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Hannibal in the Media

FormerMod-a1

By FormerMod-a1
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FormerMod-a1

FormerMod-a1

Came across this week's AV Club Walkthrough (minorly spoilery), in particular I love the bit about how Hannibal sneaks around so much.  It doesn't answer everything, but it helps...

"Well, we had a lot of stuff that we cut out that we simply couldn’t afford to produce. The show has a very tight budget, and it’s very streamlined in its storytelling. We had scenes where Hannibal goes down into his basement kill room, where we saw Beverly Katz go, and he goes through a door, and he goes into a steam tunnel, and you see him following that steam tunnel, and he goes down for like miles and miles and miles. So we essentially established a way for Hannibal to get in and out of his house without anybody seeing him and use underground steam tunnels throughout Baltimore to get around the city. We simply couldn’t produce it and couldn’t find the time. In our minds, he goes down in the basement and goes out a secret door into the steam tunnels, and that’s how he got to Chilton’s house, and that’s how he got back into his house without anybody noticing, but we couldn’t produce it

 
And I can't wait for this

AVC: We’ve talked a lot in these interviews about the idea of Hannibal as the devil. It almost feels like this episode pushes that to its furthest extent.
BF: Oh, it goes further. [Laughs.]

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Slovenly Muse
Slovenly Muse

Right! Well, time to start mailing human organs to the network in protest. I've got my spleen in a jar ready to go. Who's with me?

attica
attica

I think I'm gonna host a cookout for the last ep of the season. I might invite somebody rude. You know, for the protein. :)

Whitley Trillbert
Whitley Trillbert

Honestly I'm surprised and grateful this show made it to three seasons on NBC. The show isn't just gory, it's genuinely dark and nihilistic and so far off the beaten path that every second that aired

heyerchick

heyerchick

The Guardian: If TV horror is having a moment, why is Hannibal floundering? (extract)

 

It's stylish, beautifully shot and the cast is outstanding, so why is Hannibal not connecting with audiences in the same way as The Walking Dead or American Horror Story?

 

NBC's Hannibal shouldn't be in trouble. It has a cast of TV and movie veterans (Mads Mikkelsen, Hugh Dancey, and Laurence Fishburne), it’s built on a bankable franchise, and features one of the most famous villains in cinematic history. It’s smart, it’s calculated, and it’s sleek. It carries the eeriness of The Silence of the Lambs, and the grossness of its sequels, and it’s been the subject of some censorship controversy – a fact that should draw audiences in, if only to see what all the fuss is about.

 

But audience numbers remain tepid. Since being moved to Friday nights, Hannibal’s ratings continue to battle, with its April 28 episode pulling in just 2.45m, compared to 3.35m for its season two opener (and 4.31m for its season one premiere).

 

Hannibal is about the most depraved depths of human nature. Unlike the frequent camp and/or ridiculousness of American Horror Story and The Walking Dead, Hannibal focuses what makes us most uncomfortable (mental illness, for example), and Mikkelsen – true to character – never pauses to let audiences in. Hannibal as a series works like Hannibal’s mind: it is precise and fast. And to keep up, fans have to learn to think like he does, lest they get left back.

 

The series dares viewers to invest in the journey of a cold, unfeeling murderer. Whereas Bates Motel asks you to sympathize with Norman (a young man under the manipulation of his mother) and The Walking Dead uses zombies to justify its violence, Hannibal suggests you stick with a man whose MO is murder. Lecter is not a Dexter-style anti-hero, and unlike the criminals of Sons of Anarchy or Boardwalk Empire, he is not avenging those who have been killed or killing for business. He kills and then eats people because that’s what he is compelled to do.

 

I wonder if audiences are rejecting that darkness. While Hannibal has the top cast, the franchise, the legacy, and the artistic merit (this series is beautifully shot), it asks for a commitment and vulnerability that audiences may not be able to give – especially since Lecter is not going to reciprocate. It won’t offer campy closure in the spirit of American Horror Story, it won’t appeal to survivalists as The Walking Dead does, and it doesn’t offer a reprieve through dark humour like Bates Motel. Hannibal, unlike the others, simply dares you to enable pop culture’s most menacing villain, and then try not to side with him.

 

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Joystickenvy

Joystickenvy

Interesting article. I wonder if the show would have been any better off on a different network.....FX or A&E for example. There's really not much that is popular or similar on NBC to attract an audience.

There's the very mainstream family friendly The Voice and....I guess Grimm, which isn't nearly grim enough to be a match.

My mom likes the show and she's purely a horror fan who doesn't give a flip about anything the show is critically acclaimed for, so I don't think it's really that it only appeals to the artsy fartsy/tv snob crowd either. I would say it does require rather more investment of attention to keep up with than AHS, True Blood or TWD though.

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DangerousMinds

DangerousMinds

I think the show is just too serialized for brand new viewers. If I hadn't been watching all along (and paying close attention), I wouldn't be able to figure out what the hell was happening if I tuned in for the first time.

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Joystickenvy

Joystickenvy

I think the show is just too serialized for brand new viewers. If I hadn't been watching all along (and paying close attention), I wouldn't be able to figure out what the hell was happening if I tuned in for the first time.

I had that thought as well, but with on demand, netflix, etc it doesn't seem like that should be as much of a barrier as it used to be. Maybe the promos just don't entice people to put forth the effort or are not seen because NBC has such low viewership outside The Voice & sports. I guess the franchise could also be damaged goods after several generally not well received sequels. It seems like there are more book fans than fans of the movies watching. I liked SOTL, but thought the sequels/pre-quells movies looked putrid & haven't read the books, but decided to DVR it just for kicks.

