane" pilot). "Hannibal" raises the issue of the power of psychiatrists    can wield with their patients.
Check out the thriller cliche - the killer waiting in the car's rear seat - nice switcheroo - this time the killer is in the front seat.
The final scene with Gillian Anderson as Hannibal's savvy shrink was good value.

"Hannibal" NBC Series 1, Episode 10 "Buffet Froid" review

Great to see NBC have commissioned Series 2. Shades of the supernatural in this disturbing episode. But then, aren't they all disturbing?
Hannibal capitalises on poor Will's mental state, again. Will's actual drawing of the clock face was a nice touch, well researched. The cadaverous girl under the bed and the opening up of the face (think Batman's The Joker meets a Pez fliptop pack) will cause nightmares for some young ones.
Liked the bit about Lecter's acute sense of smell and his medical colleague saying that Hannibal is the sanest man he knows (later Hannibal opens up the  good doctor's face with a pair of scissors).
Three observations:
Jack (Laurence Fishburne) is the boss everybody would love to have - loyal and principled.
The curse of thrillers: the victim always does dumb things - would you follow the wet footprints back to your bedroom?
For a gourmand, Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) has atrocious table manners. Watch what he does with his left hand when using a fork. Eeeek!

Trivia: In Australia, "Hannibal" is struggling in the ratings, the Seven Network have buried the show after 10:45 p.m. mid week.

Oooo, cut it out .....The glut of forensic pathology based TV shows

Channel surf any night of the week.... I'm pretty sure you are going to come up with a corpse on a slab sooner or later. Grand guignol television is tres popular. We obviously can't get enough of scalpels being inserted into dead flesh. From "Hannibal" to "Da Vinci's Demons", from 1880's "Ripper Street" to 1940's "Murder on the Homefront", the gorier the better. Even the Australians have combined historical drama with gore: the excellent "Doctor Blake Mysteries". A particularly nasty crushed body featured in the latest "Whitechapel".
The Brits do graphic, as well as gritty. "Silent Witness" has been laying them in aisles morgue since 1996. That's a lot of autopsies.
As Kenny Everett would lisp, "All in the best possible taste!".

Is British TV Crime Drama Better than U.S. TV Crime Drama?

Probably.
Throw me any good U.S. show and I'll put up a better U.K. offering (or original). The  U.K. shows I am prattling on about are all free-to-air television (as opposed to HBO and other U.S. cable networks).
Those C.S.I. <insert interesting U.S. city here> series are running out of puff.
You get more bang for your buck with British crime shows, particularly featuring psychos. Take a recent episode of BBC's "Silent Witness" (it started a decade before C.S.I Crapola started). You had a serial killer that made Joe Carroll from "The Following" look like Mr Rogers. All in two (1 hour each) episodes.
Take ITV's "Broadchurch" for superb character development. "Wire in the Blood" for tormented, gifted profilers, long before Will Graham in "Hannibal". "Waking the Dead" also blitzes its U.S. counterparts.
Then you have three more ingredients to add more texture - the British class system, historical locations and eccentric (nutbags?) characters. Take "Midsommer Murders" (please, some wags would say).
Take the Brit's heritage of murder whodunits - Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K.Chesterton, Ruth Rendell). The Brits do 'gritty' as well as graphic. Take old episodes of "The Bill" - even minor characters were so well cast, the acting so polished. I remember the high quality of 1960's shows like "Z Cars" and "Softly, Softly".

Don't get me wrong, there are a few standout U.S. stars of the genre: I'm sure you can think of others...like "The Sopranos" and "The Wire" (both cable, though).
"Hannibal" is remarkably brave and multi-layered for free-to-air television. "Dexter" (HBO) was groundbreaking, hope the last season goes out with a bang.
Then to add confusion, we have U.K./U.S. co-productions like the delightful "Ripper Street".

"Hannibal" NBC TV Series Episode 9, "Tros Normand" review, spoilers

Best murder tableau yet.
The towering body part totem pole on the wintry beach confirms what a visually arresting show this is. God, it looks cold on that beach.
A great episode. Abigail (Kacey Rohl) is back. We find out she used to procure girls for dad so he wouldn't have the desire to kill her. Obnoxious tabloid parasite Freddie Lounds is sniffing around again. Invited, with her new bestie Abigail, to Lecter's dinner party. She is a vegetarian - wouldn't ya know it?
Hannibal takes advantage of a vulnerable Will - Will to keep stum about the Nick Boyle arrangement with the doctor and Abigail.
What a great question psychologist Dr Bloom asks Will, "Do you feel unstable?" He vigorously nods.
Great to see stalwart Lance Henriksen (remember Bishop, the loyal android in "Aliens") as the cold psycho sitting back complacently in his Naugahyde armchair. But Will has the last laugh.

