You spoke. I listened. I watched the first four episodes of Hannibal over the last couple of days. It has everything I adore:
1. serial killers
2. blood splatters
3. psychobabble about psychopaths
4. Laurence Fishburne (everyone is awesome, but I’m just happy when he shows up in anything)
5. Lots of emotional angst
6. Broad-stroke character development: the house full of stray dogs, the exquisite and grotesque cooking, the corkscrew curls of the tabloid journalist, the mini skirts of Alana Bloom, the over-it banter of the tech crew as they examine bodies sprouting with mushrooms (I love all of those actors)
6. and this seems to me to be the most important … a sense of camp. I mean, it’s obvious the series is “serious”, and every character is totally tormented… but if I’m not mistaken there’s a camp sensibility at work here, and it saves the whole thing. Elevates it aesthetically.
7. every single shot – every. single. one. – is beautiful and striking and scary and ridiculous. Kid-in-a-candy-store cinematography
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSs
That balance it strikes between being ridiculous and entirely serious — it feels like a European sense of camp to me. Like its deadly dedication to beauty and or sincerity and a willing embrace of the cost, ie ridiculousness. Reminds me always of one of my favourite German bands Einsturzende Neubauten who give no fucks in such pursuit. Or from an alternative direction.
Yes – it feels extremely European to me. Almost Eastern European, or … Balkan maybe – you know, cultures DRENCHED in irony, who couldn’t do “earnest” if you paid them a million dollars. You can’t “click” with cinema from those areas of the world if you have a tin ear for irony.
I am thankful to all of you for pushing me to try it out. Hugh Dancy is amazing. They all are. And what’s-her-name from SPN – Kacey Rohl (is that her name?) – who played the girl in the mental hospital with Sam in SPN (who also, coincidentally, had a bandage on her neck??) She’s a haunting strange little creature in Hannibal.
So I’m only 4 episodes in – waiting for the next 4 to come.
I love all this “psychopath” stuff.
Okay and now I am totally curious about that German band, Jessie – fabulous!!
I’m so glad! I love Hannibal for all the reasons you list, and also because
1. It’s not torture porn. We’re not invited to enjoy the sufferings of fools (although there’s a whole lot of that). We’re contemplating, not snickering.
2. Hannibal is interesting. He’s terrifying; he’s capable of feeling; he can be very funny; he is sexual; he is genuinely engaged with the topics of good and evil.
3. Mads Mikkelsen. Seriously.
4. Finally somebody’s dealing intelligently with the source material. I never liked what Hopkins did with it. It was a lot of fun, but that Hannibal was an impossible object. Okay, this Hannibal is impossible too, but not because he’s self-contradictory. He’s just impossibly perfect.
I’ve had such a hard time explaining to friends why this is such a fantastic show. It shouldn’t be, but it is. It’s a ridiculous miracle, as is the fact that it’s surviving for at least one more season. Yay indeed!
Jincy – yes, to all of your further points! No torture porn.
Hugh Dancy is marvelous. And Mads Mikkelsen!! I know! WHAT a performance! He is both a horrifying predator and a soothing calm presence. Amazing.
I have not read the source material so I cannot speak to that. The series definitely makes me curious!!
I can’t wait for the next four episodes to arrive! (I’m a dinosaur. I still do DVDs through Netflix. But I actually like waiting for things – the anticipation builds.)
I am excited to see where all of it goes.
And God, is it a good-looking show. Those yellow yellow leaves in the woods, and the cold blue shadows. Just gorgeous.
Oh and how could I forget one of my other main sources of enjoyment?
I am mildly obsessed with Quantico. I was driving around Virginia once, took a wrong turn, and suddenly found myself at the gates of Quantico and actually considered driving on in and signing up. Ha. “Well, as long as I’m here ….”
So the whole FBI/Quantico/Behavioral Unit thing is, frankly, like crack to someone like myself.
Yes! What’s the difference between earnest and sincere? I can’t define it but I know it when I see it! It’s so funny. There’s a scene in the second season where everyone’s standing around so portentously talking about who maybe murdered this dude and the set design creates like five GIANT letter H shapes looming over everyone. Glorious.
Dancy is so good. Tracking his physical work over the first season is a real privilege. And how does get her eyes so large and trembly? She’s great.
You so often see condescending portrayals of spectrum-y people. His is not at all. Eye contact seems to actually hurt him – he’s an extremely empathetic actor (which obviously is so perfect for that role!) And then how RELAXED he is with the dogs on his porch. Beautiful!
// What’s the difference between earnest and sincere? //
Hmmm. That’s very interesting. I have to think about that. Earnest-ness is a turn-off for me, at least as I define it.
