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Since I will begin covering “Hannibal” for the upcoming season in a couple weeks and had not yet seen the show, over the last week I have marathoned the first season. I’m not going to recap its entirety, but rather point out some key points of the show and some of my viewpoints.
Some things to consider:
Hannibal is going to be “outed” sometime either near the end of Season 2 or during Season 3: after that point, he will have little need to deceive and may well fit your preferred “bad guy” type at that point and on.
But also, I do not know if you are inclined to re-watch a season of television and it’s hard to tell from what you’ve said here just how much you thought Hannibal was lying, but if you look back at the season, you may discover that Hannibal wasn’t lying or deceiving nearly as much as it might first appear. He really did care about Will and Abigail, for example, and he very rarely lied outright—only when he was backed into a corner. Because he won so thoroughly in almost every aspect, it’s tempting to think that he planned what he did all along. But actually he played off the cuff quite often, and he failed in his primary objective, which was to make Will into a killer. (At least, he failed so far.) Getting Will imprisoned and killing Abigail were collateral damage, not the goal.
But go Team Will!
Wow - all great points and definitely things to consider! Thanks for your take on the whole thing, and the thought of once he’s “outted” and is able to be / show us who he is is a really exciting thing to look forward to for sure!!
“Psychological trauma is an affliction of the powerless.”
“Somewhere between denying horrible events and calming them out lies the truth of psychological trauma.”
“Sleep walkers demonstrate a difficulty handling aggression.”
“I really must introduce to you to a finer aftershave….that smells like something with a ship on the bottle.”
“I transferred my passion for anatomy into the culinary arts.” .
“Before we eat, you must be warned…… nothing here is vegetarian.”
“I don’t want you to wake up and see a totem of your own making.”
“Jack has a look of a man with no interest in any opinion but his own.”
–BZ
Hannibal: Long Live Psychopaths, Down With Socio’s!
By: Baby Z
Since I will begin covering “Hannibal” for the upcoming season in a couple weeks and had not yet seen the show, over the last week I have marathoned the first season. I’m not going to recap its entirety, but rather point out some key points of the show and some of my viewpoints.
I am going to assume you, the reader, have already seen the first season and know the main story lines. That being said, I found it interesting that even I, knowing full well as most of us do what Hannibal is/becomes, at first found myself believing that he really was trying to help Will Graham, even to the point of considering Will a friend as he pointed out to his psychiatrist a few times. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until the episode that he has his neurologist colleague lie about Will’s encephalitis prognosis that I began to question Hannibal’s intentions where Will was concerned.
For an episode or 2 following, I questioned why he was hiding Will’s prognosis, perhaps in denial that his intentions all along were to set Will up, or perhaps wanting to see some bit of humanity in Hannibal’s character. Either way, when I finally came to grips with what he was really doing, I found myself despising him for it.
For the first half of the season, I found fragments here and there that I liked about Hannibal. For example, it really was often mesmerizing watching him prepare meals and prepare his dishes’ presentations. I found his “proper” mannerisms almost somewhat distinguished.
And, again, I believed he was trying to connect with Will on a friendship level. Obviously knowing who Hannibal is and becomes, there was always that piece of me that didn’t like him, but it didn’t stop me from finding qualities here & there that I did liked. (Although, I have to say, most wine connoisseurs do not hold wine glasses by the stem when it’s red wine….the reason behind holding the glass by the stem is so that the temperature of your hand doesn’t warm the wine as it would with whites/pinks/etc.., however red wine is most often served at room temperature, and is in each of the cases I witnessed Hannibal drinking it, therefore eliminating the necessity to hold it by the stem. For someone as “refined” as he is in virtually every other aspect of his life and very much so in the culinary world, this was something that bugged me.)
Also? Even though it’s “THAN” - - yes to this too:
By the end of the season, I couldn’t stand him. After realizing his true intentions with Will (and Abigail for that matter) I went from being intrigued by him to despising him. This is in stark contrast to many “bad guys” in TV shows & movies that I absolutely love and sometimes even root for, and the only real difference that I can figure out is that the antagonist characters I do like have a sometimes completely upfront “honesty” about who they are and no shame with regards to it, whereas Hannibal was deceiving and conniving with his ways. A true sociopath, I suppose, so does that mean that for me it comes down to sociopaths vs. psychopaths then?
Take for example, some of my favorite “bad guys” in TV shows such as Red Reddington from “The Blacklist”, Eric Northman from “True Blood”, and even Frank Gallagher from “Shameless”. All 3 are indisputably “bad guys” in their respective shows, but all 3 really don’t try to hide this fact. People KNOW they are bad and they almost revel in their badness, and I find that to be kickass. Whereas shows such as “Hannibal,” Bill Compton from “True Blood,” and someone whom I believe to be bad even though it isn’t confirmed yet - Agent Ressler from “The Blacklist,” who mask their villainous ways or try to pretend to be someone they aren’t, characters who lie and deceive, etc.., and in almost every instance - I can’t stand them.
Even in movies, I love “Devil’s Rejects” and was actually sad that they (spoiler alert) died at the end, and I adored Mickey & Mallory Knox in “Natural Born Killers,” happy that they broke out of prison and got away to presumably live happily ever after, even knowing they were just as guilty of murder as Hannibal is.
So, if this was the show’s writers’ intentions with “Hannibal”, to give the viewer glimpses into what we think is some piece of honesty or humanity in the character only to have that proverbial rug pulled out from under us - then it was a job well done. The show is well written, definitely kept my attention and intrigue, and is one I’m looking forward to seeing more of, for sure. I guess I’m just Team Will and not Team Hannibal, and that makes me wonder for just how long I’ll be excited to watch it, especially knowing Hannibal certainly doesn’t get any “better” with regards to his criminal activity.
If nothing else, I’ve learned that I’m more Team Psychopath than Team Sociopath with regards to media antagonists. At least I’ve confirmed I prefer honesty over deceit - even if that honesty reveals a dark side, it’s not pretending to be something it isn’t.
–BZ
P.S. In keeping with my “Kickass Reddington Quotes” from The Blacklist, I’ll also be doing “Kickass Hannibal Quotes” as well. I’ve compiled a few from the first season to be posted shortly.
Hostages: Executive Decision Made on Show’s TV Times Fate
From: Baby Z
I’ve decided to stop covering Hostages. Declining ratings, tiresome and repetitive episodes, and dwindling readership regarding the show are all contributing factors but the biggest one of all is that while it started off great, it lost my interest somewhere around episode 3. I think they very well could have made this show into a TV Movie but decided to drag it out for a season and when I am sort of dreading watching an episode let alone writing about it, that’s pretty much a giant red flashing sign to stop.
HOWEVER!!! I will be replacing coverage of Hostages with….
……………………………….drumroll please…………………………………
Hannibal!!!
Very excited about the Hannibal addition to my shows, I am eating the first season UP!!! (Pun fully intended!) Second season slated to premiere in early 2014 so I may just decide to do some season 1 articles to get the proverbial ball rolling.
(By the way, I considered “Dracula” before Hannibal and couldn’t even make it thru the first episode…is anyone watching that show?)
