“When the Lion is in the Room, You Will Know”
I don’t really know how to start this review so I’ll just stick with the obvious, I loved this first episode of Hannibal.
Based on Thomas Harrys’s “Red Dragon”, “Hannibal” chronicles the years leading to Dr Lecter’s incarceration depicted in “Silence of the Lambs” and it would be an ideal follow up, moviewise, to “Hannibal”, The movie, the one depicting the youth of Dr Lecter.
Alfred Hitchckock’s influence is omnipresent, the crows, the innuendos, the suspense, everything. #GoodThing
The first half of the episode is comprised of mainly Laurence Fishburne screaming at subordinates in lavatories and reversed slow motion footage of cadavers in blood pools and shamanic reconstructions of events at the hands of Special Agent Will Graham, played by British actor Hugh Dancy. Immediately likable for his, almost supernatural, Criminal Profiling skills and his love for stray dogs, that, it appears, he adopts at any given chance. Dogs I hope, will never get to meet Dr Lecter, even tough I suspect it will happen and it won’t be pretty. Producers please don’t do it, let doggies live.
Almost halfway through the show, we finally get to have a first peek at Dr Lecter himself, in all his Seville Row suited glory, taking a bite of some poor girls, perfectly cooked body part.
Mads Mikkelsen, is simply perfect in the part of Hannibal Lecter, he is mysterious just enough, handsome in a big chinned, asymmetric, quirky way, impeccably dressed and mannered. At first, me being a snob and a purist, I was a tad, just a touch, disappointed at Lecter’s accent, I wanted my favourite cannibal to have that stiff upper lip, condescending, British accent, veiled in brutal sarcasm, instead I was confronted with Mads Mikkelsen’s Danglish. The shock lasted the time it took me to utter *Holy Fava Beans*, after which my brain accepted the novelty and decided that it was awesome anyway.
Mads Mikkelsen, being the great actor he is, Plays an excellent Lecter, same way he played an excellent, bloody teared, Le Chiffre in 007. Simply class.
Good old Laurence Fishburne is as physically imposing and intimidating as ever and a serial scene stealer, I wasn’t expecting any less from him. Can’t wait to see him in Man Of Steel.
Gillian Anderson, plays the part of Dr Lecter’s psychotherapist, Dr Bedelia Du Maurier, I hope this series does for her what Californication did for Duchovny. She might be introduced in Episode Two, “Potage”, alongside Eddie Izzard, held in what appears to be an alternative version of Lecter’s holding cell. Not shure if I #Hate or #Love end of episode tease bits, now I am left wondering. Well, not long left for S1E2.
NBC, commissioned 13 episodes and announced that every series will comprise 13 episodes each, Cabala? Showbiz superstitions? We don’t care, as long as they keep the episodes coming.
What I’ve learned from this Episode? How to compress somebody’s neck after it’s been slashed open, on this note, don’t be fooled by Hannibal’s tender hand holding of lil ol’ girl in a coma, dude is there to make shure she never wakes up, she heard his voice...
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