Relationship Spotlight: Will Graham & Hannibal Lector (Hannibal)

There’s still a couple months before Hannibal returns for its third season, but it’s never too early to write about this gorgeous, horrific show (not many series could fit both those adjectives in equal measure – Hannibal’s definitely a rare breed.)  The subject of today’s post is, of course, the most compelling reason to watch the show:  the twisted, twisted relationship between psychologically-fragile FBI profiler Will Graham and Hannibal Lector, his psychiatrist who possibly steps a smidgeon outside normal ethical practice (I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers.)

Despite the deafening alarm bells of “Run, Will – he’s a cannibal!!” dramatic irony, it’s impressive just how engrossing Will and Hannibal’s relationship is.  The irony is there, naturally.  The man who can dexterously place himself in the mind of any killer can’t see the killer sitting across from him, Hannibal’s position gives him access to all manner of FBI intel, and it’s an obvious exercise in disgust every time he invites Will over for a sumptuous dinner of human flesh.  With our insight as viewers into Hannibal’s blatant insidiousness, it would be easy just to focus on this side of things, but the series offers so much more to dig into.

In Will’s sessions with Hannibal, it’s clear that the not-so-good doctor isn’t just a murderous foodie with a taste for his own kind.  His gas-lighting manipulations are almost like another kind of cannibalism.  He consumes Will by breaking him down piece by piece, making him question everything he thinks he knows.  Part of it is utilitarian – Will is an expert with uncanny abilities, and since he’s the person most likely to get wise to Hannibal’s unsavory habits, it behooves Hannibal to throw him off his game.  However, practicality is only the tip of the iceberg.  Really, Hannibal plays with Will’s mind because he wants to.  He deceives, disorients, and dominates Will, pushing him just to see when he’ll break.  It’s absolutely sick, and it really says something that, for a character who literally kills people and eats them, this is what makes my skin crawl the most in relation to Hannibal.  At the same time, though, I like how much it hammers home his sociopathy.  Destroying Will is nothing to him because he honestly doesn’t care – it’s a necessity, or an experiment, or a game, and Will is just a thing Hannibal can use.

As part of Hannibal’s subjection of Will, he seeks to isolate him from everyone else.  Gradually, by degrees, he alienates Will from his coworkers and his few friends, wanting to position himself as the only one Will relies on.  This has both a tactical motivation – it leaves no one to help Will – and a sinister one – it makes his control of Will more complete.  Beyond that, Hannibal feels a perverse attachment to Will.  He’s fascinated by Will’s empathy disorder, which allows him to fully identify with anyone.  Not only is it the polar opposite of Hannibal’s pathology, which disallows empathy entirely, but he’s taken with the idea of Will’s dark potential.  Will can step into a killer’s head the way other people step into a room, and if Hannibal just applies the right pressure, perhaps he could be trapped there.  Through Will, Hannibal tries in part to create a playmate for himself, and he considers Will a friend in a way that only a sociopath can.  He “cares” for Will much like someone would care for a prized possession; Will is someone he owns, and any “sadness” (or facsimile thereof) that Hannibal feels over problems in their “friendship” is self-centered distress at the loss of his toy.  I like this, too – the show demonstrates that Hannibal isn’t an automaton without suggesting that he’s anything less than utterly vile.  “Connecting” with someone in his distorted way doesn’t make him salvageable.  Instead, when we see how he warps it, it only serves to highlight how despicable he really is.

How Hannibal Fits Fuller

At first, Hannibal seems out of place among Bryan Fuller’s other shows – Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, and the pilot for Mockingbird Lane.  It’s darker, more gruesome, and less fantastical.  With the other four shows, it’s immediately clear that they’re from the same showrunner, and Hannibal appears the odd man out.  However, Fuller’s latest work shares a number of threads with his previous efforts.  Here are the Fuller-esque elements in Hannibal.

Extreme Foodiness

 

Dead Like Me had Der Waffle Haus, Pushing Daisies had The Pie Hole, and Hannibal has the good doctor’s kitchen.  Rather than dwelling on greasy-spoon breakfast food or mouthwatering dessert, Hannibal is all about ostentatious gourmet fare.  True, it’s all made of people, but it looks amazing, and Hannibal is the most verbose TV foodie since Rube.

