He failed out of agency training for psych evaluation reasons. When talking to Hannibal, he mentions that he’s a special provisional agent or something. I forget the words he used. I assume they gave him a gun because he had the training to handle one, even if he wasn’t actually a full time agent.
He mentions in tonight’s episode that he was once a cop (and that he worked homicide?).
Yeah that mushroom garden was crazy. Reminded me of the manga MPD Psycho where a killer grew flowers in a living victims brain. I wonder if Will gets another applause from his class next week.
Yes, in the book he was a homicide detective before the FBI.
I am really liking what they are doing with this show, especially being a fan of the original book. Red Dragon, IMHO is the best serial killer novel ever written, has yet to be topped, and is where many current day takes (the following, ugh) are basing their own stories from. Hannibal feels like the books to me, not the movies. I really hope the show does well, they have outlined a 4 season trajectory, with season 4 based on Red Dragon. I’d love to see that fleshed out over 12 hours vs 2.
Just watched the first two episodes and I thought they were solid overall. One thing threw me about the pilot… so Hannibal kills the girl in the field and takes out her lungs. I guess I’m confused as to where he prepared them to be eaten. It looked like his place which would be in the greater DC area. But obviously the dead girl is up in Minnesota. So does he fly up there, do everything needed to kidnap and kill the girl, plant her, then fly back to DC with her lungs, eat them, then fly back to Minnesota to meet up with Graham? It’s not that important, but things like this bother me. I don’t dig it when I’m watching something going after a mood or a momentary creep out that actually makes no sense whatsoever if you think about it for two seconds.
I’d assume he flew to Minnesota and back to DC (although FedEx’d the lungs in dry ice to bypass TSA) under an assumed alias and waited for the body to be discovered, and then back to Minnesota. I also suspect that’s why he doesn’t have a receptionist-- so he can directly control his appointment schedule around his killings and free up time as necessary without anyone asking questions or testifying against him regarding mysterious absences.
Second ep was very strong; final sit-down chat was deeply chilling. The actor playing Lecter is really, really phenomenal in this. And yeah, the FX on the mushroom garden were extremely impressive. Honestly, I’m deeply impressed by this show.
I still dig the show but I feel like - and I’m not entirely sure what I mean by this so it’s probably easy to pick apart - the narrative is lurching around. I feel like they have interesting beats that they want to hit, but the path connecting those beats feels clumsy. Maybe as the larger narrative takes shape it will all feel more cohesive or smooth, but it doesn’t quite feel that way now.
Per Variety, at Fuller’s request, NBC is pulling the fourth episode (which has a case involving children killing children) from the lineup in light of recent events, and going right into the fifth episode next week.
An episode that would have guest-starred Molly Shannon from SNL. I guess the casting director really loves comedians and wants them to have the opportunity to play some serious roles. Kind of weird, but okay!
It looks like Shannon’s role was only one episode though, so her transition into dramatic actor will have to be put on hold.
Pathetic.
Yeah, that’s kind of a dumb stretch. On the flip side as long as they don’t cock it up, à la Heroes, this is looking like it might become one of my favorite tv shows.
Incredibly stupid.
Incidentally, I didn’t get the “tension” of the last episode.
How would anyone have thought that Abigail (or whatever the surviving girl’s name is) killed the neighbor girl that looked like her? Abigail has been in protective custody the entire time (and still appears to be so). So she just magically teleported from the psychiatric hospital/protective custody of the FBI to the neighbor’s house, grabbed her, and then teleported to the cabin to pop her on the deer rack?
The idea of anyone thinking she could have done it seems unbelievable.
I don’t think anyone seriously considered her a suspect in the killing of the neighbor girl. Lector presumably put the dead girl there to implicate the other victim’s brother by putting the blood from the stone that she threw at him earlier on her tooth, so it looked like he hit her in the mouth before killing her. Jack Crawford is just seriously considering Abigail as an accomplice to her father’s killings, while Lector is… possibly considering mentoring her as a serial killer? The question of what exactly he’s doing here is what I see as the hook of the series so far. He’s like some kind of devilish figure that draws people in by being eminently reasonable instead of a silver-tongued charmer.
