Hannibal: S01E02 - Amuse-Bouche.

If you're a regular reader, you will know I hated the Hannibal pilot. It earned itself a place on my 'worst things I have ever seen' list, the review for that is here. However my sister is obsessed with the show and as such she near begged me to give it another chance, telling me that the second episode is a lot better (not that that'd be hard) and as I have nothing else to review, I decided to just go 'fuck it' and give it a watch anyway. So here we go...

Amuse-Bouche is a direct continuation from the first episode, you think that'd be a bad thing considering I hated the first episode but I forgot just how much storytelling is normally improved when a show isn't trying to be as neatly episodic as it can to pander to those assholes who jump into TV shows half way through. As such, Will is back in the field but he's battling with demons from the previous episode all the while chasing a killer who uses diabetics to grow mushrooms and coming under fire from a particularly nosey and seemingly conscienceless journalist.

I must say, I really like that Hannibal presents a world where things matter. As much as I love seeing criminals gunned down mercilessly, it's hard to empathise with so many TV Cops because they feel more like Terminators than human beings. The shows rarely seem interested in showing the characters with flaws, weaknesses or a life outside their job. And so for all of the melodrama in Dancy's performance, Will feels like one of the most true to life people I've seen on my screen for a while because he has all of those things those other TV Cops don't. He is haunted by his actions, has a sense of duty to mend them and he is clearly very mentally damaged and fucked up, he doesn't become less of a hero because of that either, in many senses it makes him a greater one.

It doesn't just matter for Will either. Hobbs crimes will have a knock on effect, you can't just wrap something like this up neat and tidily. It also, despite perhaps not being as over the top as other cop shows in terms of action, makes the actual crime feel so much bigger and epic because the show actually makes it feel important. Other procedural shows have weekly killers with hundreds of bodies under their belt, each kill playing out like something from a saw film but once the bullet that kills the villain is fired, they are never mentioned again. The bullets in many procedurals are like a magic device that cleanly ties up things in reality that cannot. I called Hannibal pretentious, I don't really retract that statement, but there is certainly a sense of maturity in its story telling that isn't present in a lot of other shows like it.

This episode, largely through interactions between Lecter and Will, took us to some extremely dark places in terms of morals and ethics, and I mean seriously dark. I really don't know how this episode got away with well...anything. Will faces that he enjoyed killing Hobbs, while Lecter drags in the notion of God and power into it. The episode suggests that Hobbs may have had help...from his daughter, a daughter that Will has to all extensive purposes adopted. And that isn't going into any detail of who the killer of the week is, who provides us some of the most startling and terrifying imagery I've seen on my TV screen in a very very long time. And, perhaps the scariest thing of all, is Lecter is right the kills were in many senses beautiful. Although haunting, the way the killer described the meaning behind what he was doing, it was almost moving which is pretty fucking disturbing.

And that isn't the only great imagery, either. Hannibal has cinematic qualities to its look and feel, from stunning cinematography, a gorgeous use of colour and some incredible set design with each sequence staged masterfully. It's just truly beautiful television, a lot of shows lately seem to be trying for a more cinematic look and feel but I think Hannibal really nailed it this episode.

I also loved the episodes sense of humour, it seems very self aware and in a deliciously intelligent manner. Whether it's sending Will for a psych eval from Hannibal Lecter himself, the way the characters seem to react so bitterly to what happens around them or a cleverly placed dinner sequence after a deliberate double entendre piece of dialogue (with many more similar lines to come), it has a very clear understanding of itself and as such has a lot of fun with its audience and it works for great effect. It's nice to see a production that can be both intelligent in its construction and its writing.

Really the only thing I disliked was the journalist character, from reading around she is a gender swapped version of an important character from the franchise but I personally just found her annoying. I hate how in every procedural show journalists are only one notch up from the freaks of the week. Will there ever be a procedural where the journalist isn't a soulless scumbag? It isn't looking likely.

And although it isn't much of a complaint, it does seem kinda weird how unimportant Lecter feels in this episode. He will pop in, spout out a ridiculous melodramatic monologue and then largely vanish until his next one. I know Lecter has never been a main character but here he doesn't even really feel like a character, more a strange plot device that seems to be there only to provide symbolism and food for deeper reading (that wasn't an intended pun), I just found it odd. It's lucky then that Mikkelsen himself has so much personality, so his scenes feel memorable even when the episode gives him little to work and play with.

Well...wow, I don't know how you follow up one of the worst pilots I have ever watched with an episode of a police procedural that improves and makes greater every convention of the genre but Hannibal did it, now I really need to check out the other episodes. Damn.

Pros;

• I am so glad they serialised this, rather than making it just another clean and clinical episodic procedural.
• Things actually matter here, actions have consequences, there is a real world cause and effect. When was the last time a procedural did that?
• Will is a hero with humanity and despite what other shows may say, that isn't detriment to his heroics. 
• This show really has balls.
• It's gorgeous to look at. 
• Has a great sense of humour.

Cons;

• The show has a flair for the dramatic which undermines some of the reality they seem to be constructing elsewhere.
• Will there ever be a procedural where the journalists aren't synonymous with cunts?

Think About It!

-Locke

What would you rate, 'Amuse-Bouche'?