Hannibal

I kind of respect them for sticking with just making it a fucked up love story, serial killer condemnation be damned. The Dragon felt like a pretty annoying but unfortunately necessary third wheel, and I think them killing him together was pretty good payoff. It genuinely felt like a fucked up sex scene. Also think Chilton’s confrontation with Will was handled pretty well, making that the moment that decides Will’s true nature and final choice in my brain. In the Manhunter movie, Lounds is the sacrificial lamb and Will still has a level of plausible deniability there. You can convince yourself he didn’t really want that to happen, and the mask only finally comes off when he goes after the Dragon solo to make sure he gets the kill. The show’s version of it all serves the story they’re telling a lot better i actually felt terrible for Chilton and disgusted by Will’s actions (which is an emotion this show surprisingly brings out pretty rarely considering the things everyone does on the regular). We’ve already seen Will do fucked up shit in the show and this moment is like a forced acceptance of what we already know unlike the movie’s more twist like reveal of Will’s true nature. The show manages to make you stop judging and start empathizing with truly horrible, vile people, which is impressive in a fucked up desensitizing way. There’s a reason all the edits you see of show Hannibal are thirst edits, something you don’t really see for the Brian Cox and Anthony Hopkins iterations of the character. You could argue it’s just because Mads Mikkelsen is hot, but I think a lot of it comes from the show’s characterization of him and his crimes, and honestly the killings in the show in general. Murder is constantly presented as art, intimacy, seduction, self-expression, whatever. It’s usually pretty obvious when the show wants you to hate and condemn a serial killer vs like and empathize with them. Now I’m sure there’s a conversation you could have about the show’s portrayal of serial killers being irresponsible or whatever blah blah I’ll leave that to someone who cares. I found it refreshing to watch a show telling a fucked up story with fucked up characters doing fucked up things and somehow making it work without trying to lecture the viewer about how this is wrong, you shouldn’t do this, and then having it end with some sort of defeat of evil just to make sure viewers don’t take the wrong lesson from it (They did kind of flinch and waver in their commitment by trying to do that with the fall off the mountain, they should’ve just fully committed and cut from the hug straight to Bedelia’s table instead of tiptoeing around it with the very slightly ambiguous ending.) While season three is the weakest of the three seasons, especially with everyone except Will and Hannibal being turned into boring side characters (why the fuck was Chiyoh in the show), I do think they manage to stick the landing and deliver on the buildup between Hannibal and Will pretty well. Doomed Yaoi no longer, the murder husbands live happily ever after. Goodbye Mads Mikkelsen’s Hannibal you will be sorely missed.