NBC’s Hannibal surprised just about everyone last year when it took the already infamous Thomas Harris characters and presented them in a much fresher and darker light. Each episode was a bloody (literally) nightmare of meaningful gore, with each crime scene a feast of strangely delicate yet gruelling cinematography, as well as allowing for some incredibly deep ponderings of the human psyche. The performances were also a delight, Mads Mikkelsen’s Hannibal somehow more human yet somehow also more alien than Anthony Hopkin’s iconic turn, while Hugh Dancy captured the inner turmoil of Will Graham.
Last series ended on an incredible twist. New episode “Kaiseki” wastes no time either. Right off we’re shown a flash-forward sequence that takes place twelve weeks after the rest of the episode, where Hannibal and Laurence Fishburne’s Jack Crawford face off in a brutal fight, both ending up near death. It’s a convenient set-up for the rest of the series, allowing the audience to work out how the series is going to get to this point; especially as in numerous points throughout the episode Crawford details how much he trusts Hannibal.
Dancy’s Graham once again is a figure of brokenness and resilience at the same time, spending the episode trying to recover the memories he suspects Hannibal has taken from him, not to save his own skin, but to just to seek justice against the friend who betrayed him. Numerous characters visit him in a manner resembling Hopkins and Jodie Foster’s iconic conversations in The Silence Of The Lambs, particularly when Beverly Katz (Hettiene Park) asks him to help figure out this week’s case (one that’s, unusually, not solved come the end of the episode; hopefully this one will thread itself throughout the whole series).
Meanwhile, Hannibal’s obsession with Graham is further commented on. With Graham in prison, Crawford has to enlist Hannibal’s help with this week’s case, replacing Graham as their criminal psychologist. When Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson) tells Hannibal he’s their “new Will” he’s never looked more delighted. Some interesting points also come out when Du Maurier tells him also that the FBI “do not know what he’s capable of”. Maybe he’s the patient that attacked her before?
Some absolutely beautiful sequences are abound when we get a glimpse into the visual workings of Graham’s mind. When he asks to undergo hypnosis by Dr Alana Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas) we see her as a dark almost-liquid like being, and a bloody yet beautiful feast headed by Hannibal, represented as the human copy of the stag that’s haunted Graham’s dreams since the first episode; a black nightmare of a “man” with foreboding antlers. Series creator Bryan Fuller always said that his main influences for the visual workings of the series were Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch, and that can be definitely seen with these haunting yet utterly gorgeous visuals. A delicate acoustic score also helps assist in the massive sense of loss that permeates the whole episode.
Hannibal once again returns to NBC this Friday, 9PM EST.