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Hannibal (TV Series), finally a depiction that lives up to Silence of the Lambs

Totenkindly

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Episode 12: Well, there was the twist. Interesting spin on the original story.
Still not sure if a death occurred. I'm not sure which would be worse, to be honest.

I think next week is the finale.

Armitage continues to be excellent, especially his work in episode 12. He's terrifying.

And they finally came out and said what we've all already known, in Will's conversation with Bedelia... where she speculates on what is going on.


The interesting part to me about the series is, while the buildup to this story line was a bit too long, it casts everything in a whole new light and provides unexpected depth/insights into the more straightforward plot of Red Dragon. There are so many resonances and nuances being brought out, due to the context of the prior seasons.
 

93JC

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Just watched episode 12.


Holy shit. I've read the book, I'm a fan of Manhunter: I knew what was coming. I think that went just a little too far for TV, and for good taste. Full credit to Richard Armitage for being absolutely terrifying and Raul Esparza for being absolutely terrified; you might as well just give Armitage an Emmy now rather than drag it out until the award ceremony. But that was just fucking crazy. That episode may very well be the reason NBC had enough.
 

Totenkindly

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I think it was due to the dropped ratings to be honest, and I felt like I've actually seen worse on this show....I'm surprised NBC lasted this long with it on that scale of measurement. But it was definitely an OMG episode, especially if you read the book and had an idea of what was coming . Or hell, even if you had no clue.
 

93JC

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At least most of the previous deaths portrayed on the show were very, very theatrical. This was just gruesome. And I know it's more or less verbatim from the book.
 

Totenkindly

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At least most of the previous deaths portrayed on the show were very, very theatrical. This was just gruesome. And I know it's more or less verbatim from the book.

I guess you could say there were elements of artistry to much of the violence in the series so far, where this was probably one of the most visceral bits of violence in the series. (It's not much different than what I see on Walking Dead all the time, honestly; last night I saw a woman chewing off one guy's face in the first few minutes of the show; but then again, that's AMC, not a major network for general audiences.)



The whole thing was just so wrong; I would have been scared shitless.
 

93JC

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Dolarhyde clambering over the furniture = :ohmy:

Sexist as it may be I think that they absolutely could not have done this to a female Lounds. I feel like torturing a petite woman in the same manner wouldn't have made it to air.
 

Totenkindly

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Dolarhyde clambering over the furniture = :ohmy:

Sexist as it may be I think that they absolutely could not have done this to a female Lounds. I feel like torturing a petite woman in the same manner wouldn't have made it to air.

I'll give you that.

As long as it's a petite homme, everyone is cool(er) with it.
 

93JC

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I'll give you that.

As long as it's a petite homme, everyone is cool(er) with it.



I feel that a petite femme being victimized in this way would have crossed a "torture porn" line that couldn't be shown on TV. Even then, even with a petit homme, I feel like this crossed a line. At least Manhunter and Red Dragon (the film) left some of this to the imagination...
 

Totenkindly

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The finale doesn't air here until Saturday night.
 

EcK

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I enjoyed the first season, second was fine. Third is just a long stream of hallucinations.

If I wanted to see that i'd take LSD.
 

Totenkindly

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The first half honestly didn't bother me (like I noted earlier, it was actually covering material from later books, rather than being completely unrelated, so it was mostly fair game); but yeah, I'm glad they moved onto material that is much more familiar to the audience, and they've done a bang-up job with it.
 

93JC

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The "Hannibal" novel was dumb and boring, not unlike the film adaptation. Covering that material may very well have doomed the TV series; they lost the audience. It's no surprise that once they started directly covering the material from "Red Dragon" the show became eminently more interesting.
 

Totenkindly

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My personal feeling after reading "Hannibal" was that it was Thomas Harris' laughing all the way to the bank and giving the publishers his middle finger.

It was basically a shit sandwich dressed up in skillful Harris prose so that it looked palatable and fancy.

On one level, it was an amazing display of Harris' writing ability; but I never read another book by him after that.
 

Jaguar

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My personal feeling after reading "Hannibal" was that it was Thomas Harris' laughing all the way to the bank and giving the publishers his middle finger.

It was basically a shit sandwich dressed up in skillful Harris prose so that it looked palatable and fancy.

On one level, it was an amazing display of Harris' writing ability; but I never read another book by him after that.

Was the writing that well-done? If so, I may read it.
 

Totenkindly

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Was the writing that well-done? If so, I may read it.


It was years ago when I read it (when it came out), so I always hesitate to make a recommendation purely on memory in case you hate it. :smile:

I just remember thinking that when I was reading it -- "If anyone else would write a plot this melodramatic and shit crazy, no one would have published it." I feel like he made up the most outlandish thing he could think of, in terms of plot, because he was ensured massive sales regardless.

It's incredible they even tried to make a movie out of it, I don't think anyone could have really made it work on the screen; not even Ridley Scott. It's why on the show they ditched much of the plot as Harris wrote it, reorganized/wove in a few elements in ways they could pull off, played up the absurdity when necessary (so it fit with the tone of the show), and tossed the rest. You simply can't play that book straight, you have to make it into something absurd and surreal.

Note also that Starling is a protagonist in the book and she's not even in Fuller's version. That got rid of some of the stupidity.
 

93JC

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My personal feeling after reading "Hannibal" was that it was Thomas Harris' laughing all the way to the bank and giving the publishers his middle finger.

It was basically a shit sandwich dressed up in skillful Harris prose so that it looked palatable and fancy.

Absolutely. I read somewhere that he had no intention of writing another book featuring Hannibal Lecter after "The Silence of the Lambs" but was heavily pressured by his publisher, his agent and everyone else involved to do it. And to make it "marketable". It had to have Hannibal in it, it had to have Starling in it, it had to be grandiose in a way that would up the ante when the inevitable film adaptation was made.

So all these people waved money at him and he went right along with those plans for this story. It sold in great numbers and he made oodles of money off it, and off " Hannibal Rising" too (which I've never read but had heard was dreck).
 
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