CT: Hannibal "Antipasto"

Guys, as if we needed one more reason to love Summer, Hannibal is back.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that this is the best show on TV right now. It's probably in the top handful of shows that have ever been on TV.

I love a good re-imagining or retelling of some sort. I love to have a story that I know told in such a way that you see something completely different than you've ever seen before. It's like a really great cover of a song. Whether you liked the song before or not, a great cover can reveal quite a bit about the original, while giving you something completely new at the same time.

Hannibal is like that. It takes Thomas Harris' work and rebuilds it into something both familiar and new.  By now we all know the story of Hannibal Lecter, and there have already been two movie versions of Will Graham. But Bryan Fuller has taken that story and built a world around it that is as close to surrealist as it could possibly be. The characters are still the characters we know, but they're fuller, rounder, and thus even darker and twistier than the characters from the books.

But the visuals are by far the star of Hannibal. Holy cow, guys. Every shot of food, every shot of a body, most of the shots of completely normal things like cars or buildings- they're all beautiful and grotesque in equal measure. There are a handful of scenes from the first two seasons that are too gory even for me, but even those are almost too pretty to look away from. It's visual horror storytelling that's pretty much unmatched, either in film or TV lately.
I just assume any food on this show is always people. Always. 

So you can only imagine how unbearably excited Little C and I were about the premier of the third season this week. There might be a few spoilers below, so you can stop here if you haven't seen the episode yet.

First of all I think that the decision to follow just Hannibal and Bedelia this episode, rather than to follow up on the carnage of the season finale last year, was brilliant. I mean, it's bold to ignore the fact that you left almost your entire cast bleeding out on the ground at the end of the last season. So instead of learning who, if anyone, survived we're suddenly in Italy with Hannibal and Bedelia as they're on the run. And I do have to say that Hannibal saying "I've hardly killed anyone during our stay" was one of the best lines of the episode.

You should have seen the full on insane freak out Little C and I had when Tom Wisdom walked onscreen. Friends, all I can say is that he looked good. Like in a very real way. In a way that has Cait and I so excited for the new season of Dominion that we can hardly stand it.
"Sooo... How bout it then?" (he didn't actually say... missed opportunity)

So if you're in for a lot of gore and even more incredible storytelling, I can't recommend Hannibal enough. If that episode was any indication, this season is going to be one heck of a ride. Personally, I cannot wait to see what Bryan Fuller does with Francis Dolarhyde and the Red Dragon.

Happy eating,
CT

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