HANNIBAL Season Finale Review

Article first published as TV Review: 'Hannibal' - 'Mizumono' on Blogcritics.

NBC’s Hannibal ended its second season last night with “Mizumono.” It’s hard to find a direct translation for the word in English, but various sources I checked on Google call it a matter of chance, a final sweet dish of a meal, a liquid, and a fruit. All of these seem apt to the episode, which presents a final showdown between all of the main players, the last hour in which the familiar, fragile chemistry of the show’s leads is maintained as it has been thus far, signaling major changes for next season. It’s a simultaneously delicious and frustrating ending, with much left up in the air, literally and figuratively.

Viewers have known since the season two premiere that Jack (Laurence Fishburne) had been heading for a bloody run-in with Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen), though we don’t yet know how this war will end, even with the end of season two.

In the scenes leading up to the final confrontation, Jack and Hannibal each expect Will’s (Hugh Dancy) loyalty, but wonder whether he will fulfill those expectations, as the Will becomes the wild card in the outcome between the two mostly evenly matched opponents. There may even be a doubt in the minds the viewers, observing Will talking to both Jack and Hannibal, knowing he’s lied to both in the past, and wondering where Will’s inner intentions lie. Will is emotionally unstable, and although Jack and Hannibal both hold sway over him, he also has a will of his own that can’t exactly be controlled. Has Hannibal awakened in Will something dark that may win out over his nobility and morals?

The key to figuring out where Will’s heart lies is Freddie Lounds (Lara Jean Chorostecki). Keep in mind that Hannibal thinks Will has killed Freddie, leading Hannibal to see Will as more vicious and bloodthirsty than he is. Jack is in on this secret. And, with this important clue, the audience should have confidence in predicting Will’s true path. And when Hannibal catches a whiff of Freddie’s scent on Will, it signals to him that Freddie is still alive, giving him just the warning he needs.

Hannibal is not omnipotent, an undefeatable villain, but he is very, very intelligent, and the slightest mistake on the part of our heroes can cost them their lives. One former main character, Beverly Katz (Hettienne Park), figures that out earlier in the season, and she dies for it. Which means it’s not surprising when Hannibal surprises those who might take him down, removing the bullets from Alana’s (Caroline Dhavernas) gun, knowing she could come to Will and Jack’s aid, and having Abigail Hobbs (Kacey Rohl), whom everyone believes dead, waiting in the house as Hannibal’s backup. Hannibal has them all set up perfectly, taking their predictable actions into account, and by doing so, he is able to not only (possible mortally on all counts) wound Alana, Will, and Jack, he is also able to hop a plane with the one woman who understands him, Dr. Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson), and escape.

Why does Hannibal leave the trio alive? Abigail seems destined to die, but if the authorities get there soon, Will, Jack, and Alana could live. They could also perish, and things are not looking good for any of them, but there’s a chance (a very good one since they really are the stars of the show and need to hunt Hannibal down) that they will live. Does Hannibal possess so much confidence in himself that he doesn’t worry about them coming after him? Or does he still harbor soft spots for all three, people he really does seem to like and has cared about over these past two years? Could these feelings be his undoing? Because Hannibal is so smart, I’m inclined to chalk his mercy up to emotion.

Jack and company will have a hard time beginning their search, even assuming they all survive. Jack is suspended as Kade (Cynthia Nixon) investigates misconduct in “entrapping” Hannibal. The fact that Jack, Will, and Alana are injured following through on the plan Kade ordered Jack not to pursue will not help Jack’s case, even if it sort of proves him right. This could also be the reason law enforcement is slow slow to respond, even after both Alana and Will call for backup and ambulances. Will higher powers help our protagonists get back in the good graces of the feds, or will they be rebels, only working for themselves? The source material (Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon, etc.), not always followed faithfully by the show’s creators, points to the former.

What if “Mizumono” had been the series finale, a possibility when it was filmed, since, at the time, Hannibal teetered on the edge of cancellation? It certainly would have been a highly disappointing end to the series. Yes, there is some sort of beauty in Hannibal defeating his enemies and getting away with it, and it’s cool that it would fly in the face of a fundamental television trope by allowing evil conquering good. But it would also suck that we wouldn’t even know if the main players lived. I guess we’d assume they’d died, losers in the dangerous game they play. The blue sky credits with the tag are cool, but ultimately not be satisfying as the end of the story, even if I grudgingly admit how unique and complete the episode would have seemed.

Hannibal is incredibly well crafted. I absolutely loathe that the Jack / Hannibal fight is revealed in the season premiere, the one glaring misstep the series has made in two seasons, but the way this hour unfolds is truly excellent. It maintains its artistic cred with slow shots of rain falling and a split Will, while still delivering action in the battles to the death. There are moving moments, such as Jack interacting with Bella (Gina Torres) and Bella talking about Jack, and there are shocking twists, such as learning Abigail is still alive, only to see her killed quickly after.

