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| Hugh Dancy is locked away with extreme prejudice on this bright poster for the second season of Bryan Fuller's Hannibal |
FBI special investigator Will Graham has been placed in a psychiatric hospital and is suspected in several murder cases. Though in an impaired state, Graham is grappling with the understanding that his former psychiatrist and confidante Hannibal Lecter may be the real culprit.
Hannibal is a horror/crime TV-series created by Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me (2003-04)), based on Thomas Harris' (Black Sunday (1975)) Hannibal Lecter novels, Red Dragon (1981), Hannibal (1999) and Hannibal Rising (2006).
The second season opens with a long and very violent fight between FBI agent Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne (Contagion (2011))) and Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen (The Three Musketeers (2011))), before it jumps back some months to Will's (Hugh Dancy (Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011))) incarceration, and an internal FBI investigation looking at whether Crawford pushed his detective into becoming a mass murderer. FBI agent Beverly Katz (brilliantly played by Hettienne Park (Don't Look Up (2021))) is taking a big risk in seeking out truths in Lecter's basement, and regrettably ends her days as a consequence.
Now a rather absurd menáge à trois plot comes to life, between Will, his girlfriend Alana Bloom and Lecter, as Will gets out of the hospital and doesn't effectively move his suspicions against Lecter out of his head and into real-world action. Instead he descends into murderous madness and discussions of death and God with his unhealthy therapist.
The plot gets entangled to the point of confusion. The final episode leads us back to the fight in the first episode, more confusing character developments and a culmination that can most aptly be described as an orgiastic death climax. A final cliffhanger scene sees Will on a plane with Lecter's former psychiatrist, Bedelia Du Maurier.
There are plenty of bodies and disturbing, yet fascinating aestheticized horrors in season 2, including a human mural, a lobotomizing acupuncturist murderer (Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction (1994)) is the show's first female murderer), a flower murderer (!), a murderer who dresses up as an extinct bear (!!) and a bird buried inside a woman buried inside a horse (!!!), but the highlight may be when Mason Verger (Michael Pitt (The Dreamers (2003)) in a dashing performance as the pig-obsessed maniac) is led by Lecter to cut his own face off, under the influence of drugs (episode 12: Tome-wan). The gory, odd gimmicks are sick details on top of the underlying trove of psychopathy and the erratic workings of the human mind that are the central thematic playing ground for Hannibal.
Regrettably the plot gets drawn out from episode 5 onward, as it seems to become too thick, too unlikely and too much, the universe becomes too narrow in a sense, and at the same time dramatically somewhat insufficient. Intrigues are injected that seem to mainly be there to prolong the story for the necessary length. The series stumbles. As Graham and Lecter's therapy begins again, I couldn't help but start to zone out a bit.
Best episode:
Episode 2: Sakizuke - written by Jeff Vlaming (Teen Wolf (2011, TV-series)), Fuller; directed by Tim Hunter (American Horror Story (2011, TV-series))
A yucky episode, in which Graham recollects disturbing goings-on at the hands of Dr. Lecter, and Hannibal's own therapist (Gillian Anderson (The X-Files (1993-18)) is glorious as the self-medicated, blond cougar Du Maurier) ends their sessions and seeks out Will. Meanwhile Hannibal locates the season's new murderer.
Related posts:
Hannibal Lecter franchise: Hannibal - season 1 (2013) - Fuller successfully introduces network TV to twisted serial killers
Hannibal Rising (2007) - Harris returns famed cannibal in sub-par origins flick
Hannibal (2001) - Grisly highlights in low-yielding Scott sequel
Manhunter (1986) - Perhaps the best criminal profiling picture ever
Watch a 1-minute clip from the season here
Cost: Unknown
Box office: None - TV-series
= Uncertain
[Hannibal season 2 was first shows from 28 February - 23 March on NBC and runs 13 episodes of on average 44 minutes, coming to 572 minutes. Fishburne was reportedly paid 175k $ per episode, totaling 2.275 mil. $. Shooting took place from August 2013 - ? in Ontario, including in Toronto. The season's highest rating came on episode 1 (3.27 mil.), but the ratings then slipped, and the lowest rating came on episode 11 (1.95 mil. ). The season averaged 2.54 mil. US viewers, down 12 % from the first season. It was renewed for season 3 (2015). IMDb's users have rated the film in at #215 on the sites TV Top 250 list, sitting between Mob Psycho 100 (2016) and Community (2009). In 2014 Mikkelsen also starred in The Salvation; Dancy was not in anything else; and Fishburne was in Ride Along, The Signal and Rudderless. Hannibal season 1 is certified fresh at 98 % with a 9.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Hannibal season 2?
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