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| Title star Mads Mikkelsen lures from an ominous dark alley on this suggestive poster for Bryan Fuller's Hannibal - season 3 |
Hannibal - season 3 is created by Bryan Fuller (Heroes (2006-09)), based on Thomas Harris' (Carri Mora (2019)) novels Red Dragon (1981), Hannibal (1999)) and Hannibal Rising (2006).
The following contains SPOILERS.
The season opens very confusingly in Paris, and then in Florence, as psychologist/cannibal Hannibal Lecter has mysteriously moved his own psychologist Bedelia in to live with him there. The status and whereabouts of Will Graham, the FBI agent on his tail, is uncertain.
Lecter continues to play husband and wife with Bedelia in Italy, with the precise reason for her accommodating him eluding illumination. FBI Behavioral Unit leader Jack Crawford turns up, as Hannibal has claimed another victim and beats him up. He attacks back and is put in jail.
Now Francis 'the Tooth Fairy' Dollarhyde murders an entire family back in the US and befriends a blind woman, and Jack and Will turn to Hannibal for advise on catching him. Instead of helping, Hannibal turns Dollarhyde onto Will's family.
More carnage ensues, and Will releases Hannibal in order to catch Dollarhyde, but this also results in a blood bath and death.
The previously compelling show comes apart in what is likely its most literarily focused season. The central Dollarhyde/Red Dragon story line reminds us that both Michael Mann's Manhunter (1986) and Brett Ratner's Red Dragon (2002) told this menacing story better.
Obfuscation defines large parts of season 3, which also outwears its welcome with more or less pretentious, spacey, high-brow artsy sequences that come across as lethargic nonsense (and snooze-worthy.) Gloomy dark visuals and extended use of near whispered dialog doom the show, despite gory details and an intense, dream-like score (by Brian Reitzell (Relic (2020))). A sub-plot about real-life, never-caught Italian serial killer 'Il Mostro' surely flies over most audiences' heads in episode 2. Thematically, the series turns around the delicious vs the revolting and delves into the mind's disintegration into madness.
The last season of Hannibal is macabre but long, unengaging and sleep-inducing. Its strange allure may lend it a hypnotizing quality, but not in a good way.
Related posts:
Hannibal Lecter franchise: Hannibal - season 2 (2014) - More twisted twists in Fuller's busy baccanale
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 trailer for the season here
Cost: Unknown
Box office: None - TV-series
= Uncertain
[Hannibal season 3 was first shows from 4 June - 29 August on NBC and runs 13 episodes of on average 44 minutes, coming to approximately 572 minutes. Shooting took place from around October 2014 in Toronto, Ontario and in Italy. The season's highest rating came on episode 1 (2.57 mil.), but the ratings then slipped, and the lowest rating came on episode 12 (0.79 mil. ). The loss of viewers led to NBC canceling the show. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #236 on the site's TV Top 250 list, sitting between Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal (1999, miniseries) and The Rehearsal (2022-). The season was nominated for an Emmy. Fuller returned with American Gods (2017-21). In 2015 Mikkelsen also starred in Men & Chicken/Mænd og Høns (2015) and in Rihanna: Bitch Better Have My Money (2015, music video), returning theatrically in Doctor Strange (2016). Hannibal season 3 is certified fresh at 98 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Hannibal season 3?
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