From the movies you know that Hannibal Lecter is a manipulative sociopath who eats people and likes to manipulate their lives since he knows he is powerful. First of all, hats off to Mads Mikkelsen, his portrayal of Hannibal is spot on, enough to send chills down your spine. Hugh Dancy also gets it right, and it is a joy to watch these two men bring their characters to life on screen. The show itself is not so much a portrayal of psychopaths and the FBI's efforts to catch them. It is a study of what goes in in the mind of Hannibal Lecter and how he is always in control. It is the tale of the Devil and how he walks among us and even though we think we can catch him at his worst moment, he knows through us what our designs are for him and he manipulates us into a false sense of control. Never has drinking wine or the preparation of a meal been more foreboding. To Hannibal the people who come into his life are puppets to be manipulated for his amusement, pigs to be slaughtered and eaten so as to satiate his appetite. As the show begins, in Will, Hannibal sees an equal, somebody he can mold in his own image. But Will is on the side of good and Hannibal is on the other side, that of pure evil. When Will realizes that it is impossible to catch Lecter, he pretends to be seduced by Lecter's therapy thus giving him a false sense of kinship with him. But it is unraveled by one small mistake that costs Will the lives of the people he cherishes the most. The first season is good but it is the second season where things really take off. It is like watching a work of art changing colors, with each change, a new picture presenting itself but what you see on the canvas is what Lecter wants you to see even as the viewer. Truly a masterpiece!
Review of Hannibal
