Welcome back, Fannibals.
Hannibal returned on a quiet note, breaking down its usual episode-by-episode structure to make way for mind games between two powerful players, leaving the viewers in the dark about the aftermath of the finale.
In terms of aesthetics, nothing was done half-heartedly. The flashbacks with Dr. Gideon provided a morbid yet accurate insight into Hannibal's mind that fit neatly into the present. We see a Hannibal who's rearranging his life without Will Graham. And with that revelation comes boredom, hubris and more control. To me, Hannibal was depicted as someone who's essentially playing his part, enjoying it immensely, but missing a vital component. And it shows. “I’ve hardly killed anybody during our residence,” he said. Yes, but he still dragged someone into his darkness, making Bedelia, his "wife", fall into her own dark, bloody landscape.
Of course, she knows that he's the puppet master and her awareness extends so far as to say "I still believe I’m in conscious control of my actions."
Bedelia's point of view was delightful to see. Her struggles with morality, her loss of control, which is so striking and similar to Alana's feeling of drowning, were a direct reflection of the absolute power Hannibal holds over her.
Bedelia's greatest weapon however is her own awareness of that fact. Let's hope she uses it.
Favorite Scene:
Gideon's snarky remark about Hannibal's feelings and how he will feel "when all this happens to" him, coupled with a reminder of Will Graham made me laugh. Hannibal's face was priceless.
At times, the aesthetics of Florence detracted from the actual story. Less decor is sometimes better, even in a decadent world such as Hannibal's. But maybe I'm just a spoiled European.
What did you think of "Antipasto"?
It was brilliant. Loved it.
ReplyDeleteI really liked it. After a second watch I can say IT WAS PERFECT.
ReplyDeleteSeeing Hannibal acting far more transparent, his ruthlessness revealed ("ethics become aesthetics," "there are no morals, only morale") is as enjoyable as I'd figured it'd be. He isn't questioning himself, he isn't conflicted, he's simply a force of nature happening to whomever comes across his path. That whole hunt scene to kick off the season was fantastic.
ReplyDeleteThe surreal, hyper-artistic imagery of du Maurier in the bath, the mounted head bleeding, etc. was just fantastic. No other show is like this. It's going to be a great frackin' summer.
Great review, Veronika! :)
I felt the episode was in a way a little underwhelming. Bedelia comments that she fears that Hannibal cares more about aestheticism and appearances then he cares about maintaining appearances. To me that was the crux of the episode, because despite getting some flashbacks and we get a sense of fairy-tale like setting, we do not get any real or happy context to them and because Bedelia herself seemed to be in a state of fear and loathing. It made the art feel meaningless, because she comes of distant and I think even Gideon too, finds a way to eat away at Hannibal's ethics or ideals...(which I presume is why he was left in Chiltin's house! "Shut up, you copy-cat!" :p)
ReplyDeleteI would of liked it better to seen their patient alive (I mean it was Quinto after all) and to have feeling for why Hannibal "Will Grahamed" (sending patient in her direction to bond with her) her to begin with? IMO with both the reference to "the copper bathtub" (Mischa/Hannibal Rising) and your nice connection back to Alana (Both represent aspects of Clarice at the end of Hannibal novel), that I think she knows more about Hannibal's past than Will Graham, and like Murasaki in the novel (Hannibal Rising - both Murasaki and Du Mauier are references to female writers) points to something maternal and perhaps she did this because she thinks/thought she could save him, but is now realizing she can't. For Hannibal I think it's even more interesting that he wanted to be close to her at all...
I fear for Bedelia, because of that Bathtub, but don't think it's going to Hannibal that will be the end of her, if this IS the end of her. Personally I think she is an interesting character, especially when she isn't acting so mouse-like, so I do hope she can make it through the first part of the season and maybe turn up next year. But what I think I would really love, is if she wasn't under Hannibal's influence much at all, but that she just turned out to be a killer in her own right from other previous trauma we do not know about, but I guess we'll see in time! :)
I think I will like next week's better! Thanks again Veronika! Glad you're back! :)
Loved your review, Veronika. Helped me see a couple things more clearly. (I hadn't thought about Hannibal's boredom without Will but you're totally right.) I must say, I felt confused most of this episode. I felt like I didn't know what was happening half the time. I kept having to rewind to see if I missed something. (And usually that didn't help.) It was all a little hard for me to follow, mostly because we were getting more questions than answers. But I think that was probably the goal. But I had lots of questions. What was Bedelia buying at that dead-animal store? Why? Why did Hannibal blame her at the end? I don't quite understand her role in all this yet. I almost wondered if she lured the man there who got killed. Why was she in the train station looking at the security camera? I need to re-watch the episode now to see if I get more out of it and change my thoughts. Anyway, I loved the scenes with Dr. Gideon. My favorite scene, however, was the flashback with Bedelia's patient she killed. Exactly what happened was still was a little hazy but when she revealed Hannibal had sent the patient to her, I realized that Hannibal had wanted/sent the patient to kill her. At least that's what I thought. That was a great moment I hadn't seen coming.
ReplyDeleteNice review as usual, always enjoy reading your hannibal reviews.
ReplyDeleteThe episode itself was a bit of a letdown though, not nearly as gripping as last season's Premiere.
Of course my expectations where insanely high following up that insane Finale, but having read most spoilers/interviews during the loooong hiatus I knew the direction and pacing would be different. It was the execution that bothered me at times tho.
- Like how it started; last years opening instantly had me at the front of my seat (Hannibal knows Kung Fu and Morpheus be like "show me.") this years opening was like 2 and a half minutes of Hannibal driving on a motorcycle, complete with obscure "inside-engine" shots. It took forever to actually get into it.
- Speaking of obscure shots, I think they overdid the visuals this episode. I mean we probably all agree that Hannibal is the most beautiful show to watch, it really does look amazing, but the last 2 seasons, every visual "trip" served as a (unique) storytelling device, like Alana drowning in blackness or smelling Freddi). This episode just threw in pretty because pretty. Like that motorcycle. also, did we really need that Champagne-cork sequence?
- One of the things that really got me excited in advance was the news that Zachary Quinto was guest starring (big Sylar fan), so yeah, I have to say I was a tiny bit underwhelmed by his performance... They probably have a really good reason for not revealing the rest of Zachary till episode 310, but it somehow felt like they took a bit of awesomeness from this episode to save it for later.
- Gillian Anderson remains awesome, Bedelia not so much. :( So far she has always planning ahead and appeared to be somewhat on the same intellectual level as Hannibal, so after seeing them flying off together my first reaction was along the lines of "holy sh*t she's in on it, they planned this like some twisted cannibal psychiatrist Bonnie & Clyde team-up!" Turns out she somehow thought it wise to return to her house on the night everything was going down and found Hannibal in her shower (after that huge walking into the rain there were still some bits of blood here and there).
- Also did y'all see how insanely scared she was? shaking them oysters and all. Felt a bit out of character for her, so far she's always been able to maintain an appearance of control or at least she would try not showing Hannibal that he scared her. None of that now, seemed off.
still really really excited about what's to come of course, it's not like I hated it, just wasn't quite up to the extremely high standards this show has set for itself in the last 2 years.
The premiere was crafted so elegantly and graciously. The imagery, the parallels, Hannibal’s slickness. This was definitely worth the wait.
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