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catrox14

catrox14

Call me crazy, but I think airing the show in the Friday night death slot doesn't help the ratings.  Yet, I don't know what other show they can pair it with other than Grimm which has a goofy blend of gross factor, suspense and silliness.  If the put it after the Voice, that's not the right audience.  If they put it with the Blacklist well that show just sucks and is kind of bleak in it's own way. They can't move Hannibal to Mondays especially with 24 starting it's run, which I think is going to draw massive ratings.  And they certainly can't put it on Sunday nights because the competition from Good Wife, GoT and Mad Men will eat it alive (so to speak). 

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heyerchick

heyerchick

TV Guide: Hannibal Postmortem:Is Will's Transformation Into a Killer Complete?

 

TV Guide:I honestly couldn't believe what I was watching Will do in this episode. Is his transformation to psycho complete or is there more to come?

Bryan Fuller:Oh, it gets worse. [Laughs] After Hannibal meticulously framed Chilton as the Chesapeake Ripper, we knew Will was going to have to change tactics to catch Hannibal Lecter. In Episode 9, we get the feeling that Will is struggling with the beast inside him that Hannibal has been feeding. So, we knew if we started that descent, we needed to keep going. When you have Will take a life in self-defense, it is not necessarily a psychotic move because he's trying to preserve his own life. The idea of him taking a life had to be the next step.

TV Guide:But he seems to be enjoying the killing. Is he still playing the long con?

Fuller:In order to really seduce Hannibal and also blur the lines between who Will is and what he needs to become in order to catch Hannibal, he's sacrificing his humanity in some ways to get the truth. Up until the end of Episode 10, Hannibal has said nothing that is actionable and has not been demonstrative in any way with his own murders. He's not going to put himself out there until Will makes it a safe bet. We needed Will to take a life. And of all the characters Will might want to kill, Freddie was the first one to get what was coming to her in Will's mind.

TV Guide:Are Will and Hannibal definitely eating Freddie? I was hoping otherwise until Will referred to the meet as longpig, which is a phrase I wasn't familiar with.

Fuller:[Laughs] I guess you're not hanging around the right cannibals.

TV Guide:So, in your mind that makes it clear what Will has done to Freddie?

Fuller:It's pretty clear. Will has gone to the dark side and we should be fearing for him. It is very much a slippery slope for Will Graham because he is taking lives and that changes the way you think and interact with the world. We set up the theme of rebirth in Episode 8, and in 10 and 11 we're very much exploring the child that has been born out of this unholy union between Hannibal and Will. How are they going to foster and feed it?

 

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DangerousMinds

DangerousMinds

 

Fuller:It's pretty clear. Will has gone to the dark side and we should be fearing for him. It is very much a slippery slope for Will Graham because he is taking lives and that changes the way you think and interact with the world.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

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Slovenly Muse

Slovenly Muse

He might have been talking about Randall Tier? Maybe? Oh, man, I dunno. This is beyond the normal level of f'ed up for this show. But he also said that it gets worse! Which could indicate that it's not currently as bad as we think it is? Look, unlike you realists, I am perfectly happy to spend the next week grasping at whatever flimsy straw I can see to keep myself from having to accept this! I have SIX MORE DAYS of blissful (or at least "nail-biting") ignorance before it all probably comes crashing down. So there.

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Baltron9000

Baltron9000

BF: Oh God... I think the big thing to prepare yourself for is, you need to come to the finale as though you were attending a Gallagher concert. Wear your slickers because the blood is going to flow.

 

Well, that is both encouraging and terrifying. 

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DangerousMinds

DangerousMinds

I am pleased, but also surprised to hear that the numbers improved so much this week. To me, this episode was very "talky" and I'm sure if I hadn't been following the show/season very closely, that I would have been completely lost trying to watch the episode.

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heyerchick

heyerchick

Hugh is such a lovely man :) He's a terrific ambassador for the show: intelligent, articulate, forthcoming, generous, witty and humble. He seems constitutionally incapable of accepting a compliment, bless him. It's a generalisation, of course, but Hugh has the sort of confidence and ease in communicating that I associate with his relatively privileged upbringing here in England - exclusive, prestigious public school (Winchester College was founded in 1382), Oxford University. I'm quietly addicted to his interviews and panel appearances.

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Brattinella

Brattinella

Wowie!  What an article.  I am understanding those emotions COMPLETELY, plus wanting Hannibal BACK ON my TV as soon as possible.  I missed SO much of TWoP from March through the finale, and really NEED all that beauty and art and gore and lusciousness. Thanks so much for that post!

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GreyBunny

GreyBunny

I'm actually shocked.  After that blow-your-mind-to-pieces finale I thought the show would get nominated for something.  Mads, Hugh, and Bryan Fuller certainly deserved it. 

 

Nada.  /bitter

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Neurochick

Neurochick

This is why to me, the Emmys are a big, steaming pile of shit.  If a show as beautiful looking as Hannibal can't get a nomination, if Tatiana Maslany can't get nominated for playing seven characters, then how seriously can anybody take the Emmys?

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car54

car54

So disappointed to see this show passed over again.   I was hoping to see some recognition and that it would bring them some additional audience.

I can't deny that most of the nominees are very deserving but so are the leads of Hannibal. 

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