Hannibal's “Digestivo” finishes characters with a burp, despite NBC moving our dinner reservation. Shifted to Saturday night, without preamble, this week's episode had lots of action for fannibals who don't care about the show's cancellation, not while there's still plenty to see in this season. (Of course, the more vigorous and plentiful the viewer affection, the…
Hannibal 3.06's “Dolce” answers whether “Dr. Fell” will accept an amicable divorce over widowerhood. It also returns to Bedelia's axis of Betrayal vs. Forgiveness, and whichever of those claims to be deployed, it comes with lethal edges. As one couple parts, a new power couple will ascend, and the fans' favorite couple will finally reunite.…
Casually, contorno is a “side dish,” but that phrase isn't reverent enough for Hannibal 3.05's ode to accompanying women. I've pointed out other instances in which the women in this show just won't go along, and instead run on their own tracks. In this episode, we're reminded how each acts from her own motivational center,…
In “Apertivo,” a cadre of fractious, murderous conspirators maneuvers to converge upon Caesar (okay, Hannibal). In Republican Rome, a lamb was sacrificed to Jupiter on the ides of each month, and it was by this date in March in 44 B.C.E. that a seer is reported to have told a scoffing Julius Caesar that harm…
In “Secondo,” Hannibal and Bedelia lounge in matching rompwear, while Jack mourns Will, who torments the tormented in the Lecter family vineyards. In the novels as here, the well-heeled Hannibal lives at Florence's beautiful Palazzo Capponi. At home in their gorgeous apartments, Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) is glum in a black satin something, and…
In “Primavera,” we see Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) and Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) almost together again and meet Florence's Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi, a long-time pursuer of “The Monster of Florence” and here playing the third wheel and last-to-know. First, I enjoyed getting to flashback in leisurely fashion upon the worst dinner party ever, the one…
The Season 3 premiere, “Antipasto” will imperil Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) in ways we've never witnessed. But even with the seemingly impossible challenges of identity theft under the suspicions of canny academic Florentines, and nursing—even provoking—the viper he spawned at his breast who is Bedelia du Maurier (Gillian Anderson), Hannibal's boredom may be growing dangerous. Warning,…
Get a taste of the Season 3 trailer for Hannibal! Purely from later events, Thomas Harris fans already know Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) must have survived the bloodbath at Hannibal's to catch Dr. Lecter later, and we also know for sure that Dr. Chilton (Raúl Esparza) will be a future obstacle. But if you've forgotten…
Gillian Anderson plays Bedelia du Maurier on Hannibal, an astonishingly cool and self-possessed character, especially given her hints about being the victim of violent crime and given that her almost-shuttered practice has devolved to including only client, the insistent Dr. Lecter himself. If you've been watching, you've discovered more of her hidden depths—oh, that Season…
Credit for the serial killer subgenre usually goes to Thomas Harris. However, two years before Harris introduced us to Hannibal Lecter, Shane Stevens wrote about Thomas Bishop in By Reason of Insanity, a serial killer thriller that predates the term serial killer. Thomas Bishop’s mother, Sarah, resented him from birth. He robbed her of her…