Interesting side note: Hugh Dancy and Mads Mikkelsen became good friends while "King Arthur" (2004) according to Bryan Fuller in an interview for "Time Out". Fuller wanted to capitalise on that link when he cast these two.

"Hannibal" NBC TV series Series1, Episode 8, "Fromage" review

Nothing cheesy about this episode. It is a pity NBC seems to have lost faith in the show. Such an inventive murder/performance this week - Tobias playing the corpse's vocal chords like a cello. That violin teacher/maker really put guts into his job! Sorry.
A shame we lose Franklin, he was an intriguing patient, geekily played by Dan Fogler. Will and Joe seem sceptical about the fight with Tobias in Lecter's office. Poor Will seems to be having a breakdown - hearing noises, ripping up masonry, chasing coyotes. At least he has the consolation of the lovely Dr Bloom's attentions.
Every episode features Hannibal's culinary skills, that dessert tonight looked fantastic! How come the normally meticulous Lecter was unshaven in a few scenes ... did Tobias get him rattled?
Fingers crossed NBC renews this classy show.

"Hannibal" NBC Series 1, Episode 7 "Sorbet" review

This episode was a real feast, beginning with an amazing scene showing a journey through the opera singer's vocal cords, Hannibal in the audience looking uncharacteristically emotional, symbolic red ribbons splashed across the stage. The singer was played by Broadway great, Ellen Greene ("Little Shop of Horrors"). For "The X-Files" tragics we had Gillian Anderson (looking more like Jerry Hall) as Lecter's quirky psychiatrist, Dr Du Maurier. Her comment to Hannibal that he was "wearing his person suit" was illuminating. At the same time we have Lecter analysing his Michael Jackson worshipping patient.

The subplot about the organ removal psycho was fascinating. Parallelling organ removal with USB cables??? Will does a particularly graphic mental crime reconstruction. Again we have the mystical deer, central in Will's thoughts.
Hannibal remarks to his socialite friends, "Who's hungry?" The dinner party this week featured pate, with a lot of preparation details.
Good job, Bryan Fuller/Jesse Alexander (script) and veteran director James Foley.

"Hannibal" Series 1, Episode 6, "Entree", NBC TV show, review, few spoilers

This was an intricately structured episode, blending monochrome flashbacks with Jack and the very savvy trainee, Miriam. Eddie Izzard (last seen in as grandpa in Bryan Fuller's "Mockingbird Lane" pilot) has a juicy role as Dr Gideon, psychopath. We all know who the real Chesapeake Ripper is, don't we?
Interesting contrasting scenes: Jack's compassion, then Gideon's cruel mania. Isn't that Dr Chiltern a charmer - smarmy bastard. Hannibal has his number, though.
Are you enjoying Hannibal's weekly dinner parties? They are delicious fun. "Nice to have an old friend for dinner" is Lecter's fun pun of the night. And Lecter finally shows his true colours in the final few minutes. Main Course in a few weeks?
This show is a winner. Pity about the TV ratings.

"Hannibal" NBC TV series Series 1, Episode 4 COMPLETE "Ceuf", Episode 5 "Coquilles" review

Unfortunately, due to the pulling of Episode 4, the series has lost some of its impetus. I applaud Bryan Fuller's sensitivity. This is me, being purely selfish -  it has stuffed up the flow of the series. After watching the complete "Ceuf" episode (thanks to Sony run cable, AXN Asia), I am bewildered why it was pulled. Sure the family dinner scenes were disturbing, the bodies slumped around the dinner table, but the violence was mainly off camera and part of Will's mental reconstructions. There is so much violence on TV. For example, "The Following" Ep. 14 "Carrie"-like gym massacre. Was it merely timing with "Hannibal" Ep 4?
I hope we can return to the fascinating relationship between Hannibal and Abigail. Didn't quite know where the magic mushroom scene was going.
It is a shame Episode 4 got reedited so drastically in the web version. Veteran director Peter Medak directed "Ceuf". The theme was family - Will's family of stray dogs, Joe's lack of children, Lecter trying to make Abigail a new family and the families of  'the lost boys'. The web version was a waste of time. Scenes referenced previous scenes, so it made no sense.
Molly Shannon plays a great psycho - I remember her deranged character in "Will & Grace". The 'lost boys' and Molly should have been a two-parter, there seemed a lot of back story, more could have been explained about how the mock-family of runaways operated. "You don't know what it's like" says the kid to Joe about his real family. Perhaps it is best if we didn't find out the background to these affluent but twisted families.

Episode 5 was noteworthy because of Laurence Fishburne's fine underplaying - where he gradually realises his wife has cancer (while listening to the angel-maker's wife talk about his cancer) was a classy scene.
Lots of scenes of Will sleepwalking in these 2 episodes. Is this so the audience can see more of Hugh Dancy in his boxers? Funniest line: Will turns to Hannibal, "Did you just smell me?"