Ah. I didn’t catch the blood on the stone on the tooth part. I just saw the mother freaking out and screaming that Abigail killed her daughter, and thought that sounded stupid.
I guess I can pass it off as either crazy bereavement screaming or implying that Abigail killed her daughter “generally” because Abigail and her family brought the general craziness to the community. I don’t know, it just seemed kind of dumb.
The entire stretch to assume Abigail was part of this also seems rather stupid. I mean, sure, it’s possible, but I still don’t completely get why it’s clear that the Minnesota Shrike wasn’t working alone, and even if he wasn’t, it seems an odd stretch to jump to the notion of reasonable certainty that his daughter was his partner.
I think Lector is indeed trying to convert both of them into serial killers. I think one of his MOs (from the first movie in fact) is that he likes to actually psychologically harm borderline cases that he runs across, to push them into becoming actual monsters. Basically, he likes to spin people up like destructive tops and then release them to go cause havoc in the world.
I’ve finally caught up on the three episodes, and I’m just not feeling it. Some problems I’m having:
Some spoilers about the first 3 episodes
[spoiler]
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How many freaking serial killers are in this town?? Already we’re in silly territory (3 serial killers active at the same time, I think) and the series just got started. Dumb.
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The lead FBI guy, Will, is SO damn morose. Jeez, just watching him makes me want to kill myself. I get it. He’s tortured. But damn, let him smile once in awhile. It’s way too “one note” for me. And the actor needs to learn the word “subtlety.”
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Why are people so quick to think the daughter was his partner in the killings? It’s like the first (only?) conclusion that people jump to. That’s dumb. When has there EVER been a serial killer that killed victims with his daughter? Has it ever happened? It seems like such an odd logical jump to me that was never explained or justified.
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The almost supernatural insight that Will has is kind of silly. He just “knows” things because he can empathise with the killers. Really? Too magical to me. The underlying books and movies have all been set in the real world - based in reality. We don’t need Will to be a near-psychic to have the show be compelling. Some of his insights have been real groaners.
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All of the Lector food porn that we’re shown is already getting tiresome. It is fine occasionally, but you don’t need to have the camera hold on a plate of food for 5 seconds during every single episode. We get it, he’s a cannibal.[/spoiler]
The production values are top notch, and I like the idea of a dark procedural/serial show like this. But the actual execution of the story so far is pretty bad, IMO. I’m going to continue to watch for a little while, but I’m really disappointed.
I don’t think this is a spoiler, so I’m just going to respond to it.
Literally in the first few minutes of the first episode, a reference is made to where he falls on the autism/asperger’s spectrum. I’m pretty sure that’s why he is supposed to have difficulties expressing emotion normally (and why he doesn’t smile once in awhile).
He’s not just supposed to be the stereotypical “dark, tortured cop.” He literally has a disorder.
The food porn is just part of the production design. It isn’t supposed to be communicating that he’s a cannibal per se. The intentionally sensuous shots of food are just part of the visual landscape. They’re also supposed to be simultaneously appealing and (thanks to the color saturation and proximity) a little disturbing. It’s mood-building. The specific use of food instead of any other visual element is a nod to the mythos, sure, but I think it’s pretty well handled in general.
The “too many psychos” thing is just part of the required suspension of disbelief for this kind of show, I think. You could probably make the same case about some of the other police procedurals. I mean, how many naval officers really die in suspicious circumstances every year?
I know. But people with asperger’s can smile, can’t they? I mean this guy has less personality than the zombies in The Walking Dead. My main problem is that he comes across as much less interesting since the ONLY thing the actor plays is the “I have a problem” part of the character. Real people are more nuanced than that. And an interesting character needs to be more than his disorder. And so far, we aren’t getting anything else.