Hannibal is a 13-part American NBC television series based on characters and elements appearing in the novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. It focuses on the budding relationship between FBI special investigator Will Graham and Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a forensic psychiatrist destined to become Graham’s most cunning enemy. David Slade (30 Days of Night) directed the first episode and serves as an executive producer.
British actor Hugh Dancy plays the lead role of the FBI criminal profiler who seeks help from Lecter in profiling and capturing serial killers. In June 2012, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen was cast as Lecter, narrowly defeating former Doctor Who David Tennant for the role. Soon after this, actor Laurence Fishburne was cast as FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit commander Jack Crawford. Other well known actors, such as Molly Shannon, Eddie Izzard and Lance Henriksen also guest-starred on the show.
On May 30, 2013, Hannibal was renewed for a second season of 13 episodes, which will air in 2014. Meanwhile, the first season is released in the US by Lionsgate on September 24, 2013 on Blu-ray and DVD. The set includes audio commentaries, deleted scenes, gag reel, episode storyboards, four featurettes, and unrated episodes.
Buy Hannibal Season One on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.com | Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.co.uk
Screenwriter Bryan Fuller has outlined the limited episode order and the continuing story arc he envisions. “Doing a cable model on network television gives us the opportunity not to dally in our storytelling because we have a lot of real estate to cover. There is a cheery disposition to our Hannibal. He’s not being telegraphed as a villain. If the audience didn’t know who he was, they wouldn’t see him coming. What we have is Alfred Hitchcock‘s principle of suspense—show the audience the bomb under the table and let them sweat when it’s going to go boom”. He went on to call the relationship between Graham and Lecter as “really a love story”, saying “As Hannibal has said [to Graham] in a couple of the movies, ‘You’re a lot more like me than you realize’. We’ll get to the bottom of exactly what that means over the course of the first two seasons”. Fuller plans for the show to run for seven seasons: the first three consisting of original material, the fourth covering Red Dragon, the fifth The Silence of the Lambs, the sixth Hannibal, and the seventh an original storyline resolving Hannibal‘s ending.
Main cast:
- Hugh Dancy as Special Agent Will Graham, a gifted criminal profiler and hunter of serial killers.
- Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant forensic psychiatrist, cannibalistic serial killer and culinarian.
- Caroline Dhavernas as Dr. Alana Bloom, a psychiatry professor and consultant profiler for the FBI.
- Hettienne Park as Special Agent Beverly Katz, a crime-scene investigator specializing in fiber analysis.
- Laurence Fishburne as Special Agent-in-Charge Jack Crawford, head of Behavioral Sciences at the FBI and Graham’s boss.
“A prequel TV series about Hannibal Lecter has to overcome a lot of preconceptions… But guess what? None of that matters when you actually watch the show, because Hannibal is terrific.” Eric Goldman, IGN
“The stab at classy horror mostly succeeds due to excellent performances from the leads, genuine suspense and surprises, well-constructed short and long-term mysteries, and an appropriately disconcerting mood that permeates the action right from the start…” Paul Doro, Shock Till You Drop
“… finely acted, visually scrumptious, and deliciously subversive.” Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly
“… The most beautifully shot and produced show on network TV, with many scenes simply and literally breathtaking…” Linda Stasi, The New York Post
“Hannibal is a haunting, riveting… drama that has the look and feel of a show audiences have become more accustomed to seeing on cable than broadcast,” and concluded that “It’s also extremely well executed… bound to leave viewers hungry for more.” Lori Rackl, Chicago Sun Times
“Restores the seriousness of purpose to a genre long in need of it…. Hannibal is interested in death and murder as a means to glance sidelong at some of life’s largest questions. When not functioning as a cop drama, it’s an intricately twisted serial-killer thriller, but it’s also a surprisingly deep series about psychiatry and the state of the human mind.” Todd VanDerWerff, The A.V. Club
” … the show is certainly gruesome, with ripped-open corpses and bizarrely theatrical crime scenes (there’s a sense that Lecter has inspired other murderers to become more extravagant, leaving corpses almost like works of art). The show isn’t excessively violent, as these gory set-pieces are usually post-mortem, but there are still some surprisingly brutal moments. They perhaps stand out more because this is an astonishingly elegant, beautiful looking show – every moment seems to be carefully staged, every location considered – and moves at the sort of deliberate, stately pace that you probably couldn’t get away with in a movie. Much of this show is dialogue driven, and the dialogue is pretty much perfect. Compulsive and brilliant, Hannibal is perfect for box-set bingeing, and if you missed the show on original broadcast, you should take this opportunity to catch up with it. This is what horror TV should be about.” David Flint, Strange Things Are Happening
