Hannibal Season 1 Review

• 24th Aug 2013

The big screen antics seemed to stumble to a halt with an adaptation of the prequel novel Hannibal Rising, so Hannibal Lecter makes a transition to the small screen. It therefore seems like a risky venture to go back into the past again, but this time starting the timeline as character Will Graham (from the novel Red Dragon) initially meets the psychiatrist.

The plot shows Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) being brought in to work crime scenes as a specialist by FBI honcho Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne). Graham’s speciality is being able to empathise with any killers work.  A job that rightfully leaves him a little bit shaken. So he is referred to work with the good doctor of the main title, and from there onwards we get to see the slow machinations of the psychiatrist go to work.

Now, the show may be named after the character and has been sold around the casting of the magnificent Mads Mikkelsen, but special mention must go to Hugh Dancy as Will Graham.  Right from the get go he portrays Graham’s intensity with nothing short of brilliance. The stlye of the show also lends itself to visualising his method of tracing crimes back to the moment they erupt into bloody violence, and from there he inserts himself into the role of the killer in order to figure out how they got their in the first place. Red Dragon and Manhunter had to do it through dialogue, but here we also get a mix of horror styling – and the show’s opening does not let up on the shocks even after you think they are done.

There is a regular supporting cast as well, the biggest name of which is Laurence Fishburne who gets to do some terrific work, peaking around the mid seaso,n as we get to learn further details about Crawford’s life.

Performances aside, the show itself is persistently atmospheric. Like any workable horror – the frights and thrills are both mystifyingly intense as well as hypnotically psychotic. But the true sign of it working is that they never let up. The DNA of the show relies on this to be a constant trait of the film as it is so much a part of the Graham character.

This is a truly powerful show that could go on for the foreseeable future to cover the remaining novels by Thomas Harris not to mention the time in between them.  There are, of course, many delicious characters and plots ahead . So long Dexter; welcome back Hannibal.

Steven Hurst