The 'angels' tableaux created reminded me of Dexter, Season 6 with Edward James Olmos.
Hannibal's sumptuous banquets staged in his "Architectual Digest" dining room are becoming my favourite scenes in the series. Jack asks what he is eating. "It's rabbit" Lecter replies. Jack, "He should have hopped faster!" (Cut to a running, strumbling man).  Also liked when Lecter stressed that he "only uses an ethical butcher".

"Hannibal" TV series NBC Episode 3 "Potage" review

And what a tasty pot of soup it was, tonight.
Are the script writers trying to equate deer hunters with serial killers? This will piss off the N.R.A..
Why did all the female characters (Abigail, Marissa from next door, her mum, Dr Bloom) look the same (long brown hair, wearing teal colours). We know Hobbs had a thing for this look. But why teal - did he shoot ducks too?
Virginal Abigail (Kacey Rohl) looks like Lindsay Lohan (circa "Mean Girls", not now).
Loved the scene in the lecture theatre when Graham and Lecter share looks as Will talks about the copycat's phone call to Hobbs. Does he know? We know Abigail does.
Blogger Freddie Lounds (played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman in "Red Dragon", now played by Lara Jean Chorostecki) seems to breeze into any situation. Can't she be arrested for obstruction of justice? The F.B.I. have been incredibly lenient with the pest. Slagging off unstableWill in earshot of everyone. Hope she is main course soon.
Not much nifty profiler magic by Will this week - I like when he is transported, trance-like, reconstructing the murders.
Shared madness seems to be a recurring theme in this series. Poor Abigail, getting into a pact with Lecter. This won't end well. Hope she has another hunting knife handy.

"Hannibal" TV series Episode 2 "Amuse-bouche" review, no spoilers

Who thinks up these bizarre deaths - this week it's nine neatly arranged bodies encrusted in fungi, a crop of injected arms jutting out of the fertilised earth. Well, it was Jim Danger Gray ("Pushing Daisies") who wrote the episode. I bet he relished telling his schoolmates, "Danger is my middle name!" It sounds like a Maxwell Smart line, but I digress.

If you had missed the movies and Thomas Harris novels, if you didn't know who Lecter really was, you'd think he was merely a competent, albeit quirky, psychiatrist.
It is the old Hitchcock ticking bomb analogy - only the audience knows it's there, the suspense is when it is going to explode. This series is set out like a banquet - last week's title was "Aperitif', now it's "Amuse-bouche" (bite-size tasties), we get soup in two weeks. The main course (when Lecter gets down and dirty, I am guessing, will be much later in the season).
Don't you love Hannibal's sumptuous office set? So organised, yet stylish. The muted colours with a splash of red. Will's complex, haunted character make this a compelling series -  his surreal dreams, trances and forensic flashbacks. The first disconcerting scene in the firing range grabs the viewers attention. Another great scene was in Lecter's elegant dining room with the close-up of the loin of pork put red sauce - playing with the audience  - is that tabloid journo-white meat????
My wife is not a big fan of U.S. crime shows, preferring U.K.efforts like "Wire in the Blood" (similar themes and main character), but this show has kept our interest.
Bring on the next course, Mr Fuller.

"Hannibal" NBC TV series Episode 1 review

"Hannibal" has Bryan Fuller ("Pushing Daisies") as the creator/writer. The first flashy scene establishing William Graham's (Hugh Dancy) credentials as a profiler grabs the viewer. William is a flawed, tortured  character, but that's the way we like 'em.
Ever see U.K.'s "Wire in the Blood" about a flawed, tortured profiler played by Robson Green. Well, perhaps other people in NBC have.
I never thought I'd hear "Willie Wonka's Golden Ticket" in the same breath as "serial killer"....well done NBC!
The connection with Dino De Laurentiniis brings back memories for this old fart (Martha, Dino's later wife), is executive producer - connection with "Hannibal" (2001) movie I guess. And wasn't that a  real shitty sequel?
Casting Mads Mikkelsen (Le Chiffre in "Casino Royale") was inspired. Bond villain=Serial killer/psycho?
Stylish art direction - the white and blood red Men's room scene. Some surreal dream sequences  involving antlers and bodies. There's not a lot of laughs in this first episode, but it's delicious to see profiler Graham and boss Laurence Fishburne in the same room as Hannibal Lector - on the same team!
An intriguing first ep. It blitzes "The Following" in many ways. Well done, Mr Fuller, sorry people didn't like "Mockingbird Lane". I did.
Bring on Ellen Greene and Gillian Armstrong in coming episodes.