I can’t wait to see the 5 H’s!
Those dead bodies sprouting mushrooms were seriously gross and seriously magnificent.
oh and the band, my darling Neubauten — they’ve had a real transformation over the years. Codpieces and leather to three-piece suits and kind of dorky. Harsh noise to soothing bass thrums. Lots of found/constructed instruments. Very good and the best concert experience of my life (last year! Rapture. Never thought they’d make it over here).
Oh darn my soothing bass thrums.
The mushrooms, oh my god — and they were still alive! I love how it really doesn’t care about any kind of procedurality. Everything is about that relationship.
Earnestness contains a kind of proselytising for me, or a kind of pastoral push. Not always bad but can be quite off-putting. Sincerity is more internal. Hannibal is absolutely sincere about its objectives and it achieves them to a magnificent degree.
// Sincerity is more internal. Hannibal is absolutely sincere about its objectives and it achieves them to a magnificent degree. //
I like that distinction and I agree. I’m not sensing a ton of irony there – although there are flashes of it in some of the characters. Hannibal giving the young girl the mushroom-laced tea? Ugh, it was so Humbert Humbert, it made my skin crawl – and yet it was also GORGEOUSLY filmed, and he played it so rationally and beautifully (he is just superb). I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.
And I lOVE the actress playing Alana Bloom. Boy, does that actress understand that listening is a VERB.
Oh, Hannibal is the worst! He is so horrible and utterly gorgeous in it. The series is so delicious, the way it makes him so seductive. You can get over his murdering and cooking people but the shit he pulls with people who trust him is BEYOND THE PALE Hannibal! How dare you!
// You can get over his murdering and cooking people //
hahahahahaha
But right?? Totally. The manipulation is crazy. There’s this look of sheer delight on his face when he realizes Hugh Dancy has figured out he was the one who made that call to the serial killer they were tracking … or that the copycat was probably the same guy as the one who made the call. Hannibal looks exhilarated. I have no idea what that means but it was fascinating to watch. What’s his End Game? What is he up to?? Why has no one caught him at this crap yet?
WOOHOO! I’m not usually one to say this, but, go peer pressure!
The show has a delightful sense of humour. If it took itself too seriously, I’m not sure it would work as well. Mads’ Hannibal quickly, quietly smiling to himself, like he’s laughing at a private joke…I love it.
I also really appreciate that the show doesn’t engage in torture porn. It’s dark and beautiful and fun and it feels like art (not spectacle, the way so many serial killer fictions do).
I mean, that naked body impaled in the field. It was so gross, but also like a sculpture in a church. Creepy.
and yes, thank you, peers, for pressuring me!! :)
My junior profiler’s training tells me that you completely fell in love with it during the latter part of the first episode when Will asked Hannibal what he thought of him and Hannibal told Will that he was the mongoose he wanted under the house when the snakes slithered by.
Had you already watched the first episode when you compared JDW to a cobra in the “Devil’s Trap” write up, or was it just serendipity?
Mutecypher – I hadn’t watched it when I wrote Devil’s Trap and yes, I was like, Rikki Tikki Tavi is EVERYWHERE when I saw that reference!!
Oh man, I just LOVED the first season of Hannibal. Kinda lost interest in the current season, but I won’t say any more because I think you aren’t there yet and I don’t want to spoil you. It’s both the lushest and the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen – sickly beautiful. Even the clothes! I could look at Hannibal’s wardrobe all day. And I usually find suits boring.
Mads Mikkelsen’s Hannibal Lecter is easily my favourite version of that character. He’s terrifying. A black hole in a suit. The way he zeroes in on vulnerable people and manipulates them…brrr.
And yet, he’s weirdly funny because there IS a camp element to the whole thing. He makes like five cannibal puns an episode.
Speaking of things you need to watch: True Detective. You’ve probably had that recced to you so much already that it’s become annoying. But I say again: True Detective. It’s my favourite thing I’ve seen all year.
Yes, True Detective – I MUST see it, I know. So much to catch up on!!
// He’s terrifying. A black hole in a suit. //
Totally.
I had heard that the food stylist had a blog – I will have to check that out. It’s one of those funny things – where the meals look soooooo gorgeous, and yet you are totally grossed out looking at it because you know that it’s probably a human being served up on that platter. shivers.
Oh, and a couple of blogs you might want to check out re: Hannibal:
Hellotailor, which did a series on the costuming and set design and what it says about the characters.
