Bryan Fuller's Hannibal

[Frog_Girl]

Anyone else watching the show? How many have seen the movies or read the books?

I've seen Silence of the Lambs and read Red Dragon. So far this is my favorite version. I like Mads Mekkelsen's quiet reserved personality that suddenly flips to a vicious killer. I also love the cinematogrophy and that Bryan Fuller cast women and people of color in roles that were originally all white men.

New episode airs tonight? Anyone else watching?

[Enigmatic Undead]

Anyone else watching the show?

I've seen Silence of the Lambs and read Red Dragon. So far this is my favorite version. I like Mads Mekkelsen's quiet reserved personality that suddenly flips to a vicious killer. I also love the cinematogrophy and that Bryan Fuller cast women and people of color in roles that were originally all white men.

New episode airs tonight? Anyone else watching?

NBC's Hannibal is the best horror series on TV. The way that they're able to top their own macabre tableu each week with even more gory and disturbing deaths is pretty incredible and the psychedelic feel to it is just really cool.

How many have seen the movies or read the books?

I prefer Manhunter to the Red Dragon film although it has much less Hannibal Lector in it. Brian Cox is decent as the character but lacks the charm and charisma that Anthony Hopkins has. I would say that and Silence of the Lambs are the only really must see films made from Thomas Harris novels.

[Temo]

The TV series is by far the most beautiful version of Hannibal. Also is the one with the biggest suspensions of disbelief

I mean, everyone have Iphones but none of the buildings have security cameras?

[Zorkel567]

Yeah, never read the books or seen the movies, but have seen every episode of this show at least once. It's in my top three favorite series of the moment, and I'm loving it.

[Enigmatic Undead]

Michael Pitt was nearly unrecognizable in this week's episode.

[Professor Moriarty]

what are the odds we will get a 3rd session?

[DarkBeast]

I watch it and like it. Sometimes it does feel like a guilty pleasure, because it's SO over the top, but other times it has a real intelligence and very high class artistic sensibility to it. It walks this weird line between smaltzy, gruesome, and SUPER-smart.

Mads is a great Hannibal and the rest of the cast are very good as well. I've seen all the movies and read all the books, and this version is a great remix/distillation of the entire mythos.

[BadWolf]

Reposted below with proper formating. Why is there no option to delete posts?!

[BadWolf]

what are the odds we will get a 3rd session?

Well given that it's almost entirely financed by foreign producers, and the absurd (though by no means undeserved) amounts of critical acclaim its gotten, there's relatively little reason for NBC to cancel it unless they thought that there was something better they might replace it with and given the general failure of their past pilot season that's looking more and more unlikely. There's also the fact that multiple networks said they would likely pick it up if it got cancelled when it was on the bubble last year.

In short, pretty good I think.

[RonFett]

I love the show, however I'm not a fan of what's been going on with Will this season.

[harpier]

This is easily one of my favorite shows on TV right now. As others have alluded to, it sometimes (read: often) requires a suspension of disbelief about the procedural and investigative aspects of the show—*early Season 2 spoiler* Beverly's co-workers investigating her own murder scene, for instance—but the artistic and thematic cohesion of the show, which in other series often gets sacrificed for plot credibility, is unparalleled. It's heavily stylized and beautiful, but the visual symmetry is layered and meaningful and all the more gruesome for that beauty.

Although their interpretations are substantially different and generally suitable to their different stories, I prefer Mads Mikkelsen's Lecter to Anthony Hopkins'. It's certainly more scary. Hopkins' Hannibal was always a little too hammy to really be that frightening, but Mikkelsen's quiet calm and seemingly sincere interest in Will as a friend, even as he's framing him for murder or sending one of his groomed killers to take him out, make him more seductive and dangerous as a villain. Abel Gideon's turn as the "Chesapeake Ripper" reinforces the difference. Eddie Izzard perceptibly mimics the manic madness of Hopkins' Lecter—something that is corroborated in the commentary to Season 1—and it chimes of performance more than menace, even if it is deadly. It's also one in a long line of subtle and not-so-subtle allusions to the earlier books and movies, which make it really really rich with irony. (I actually wrote a short post on TV.com about this very irony: here.)

Well given that it's almost entirely financed by foreign producers, and the absurd (though by no means undeserved) amounts of critical acclaim its gotten, there's relatively little reason for NBC to cancel it unless they thought that there was something better they might replace it with and given the general failure of their past pilot season that's looking more and more unlikely. There's also the fact that multiple networks said they would likely pick it up if it got cancelled when it was on the bubble last year.

In short, pretty good I think.

I still think it's no better than 50/50 that NBC will renew it, though admittedly no one really expected them to renew it last year either, so you never know. But most TV journalists suspect that even if NBC passes on it, the show stands a very good chance at being picked up by another outlet and getting a third season.

[Coal Tiger]

what are the odds we will get a 3rd session?

Pretty good, but I seriously doubt it'll get the full 7 like Fuller has planned.

[SamuelbelievesinCyclops]

How this show is still TV-14 eludes me XD

If it gets cancelled, chances are that Netflix will pick it up again. (Hell yeah! Binge-watching!)

Really hate to see this get cancelled. One of the best shows on TV right now

[DennisTheMenace]

I absolutely love this show but will not be surprised if it's cancelled. I think the weird imagery and music throughout the show is not very appealing to the masses. I know a few people turned who initially liked the show but were turned off by this and stopped watching. I think if the format were a little different it would be a lot more popular.

However, I'm also not a fan of what they're doing with Will's character--I was quite shocked and a little disturbed by last week's episode.

[Frog_Girl]

My hope is that there is some kind of twist coming with what has been happening to Will, but it is very difficult to trick Hannibal, so we'll see. There was that flash forward at the start of the season, and we have to get there somehow.

I'm a bit concerned about what they did with Margot. Lesbian-who-can't-help-but-sleep-with-the-male-hero is an old trope, but judging by the next week's preview she has her own agenda as well. Although there is the issue of turning Dr. Bloom into a love triangle between Hannibal and Will. I would have preferred if they didn't turn her into a love interest. I appreciate the gender bending to get a more diverse cast, but it doesn't really help if she just ends up being something for the boys to fight over.