Sumptuous Visuals

 

Because it’s not as brightly-colored as Fuller’s other shows, Hannibal’s visual feast is subtler than that of its fellows.  Still, the attention to color, detail, and eye-catching mise-en-scène is undeniably there.  Look at the saturated sunlight when Will imagines himself fly-fishing and the twisted beauty of the macabre murder tableaus.  Speaking of which…

 

Inventive Deaths

 

While I’ve yet to see anyone on Hannibal die from a water-cooler bottle or a scratch ‘n’ sniff bomb, the killers in the D.C. area are a creative bunch.  There’s the human mushroom garden, the corpse totem pole, and the color palette of dead bodies used for a mural.  Hannibal himself gets in on the fun regularly.  My personal favorite is the man turned into a human tree, with his torso opened to show that his organs have been swapped out for precisely-arranged flowers.

 

Psychological Themes

 

Jaye saw Dr. Ron, Chuck baked antidepressants into pies, and Reggie visited child psychiatrists after George’s death.  Hannibal, meanwhile, is full of psychology.  In addition to Hannibal (therapist and psychopath – a twofer!) we have Drs. Bloom, Chilton, and Du Maurier, along with a plethora of psychopaths and people with other disorders.  Plus, Will works with the FBI’s behavioral science unit.  Hallucinations, hypnosis, and psychoanalysis, oh my!

Exceptional Dialogue

 

Like the visuals, this parallel is less obvious.  Hannibal doesn’t use the whimsical wordplay of Pushing Daisies, but the dialogue is remarkable in quieter ways.  Will and Abigail’s extended metaphors on hunting and fishing are excellent, and I don’t think I’ve heard a more plaintive description of cancer than Bella’s story about a stray cell that got lost and is simply doing what it does best.  More recently, Margot’s explanation of having “the proclivity for the wrong parts” artfully says everything you need to know about her sexuality and her family’s opinion about it.

Hannibal (2013-Present)

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Back when Raúl Esparza guest-starred on Pushing Daisies, I didn’t know what I was getting into.  His two-episode stint drew me into that charming gem of a show, which in turn led me to the brilliant but ratings-challenged Bryan Fuller.  He was the first showrunner I ever followed, and I’ve loved all of his short-lived masterpieces to bits.  His latest outing, which airs Friday nights on NBC (9 p.m. Central,) isn’t quite like anything I’ve seen on TV before.

 

Pretty obviously, Hannibal is based on the Thomas Harris serial-killer books.  Not so much an adaptation as a reimagined prequel, the show follows gifted, unstable Will Graham in his work with the FBI.  Will has a neurological disorder that allows him to feel total empathy with anyone, and given a crime scene, Will can extrapolate the killer’s mindset and motivations.  It’s not nearly as hokey as it sounds, and I should clarify that his insights help guide the investigation rather than serve as admissible evidence themselves.  However, stepping so fully into the shoes of killers does a number on Will’s psyche, and his boss sets him up with a therapist to make sure he’s looking into the abyss without the abyss looking back.  Mental health services can be enormously beneficial, of course, but when your therapist is Hannibal Lector?  Not so much.

 

The show naturally lives or dies on the strength is its Hannibal, and Mads Mikkelsen gives an utterly fantastic performance.  Dr. Lector is erudite and cultured, hiding audaciously in plain sight with all the subtlety of a peacock who likes cannibal innuendo.  He’s an excellent feigner of emotion and empathy, but Mikkelsen can go so cold at the drop of a hat.  While he gives the impression of being a thoroughly cerebral creature, he can also be tremendously physical, striking silently with cobra speed and alarming strength.  He plays everyone around him like a regular Iago, for reasons of self-preservation, curiosity, revenge, or simply because he can.

 

Hugh Dancy’s Will is excellent as well.  On the surface, he seems a much weaker man, sensitive and skittish.  But Will is capable of great fortitude, and he’s been especially resourceful in the face of staggering odds in season two.  The cast also features Laurence Fishburne and Caroline Dhavernas (Jaye from Wonderfalls,) and tons of Fuller alumni make guest appearances (my favorites include Ellen Muth from Dead Like Me and Eddie Izzard from Mockingbird Lane.)

 

Additionally, the series is stuffed with twisted beauty.  The DC area is apparently chockfull of serial killers who are fond of complex murder tableaus.  From the killer who turns his victims into mushroom gardens to the murderer who constructs a human totem pole, the crime scenes in Hannibal are wildly inventive, absolutely disgusting, and unsettlingly gorgeous.  The visuals are stunning throughout; plus, even though you know the food is made of people, it looks delicious.

 

I highly recommend Hannibal to anyone with offbeat sensibilities and a strong stomach.  If you can, go back to the beginning before digging into the current season.  The show is pretty serialized and rewards attentive viewership.

 

Warnings

 

Tons of violence (though much of it is either crime scenes or mental reconstructions,) some swearing, and extremely dark subject matter.  Only watch if you think you can handle it.