There isn’t a single wasted or boring moment, the dark motif bringing the characters more sharply into focus and letting the show rest on the talent of the actors and the rich dialogue. It’s definitely the best series on network television, and not just because it also pushes into both more bloody and more sophisticated territory than any predecessor, though that helps.

Hannibal, thank goodness, has been picked up, and will return in 2015 to NBC.

Amazing HANNIBAL and the "Kaiseki" Misstep

Article first published as HANNIBAL Review "Kaiseki" at Seat42F.

NBC’s HANNIBAL began its second season last night with “Kaiseki.” The word refers to a multi-course Japanese meal, as well as the skill it takes to prepare such a repast. This seems appropriate, as the hour gives us dish after dish of tasty, chewy drama, all; delivered with the beautifully artistry of a television master. It remains not only one of the best written and acted series on the air, but also one of the best visual and auditory productions overall.

Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) is right where we left him – sitting in a jail cell, about to be tried for the murder of several people, more concerned with exposing the truth about Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) than defending himself. To be fair, if Hannibal’s nature is brought to light, Will will get off scot free. But given the care and attention to detail Hannibal puts into covering his tracks and framing Will, that isn’t an easy task.

Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) humors Will, having Beverly (Hettienne Park) swab Hannibal’s DNA and go over his clothing with a fine-toothed comb. But Hannibal is cooperative and seemingly open, making sure Jack never for a moment suspects Will’s accusations are more than the ravings of a mad man.

In fact, everyone seems convinced that Will is crazy. Beverly will consult with him, continuing to recognize his genius, but she’s wary. Dr. Alana Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas) is concerned for Will and shows it by visiting him, taking custody of his dogs, and looking for a plausible defense, but even she thinks he murdered. Her position is that he’s mentally ill and that’s what’s responsible for the horror, not Will himself, but she still doubts him, even though fans know that Will is innocent. Probably.

All of this would make for some really suspenseful drama, waiting for the other show to drop, if “Kaiseki” didn’t screw up the very first scene in the episode. When the premiere opens, Hannibal is slicing some meat and we catch Jack’s reflection in the knife. Then, the two engage in a fight to the death, both slashing and tumbling, before the screen flashes ‘Twelve Weeks Earlier.’ Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful moment, as most of HANNIBAL is, but it’s poorly timed in the narrative arc.

Practically anyone who watches HANNIBAL is already at least vaguely familiar with The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal films or books, which will (renewal gods willing) make up seasons five and six of this show. As such, we know Hannibal’s misdeeds will be exposed, and we also know that all five of the main characters will survive for quite some time, none being killed off before those seasons. However, this has never detracted from the enjoyment of the show because no one but Bryan Fuller, the brilliant mind behind it, can predict when those revelations will unfold.

“Kaiseki” spoils that. Assuming time in the story matches time in the real world, twelve weeks spells twelve episodes, taking us up to the season two finale. We now can see exactly how the confrontation will play out, and will be able to see it coming. A large part of the pacing is screwed up.

Now, it’s likely this is done for practical reasons. HANNINBAL is a low-rated show, and even with the international partners that help fund it, there’s no guarantee NBC will keep it going. An opener like that will hook those who might complain of slowness, and showing us the end at the start has become a common TV staple. The problem is, it’s now a detestable, predictable trope, and HANNIBAL is way better than that. As someone who doesn’t even watch previews at the end of episodes any more to avoid being spoiled, it really makes me angry they would do this. The only thing that would salvage it a little is if the twelve weeks unexpectedly pass by mid-season, or halfway through season three, rather than leading to the conclusion of this year.

The rest of “Kaiseki” is brilliant. I love the tension between Hannibal and Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson) when he asks her to lie to Jack for him, though the extent of her falsehood is unclear, since how much she knows isn’t revealed. The scene in which Dr. Bloom files a complaint about Jack’s lack of judgment, which the CIA investigator (Cynthia Nixon, Alpha House, The Big C) just wants to make go away, is stellar. Hannibal ‘jokingly’ confessing to Will’s doctor, Frederick Chilton (Raul Esparza), is fun. The moment between Jack and Alana in Will’s house is touching. Finding out Hannibal still considers Will a friend is intriguing. Will’s visions are beautiful, and him recovering a memory is a triumph. Plus, there’s a really cool new killer obsessed with color palettes introduced, which Jack will investigate with the help of Hannibal, who has taken over Will’s job.

The characters are so well defined, and each have moving scenes with others. The cast is fragmented, to be sure, but most people get the chance to interact with most others one on one, pulling us into their dark, twisted world in the best of ways, the subtext as interesting as the dialogue.

I just wish “Kaiseki” hadn’t played to popular bends, and then it would have been perfect.

HANNIBAL airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.

Hannibal Bites Into NBC

Article first posted as HANNIBAL Series Premiere Review on Seat42F.

