Greetings, lambs~ As you read in the title, this article is all about my favorite murderous genius, Hannibal Lecter, and the eponymous series produced by NBC. We first learned about the twisted cannibal fromThomas Harris’s 1981 novel, The Red Dragon. The character was later brought to life by Sir Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs, a 1991 movie directed by Jonathan Demme.
All this is good and well, but we are here to talk about Dr. Lecter’s adventures prior to being captured and left to rot within the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. How did such a well-renowned psychiatrist, a conniving killer, get himself caught?
Beware, Hannibal spoilers ahead!
On April 1st, 2013, Hannibal premiered on NBC, starring Mads Mikkelsen as the titular cannibal and Hugh Dancy as Will Graham, the series’s protagonist. The cast also included Laurence Fishburne, Gillian Anderson, and Caroline Dhavernas.
Hannibal focuses on Dancy’s character: criminal profiler Will Graham. He finds himself contacted by Special Agent Jack Brewer (Fishburne), who happens to be both the head of the Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI and Will’s boss, when he needs assistance catching a serial killer known as the Minnesota Shrike. Will expresses that he isn’t keen on going out into the field, given that he tends to get far too involved in cases such as these because of his strong empathy. Jack then opts to subject Will to a psychological evaluation at the hands of a prestigious psychiatrist named Hannibal Lecter to determine whether or not Will is fit to help on the case. When they meet, Lecter’s office is charged with tension and everything is set into motion.
It’s pretty clear from the moment we meet Hannibal that not everything is as it seems: the way he nitpicks Will’s mind, the way he tries to get a rise out of the profiler makes it obvious that the psychiatrist enjoys making people squirm in their seats. And the on-screen chemistry between Mikkelsen and Dancy really helps evoke the feeling that there’s no possible way that these two could be good for each other. The way Hannibal and Will interact throughout the series almost makes you root for them romantically, if it weren’t for the fact that nearly every conversation the two share is strongly laced with psychological manipulation.
Overall, the series is truly masterful. It shows us Will’s slow descent into madness and how it affects his relationships with those around him quite severely. Hannibal portrays how different psyches can be subjected to severe amounts of trauma and how these could potentially crumble under the pressure from said trauma. In the end, Hannibal ends up changing the lives of the people involved with him, one way or another. Whether it be by poking at your brain until you kill (looking at you Will) or by feeding you human meat without your consent (literally any guest Hannibal has for dinner), Hannibal Lecter is portrayed as a remorseless murderer.
However, all these dark themes don’t prevent other aspects of the series from shining through. You really can’t deny the fact that basically all the dishes that Hannibal whips up in his kitchen look truly mouth-watering and delectable, all of them being culinary art (excluding that one gross fish jelly). The shots of him handling his ingredients with grace, the slow motion takes of certain moments in the cooking process are capable of making your stomach growl against your better judgment (let’s just pretend he isn’t cooking people for a second, alright?). It’s just a very visually appealing show. A great example of this are all the Florence scenes in season 3; the glamour of the parties, the classical aura of the museum, and the harsh spatter of blood on concrete after the Murder Husbands leave the museum.
Fun fact: within the series, journalist Fredericka “Freddie” Lounds dubbed Hannibal and Will as the Murder Husbands after the events of Mizumono (S2, Ep13) on her true crime website, TattleCrime.
All this said, remember Dr. Lecter’s wise words, fellow fannibals: Eat the rude.
(Please do not actually eat rude people as this can have severe legal repercussions :D)
Extra: some Hannibal memes