Hannibal: S01E01 - Apéritif.

Since I can't be arsed to keep bullshitting out my screenplay assignment and I was less than impressed with the Defiance pilot, let's check out this pilot instead.


I don't really know a whole lot about Hannibal, I've neither read the books nor watched the films (at least not in their entirety). However IMDB would suggest this is a prequel and my sister said no prior knowledge was necessary. Sorry but I call bullshit. I would have never even bothered with this if I knew it was so deeply connected to the films, I have no interest in the films in the first place, so why would I care about this? So in the end, I didn't.

I understood more of the episode by reading plot summaries than I actually did watching it. Apparently the pilot is the story of a man who can't help but understand serial killers, who lives day to day in fear of becoming what he studies and in turn hunts. That sounds like an extremely interesting concept, huh? It's just a shame this is barely even suggested in the episode itself aside from a few detached sequences...

As such this is the first time in my life where I've spent forty minutes solid utterly confused. No character gets any proper introduction and the show weaves between dream sequences and reality so constantly it gets confusing as to what is real and what isn't. Perhaps that is the point but I just spent the whole episode unsure of what was actually happening or who anyone was, like I've stepped into a movie half way through.

And as the episode rushed into the climax, tying up only a few of the many loose ends in the episode, I was jut left asking, 'was that it?'. Honestly there is nothing particularly original in any of it, it just sort of felt like Sherlock Holmes (back in his drug taking days) had made a guest appearance in a particularly horror themed episode of Criminal Minds as directed by David Lynch.

Will Graham is our protagonist, apparently, but without context it was just frustrating trying to follow his constant panic attacks and sequences where he frustratedly stomped around looking close to tears. Apparently he is haunted by his ability to emphasise with serial killers? I don't even really know what that means and I didn't even get that from the episode, I got that from IMDB. Does he have a mental condition? Is he a former killer? How is a guy this autistic and damaged allowed to walk around with a gun? Fuck knows! America?

Even Hannibal himself who got two wonderful performances in the past from Brian Cox and Anthony Hopkins is here played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen who really doesn't cut the mustard. He lacks the same charisma and charm those actors had as he slurs his way through his lines and spends the episode with a fixed expression of constipation. His accent so heavy and his English so broken in places I had to rewatch sequences, there are still some scenes, especially when he was trying to be dramatic and intense where I have no fucking idea what he said. You think as a shrink he would know how to enunciate himself better, I'm not sure his patients will even be able to hear his advice.

What doesn't help is the pacing and plotting in general is really really poor. The episode wastes so much time on Graham's dream sequences which tell us nothing about Graham or what is going on around him that everything else is pushed to the sidelines. And there is so much going on around those dream sequences, that is actually important and has purpose, it's frankly angering to watch actors and plot points jumping up and down trying to get attention that the show just ignores.

Don't misunderstand me the sequences where he gets in the mind of the killers and rebuilds the entire crime in his head are fantastic but they are given no real context or exposition and are so painfully drawn out they undermine absolutely everything I think they are trying to convey. I didn't feel like I was watching Graham unravel before my eyes because I had no idea who Graham was when he was whole.

I know I have praised things such as Spring Breakers for telling the story thematically, allowing the heavier issues to not get away in the more entertainment led sequences but here there is nothing beneath the themes. It's lots of pretentious, artsy-fartsy sequences that are all completely hollow with nothing beneath. You can't use an out of context sequence to answer whole arcs in your show, you're just suggesting resolutions, not providing them.

And yes visually the pilot was splendid, incredible cinematography, wonderful use of colour, a dense, terrifying atmosphere, every sequence was fantastically staged and the sets were absolutely wonderful. However none of this distracts from the fact that I have no fucking idea what the hell is going on.

I understand that Hannibal is a huge franchise but if you're going to bother with a prequel come reboot then you shouldn't aim it entirely at the people who have watched the films. There is just way too much going on thematically, not enough narratively and it all becomes impossible to follow unless you make assumptions from prior knowledge of the franchise.

Pros;

• Well the plot summaries at least made it sound interesting.
• I liked the deconstructions of the crime scenes. 
• It was an all round great looking episode, with some really solid direction.

Cons;

• I had no idea what the fuck was going on through the entire episode.
• Unoriginal, at least because the films and books basically spawned this genre, and this is the last one to get a TV show. Irony!
• I have no fucking clue who anyone is.
• Mikkelsen is awful, especially.
• Terrible pacing.
• Pretentious.

Think About It!

-Locke

What would you rate, 'Apéritif'?