Hannibal

[Ivy]

There was a scene in a recent episode where Jack was grilling Hannibal (heh- not literally) about how he thought Hannibal was "protecting" Will and the daughter of that first serial killer. Hannibal effectively pantomimes the normal human reaction to finding out what he had unwittingly done (which, as the audience knows, he did totally wittingly and not for the reasons Jack thinks). Then as soon as Jack is out of frame, the normal human disappears and he gets this absolutely reptilian expression of being pleased with himself. It's a brilliant piece of facial acting that really kind of encapsulates everything I love about this show. I wasn't sure at first about Mads Mikkelson as Hannibal (I hadn't seen him in anything else and found him a bit robotic at first) but he has really won me over.

 

[Lark]

There was a scene in a recent episode where Jack was grilling Hannibal (heh- not literally) about how he thought Hannibal was "protecting" Will and the daughter of that first serial killer. Hannibal effectively pantomimes the normal human reaction to finding out what he had unwittingly done (which, as the audience knows, he did totally wittingly and not for the reasons Jack thinks). Then as soon as Jack is out of frame, the normal human disappears and he gets this absolutely reptilian expression of being pleased with himself. It's a brilliant piece of facial acting that really kind of encapsulates everything I love about this show. I wasn't sure at first about Mads Mikkelson as Hannibal (I hadn't seen him in anything else and found him a bit robotic at first) but he has really won me over.

I think he's good but Hopkins is still the best.

I think the character of Hannibal in the TV show is much closer to getting caught and plays games with the authorities much more than the Hannibal of canon/the movies, its easier to see how the one in the TV show will eventually get caught than the one in the movies did.

One of the things I wonder about every single week is when they are eating and he tells them what it is he has prepared, I'd love it if you could go to a website and see what it was meant to be and what the recipe for it was meant to be, I know its usually people is the secret ingredient but if you take that out of it I'd like to try some of the things which have been served up.

 

[Ivy]

I thought Hopkins was good at first, but trended towards camp near the end of his tenure as Hannibal.

And I think the food stylist has a blog- let me see if I can find the link for you. The food on the show is pretty amazing.

 

[Ivy]

http://janicepoonart.blogspot.com/

 

[Totenkindly]

And I think the food stylist has a blog- let me see if I can find the link for you. The food on the show is pretty amazing.

it's definitely beautiful and looks savory. I feel like I have been introduced to a whole new world I could never hope to afford.... how exhilarating!

...I wasn't sure at first about Mads Mikkelson as Hannibal (I hadn't seen him in anything else and found him a bit robotic at first) but he has really won me over.

I think he does a fine job. My own issue is more a technical one: His accent and the raspy pitch of his voice makes it VERY difficult for me to understand what he is saying, much of the time. It pulls me out of the story, I wish it could just be a bit more intelligible. I actually watch his lips now when he speaks to help me interpret what he is saying.

Getting back to that whole sequence you mentioned, I also liked how Crawford is being played. It's not a person I naturally have an affinity to (I find him kind of bullyish and not as perceptive as Will), and what he did to Abigail seemed rude by any standard... and yet Jack was right to have his suspicions, and he locked in on it not from an internal thing like Will does (where he "becomes the killer") but because he is shrewd and has experience with dark behavior and just knew that things did not add up. He looks at the outside instead, and knows how things work via experience; that's his angle.

 

[Riva]

I am watching it right now and I am loving it. Must give credit to the producers for taking such a riskby reviving such an iconic character, amidst so much presumed competition from Dexter.

Bravo!

And I can't believe I am saying this; Mads Mikkelsen not only makes the character intriguing - which was what Anthony Hopkins was probably liked for when playing that character - he is also sexy. Then again the producers probably expected him to when choosing him playing the character than simply choosing someone that resembled Hopkins.