Grade: 85%

NBC jumps on the serial killer bandwagon with its new drama series, HANNIBAL. The first episode, premiering tonight at 10 p.m., is called “Apetrif,” which, for those not familiar with the term, is an alcoholic drink served before a meal, sort of the liquid version of an appetizer. It’s appropriate in a series about cannibalism that we’ll get to see a little bit of the characters and story before the gory stuff starts. And there is gory stuff, even though this is a basic broadcast network, in the first hour.

HANNIBAL, surprisingly, is not about the infamous killer from Silence of the Lambs. He’s there, and we’ll get to him in a minute, but the main character is Special Agent Will Graham (Hugh Dancy, The Big C), a brilliant but unstable investigator and professor. Will is tasked by the FBI with figuring out who commits murders, and he’s brilliant at it, being able to envision himself at the scene at the time of the crime.

Bryan Fuller, creator of Pushing Daisies and Wonderfalls, has a lot of fun with Will’s character. Fuller doesn’t take things into the cartoonish or fantasy world settings here, like he done in his previous shows. Instead, he focuses on the artistry, with Will’s visions beautifully illustrated in creative and intriguing ways. Bodies will float and blood will spatter, but this definitely has a darker tone, more grounded in reality, than his other work.

Will gets to have such vibrant musings because he’s mentally unstable, sort of like the main character in TNT’s Perception. The reason the FBI can’t use him full-time is because he can’t handle the full-time work. His boss, Agent Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne, CSI, The Matrix), knows this, but decides to risk Will’s sanity in order to make use of his brilliance.

Does this make Jack a monster? In a series about bad people, one has to wonder if the good guys also deserve some of the blame. After all, if Jack never puts Will in the field, Will won’t suffer as he does. Jack is playing a dangerous game.

Jack first approaches Dr. Alana Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas, Off the Map, Wonderfalls) to be Will’s partner and handler, but after she refuses, likely of the same opinion I just expressed in the previous paragraph, he approaches Alana’s mentor, the genius profiler Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen, Unit 1, Casino Royale). Lecter is an odd duck, but seems to have it much more together than Will, and so is an appropriate balance. Seems being the operative word.

We all know who Hannibal really is, and while no one in authority yet suspects the good doctor of any wrong doing, Hannibal tempts fate right out of the gate by secretly impeding the investigation, giving their query warning that they are coming. It may be professional courtesy between serial killers, but it certainly doesn’t make Hannibal good at his new job.

Dancy is amazing. He plays the part with such nuance and detail! Granted, this is a role any actor would kill (pun intended) to play, with such a rich, vibrant patchwork of elements. It’s the type of part the Emmys were created for, and Dancy masterfully unfurls the layers of the damaged psyche. He will surely be on the short list come award season.

Mikkelsen, on the other hand, plays his cards very close to his vest, so we’re slow to get the full picture of who he is. If one can put what one already knows about the character from other sources out of their mind, it’s easy to agree with Will when he says Hannibal is not interesting. But Hannibal immediately promises that he will be, and by the end of the first episode, we get the early hints that he is right. Plus, one does have to wonder what kind of sausage Hannibal serves Will for breakfast…

Obviously, HANNIBAL will have elements of a standard crime drama, but the focus is much more character-driven than other shows. Like Dexter or Bates Motel, HANNIBAL promises to get inside the mind of what makes a psychopath, and explore paths both taken and avoided. Will and Hannibal are two sides of the same coin, and watching them interact and face off will be quite entertaining.

I do wonder how long HANNIBAL can realistically stretch out the two of them working together, though. Right off the bat, Hannibal is mucking things up for Will. Will is not stupid, and the two have plenty of FBI agents keeping tabs on them. Hannibal may be highly intelligent, but sooner or later he’s bound to get caught. If he doesn’t, it’s going to start making the other characters look like dolts, incapable of doing the jobs they’re supposedly great at, especially where Will is concerned.

Making Hannibal fully go to the other side would be the right move for the series to make eventually, not necessarily at the end of the run, even as it would completely change the show. Because of this, I doubt NBC will rush into anything. In the short-term, that means we are going to have to deal with plot holes and leaps of logic to make it work.

I really like the execution of HANNIBAL. It’s production looks fantastic, and the cast is terrific. I just worry that the scenario is not quite as well thought out as it needs to be. The show walks a very fine line of believability, and if it’s not careful, it will slip off too often.

At least it can’t be accused of being a copycat. Despite being one of only several serial killer dramas out right now, HANNIBAL does its own thing, and doesn’t feel like any of the others. That is a credit to its creator.

The rest of the cast includes Lara Jean Chorostecki (Camelot) as a blogger who will be on Hannibal’s scent, and Aaron Abrams (The LA. Complex, Rookie Blue), Hettienne Park (Young Adult), and Scott Thompson (The Kids in the Hall) as FBI agents. None of them gets any development to speak of in ” Apetrif,” though hopefully they will as the series goes on.

Overall, HANNIBAL is not a bad effort, and definitely worth checking out. There are just some things that need fixing if its going to be a long-running drama with the big fan base it seeks.