Spoiler alert: this blog contains details from Hannibal season three, episode six – Dolce; for episode five Contorno, click here
When the completely expected news arrived that Hannibal had been dropped by NBC and effectively cancelled, any newcomers dropping in to see what the fuss was about were greeted by an episode featuring a lengthy scene of two men (neither of whom were called Hannibal) comparing their massive facial disfigurements. It was obtuse, unpleasant and pretentious – all the things that make it so much fun for the devotees. The big question is clearly not why was the show cancelled, but rather how did they get away with it for so long?
Hannibal’s European vacation has played out like a cross between a fever dream and a Drunk History retelling of Thomas Harris’s novels, repositioning elements from The Silence of the Lambs’ gory pantomime sequel Hannibal to run much earlier in the timeline. We’ve had Lecter’s lecture on Pietro della Vigna, Verger’s bounty, the memory palace and Inspector Pazzi (a sadly underused Fortunato Cerlino, who was so utterly terrifying in Gomorrah) – all from the book Hannibal.
From the weaker prequel offering, Hannibal Rising, we’ve had the minor character Chiyoh expanded into one of Lecter’s pet projects, living for years on his deserted family estate in Lithuania as lone guard and tormentor to a man who, upon reflection, probably didn’t eat Hannibal’s sister Mischa.
There have also been nods to future events, with Hannibal waxing about his desire to recall every detail of his surroundings – there’s a drawing by him of the Florentine skyline in his cell when we meet him in Lambs.
This fast and loose replaying is effective, reaping benefits this week when it really looked as though Will was about to have his brain eaten. He still might. We all knew Hannibal would be captured eventually; the merry, grisly dance the show has been leading us on is what has provided the fun.
The show is full of disparate characters, all mentally and physically scarred by their common denominator: Hannibal Lecter. Will Graham, Mason Verger (recast with Joe Anderson seamlessly taking over from Michael Pitt), Dr Frederick Chilton, Jack Crawford, Dr Alana Bloom and Dr Bedelia Du Maurier have all been permanently altered by their proximity to Hannibal. Graham and Crawford both have first-hand wounds from going mano a mano with him; the others were the victims of his dastardly and often long-term plans in which he convinced people to do his dirty work. Admittedly, Hannibal did break Verger’s neck, but the facial wounds were self-inflicted.
Crawford and Bloom have had big character changes. The former has fallen into a perfectly understandable grieving widower/avenger routine after apparently speeding his cancer ridden wife’s demise, while Bloom has turned into some kind of grumpy film noir vamp full of bitterness, double-crosses and self importance; her plotting with Margot is surely doomed. As for Bedelia, the full story of her self-defence killing of a murderous patient – Neal Frank, whom Hannibal sent her way – has yet to be told, but we’re sure to see more; Frank was played by Zachary Quinto, an actor who is too big a name to appear only as a corpse in a brief flashback sequence.
While everyone has been searching for him, we’ve been treated to scenes of cannibalistic domestic bliss as Hannibal dines on free-range academia. Unsurprisingly, his home life is deeply weird and dangerous, and Bedelia is clearly in way over her head as they masquerade as a married couple, the Fells. Their queasy dynamic has largely been a hoot, with Hannibal feeding her up with snails and oysters to make her taste better in case he decides to eat her. Their dialogue has been a broad mix of mumbo and jumbo (“Snails follow their nature as surely as those that eat them”), the sort of stuff only performers as skilled as Mads Mikkelsen and Gillian Anderson can get away with. Anderson’s palpable unease throughout the Dimmond dinner party, as Hannibal tried to get her more involved in his hobby, was beautifully performed. Oh, and Bedelia’s exit strategy of feigning insanity is fooling absolutely no one.
It has been very stylish, of course, with sound and vision conspiring to make the viewer think that either their brain or their TV is broken. From the scenes of a leather-clad Hannibal zipping through a lysergic Paris on his motorbike to Will and Chiyoh’s woozy train journey, with a kaleidoscopic love scene and Dimmond’s corpse contorted into a heart (which then unfolded into an even more grotesque corruption of the show’s signature stag monster), it feels as though the writers have taken “too much” as their starting point.
Hannibal the character has been having fun waiting for everyone to catch up with him, a luxury Hannibal the show can no longer afford. It looks like three seasons is all we’ll get from this iteration. They’ve left us with the action back on US soil, with Will and Hannibal being returned to Verger’s Muskrat farm (where his plan to feed Hannibal to his hogs backfired disastrously last season).
With a week to wrap up this drama before the narrative jumps forward a few years to deliver the Red Dragon storyline, will you be sticking around? Have you been watching Hannibal’s latest season or did you simply dream it? At this point, it’s hard to tell.