Janice Poon’s “Feeding Hannibal” blog. She’s the food stylist for the show and she goes into her process in detail. It’s facinating. Spoiler abound, though, so wait until you’re through season 2 to go there. From one of her posts:
“When we go to shoot the scene, the director says, “Isn’t that roast kind of big for one person?” One person? Hannibal is not one person. He is a surgeon, an artist, a psychiatrist, a flower-arranger, a gourmet cook, an oenophile, a brew-meister, a boy who lost his sister, a man who can’t stop killing, and a god. And he gets hungry.”
I didn’t include links because the spam trap always catches them.
Thanks for the suggestions – I will definitely read them before I watch the next episodes.
// One person? Hannibal is not one person. He is a surgeon, an artist, a psychiatrist, a flower-arranger, a gourmet cook, an oenophile, a brew-meister, a boy who lost his sister, a man who can’t stop killing, and a god. And he gets hungry.” //
hahahahahaha
Longtime reader, first time poster, and very glad that you’ve started on this show. Agree that Janice Poon’s blog will be an absolutely essential companion during this time.
Frankly, I just look forward to reading your reactions to episode ten.
James – Hello! I love it when longtime readers de-lurk!
And ooh, episode 10 – I can’t wait. The discs are on their way.
I love how fans are really really getting into the sheer aesthetics of the show – the lighting and production design aspects – and yes, the food decoration. I found the beauty (even in the gross scenes) totally overwhelming.
It’s a lot of fun – I look forward to more!
I really should have brought out the glitter and strobe lights for my first post, shouldn’t I? Oh well. Some day.
There used to be an excellent Tumblr called Hannotations that was trying to identify all of the set design elements (paintings on the walls, book titles that were in frame, pieces of nindiagetic music. It’s since vanished, but if I can find anything archived, I’ll certainly post ’em. There’s a site by that name still up, but it seems to be devoted to the films only.
I won’t go into how much I enjoy the show, it’s pretty obvious how and why it inspires hardcore fans. Suffice to say that the dreamy aesthetic does NOT get less dreamy, the gore does not get less disturbing, and there are some really, really good actors waiting in the wings (which is not to slight the main cast in any way; everyone gets some interesting work). Hope you enjoy. Think you will.
I can’t wait for Gillian Anderson – she’s on it, right?
The show is so CONFIDENT, I mean right out of the gate. It’s gorgeous. I relaxed right away, knowing I was in good hands, if that makes sense. Oh, these people clearly know what they’re doing, in other words.
Ah, Gillain Anderson. She appears in episode seven for the first of many cheekbone competitions with Mads Mikkelsen. Eddie Izzard plays an important part. Kacey Rohl is going to give Abigail Hobbs some great shades-I hope she gets lots and lots of work after this. Raul Esparza is a treat. Shawn Doyle takes a single episode role and makes a meal of it. Gina Torres’ll do her damndest to make you cry.
It is a very assured program, isn’t it? I wasn’t familiar with much of Bryan Fuller’s work when the series began (though his Munsters reboot pilot seems like a point between Pushing Daisies and Hannibal. Still magical realism, but the darkness is seeping in). To think that they’re doing so much with such a limited budget! If you’re going after supplements, please do check out the A.V. Club’s walkthroughs when the time is right. They do a series of interviews with Bryan Fuller, one for each second season episode.
Amazing cast. I love all of those people. And, as I said somewhere else, I am familiar with Kacey Rohl because of she was in one episode of Supernatural (where she also, coincidentally, had a bandage on her neck) – and she was lovely and effective in what was a guest spot. So I am so happy to see her get a recurring role in something.
And the lower budget aspect of it is amazing. It’sreassurance that you don’t NEED millions of dollars or lots of CGI to create a mood, a look, a feel. It’s great!
So I’m moving my way through Season 1. I just finished the small arc involving Eddie Izzard and the Chesapeake Ripper. And Gillian Anderson has appeared.
What is so amazing about Mikkelsen’s performance is that I kind of love him. I know what he is, but his line readings and demeanor are so destabilizing and elegant and often funny … so when suddenly we really see him “in action” for the first time – with Jack Crawford’s trainee who discovers the drawing on his desk – it was so freakin’ frightening I actually recoiled and put my hands over my eyes.
I like how they held that back – actually seeing him killing – because it made a huge impact.
Laurence Fishburne, too, is breaking my heart a little bit – in the storyline with his wife (a wonderful actress). He seems so lost. Afraid.
That’s where my viewing stands now. I’m waiting for the next three discs to arrive.
And the visuals continue to be so beautiful they hurt my eyes. Even the gross stuff – like the horrifying “angels”, made out of the people with their skin removed and held up by hooks. Stunning.
Wow, I had no idea you had posted about this show! Did you ever watch through the second season? It apparently had a mixed response with several fans, but I adore it. I’m really looking forward to watching the show “live” for the first time when S3 premieres this summer.