Uatu the movie watcher Seasons 1 and 2 were absolutely brilliant, despite Eddie Izzard's terrible overacting. Why on earth does this clown get cast in serious roles? I never found him entertaining or funny as a comedian either, but even for those who do I imagine the novelty of "HEY! THAT'S EDDIE IZZARD!" wears off quite quickly. Frankly, I don't think anyone would have complained if the series had just ended with the shocking season 2 finale and its post credit scene. Because at that moment all questions were answered, all dots were connected. Now here comes season 3: The first noticeable change is all the bad acting going on. Suddenly Eddie Izzard is joined by a whole slew of terrible actors. Even the good actors of season 1 and 2 started acting badly: Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi sounds like he's doing the voice over for the Italian character in an Asian kung-fu movie, Mason Verger became the kind of hammy overacted villain you'd expect to see in a high school play and Jack Crawford's emotional range was suddenly reduced to shooting disgusted looks at people. What on earth happened to this cast? But the acting wasn't the only off-putting thing in season 3. Unlike season 1 and 2 where the violence and gore served the plot and even had some aesthetic appeal, in season 3 the violence and gore became self gratifying. It seemed like it was there just to gross people out. Suddenly the series didn't feel like an intelligent well crafted crime series any more, but rather like a third rate horror movie, like one of the "SAW" sequels.In season 3 the characters stopped feeling natural and relatable. Why on earth did the concerned empathetic Alana Bloom suddenly become a lesbian supervillain? In fact it seems the whole cast more or less becomes supervillains. Alana Bloom, Margot Verger, Jack Crawford, Mason Verger, Abel Gideon, Bedelia, Jack Crawford, Doc Chilton, Freddie Lounds, it seemed like the "good guys" suddenly all became supervillains all plotting against one and other and the "bad guys" all became even hammier caricatures of supervillains. Suddenly the balance was gone which, if you understand the philosophy behind Hannibal, you'll understand why that is a problem.Because in Hannibal, on one side you have "the good guys": the crime fighters and morally upstanding citizens. On the other side you have "the bad guys": the psychopathic killers and unscrupulous journalists who contaminate crime scenes and ruin people's lives based on lies and half truths. What made Hannibal so scary yet simultaneously appealing, is that he was the link between those two worlds. He alone could crossover into both worlds. On the one hand he was a respected psychologist, an intelligent and cultured member of the community and a master of the culinary arts who would frequently organize parties for his friends and collegues. And on the other hand he was the Chesapeake ripper, who would kill people unfeelingly in cold blood and feed their bodies to their friends and loved ones whilst revelling in the knowledge of what they were eating. But when you don't uphold the balance of good and evil, or even discard the difference entirely. Suddenly the character Hannibal stops being interesting, he becomes mundane. He's just another killer in a world comprised solely of killers and lunatics. Well, that's exactly what went wrong in season 3. Hannibal, the star of the show was drowned out by an ocean of psychopaths and lunatics. And his character stopped being interesting, save for the fact that he was played so incredibly by Mads Mikkelsen.

napchier No spoilers - though I do make reference to characters and known parts of the story (book and film) being present and absent, without going into the details. In many respects it is complete, albeit a little unresolved at the end. Such a pity it doesn't however go into other aspects of the complete story. We get Red Dragon and Hannibal feature heavily, without Clarice Starling however, and sadly no retelling of the Silence of the Lambs. It begins prior to Red Dragon, to further explain Hannibal Lecter's working relationship with the police, manipulation, and so on, while also working in some of the Mason Verger back story into those parts, making the Hannibal book story work, but for some reason or other they seemed unable to include Clarice Starling and Silence of the Lambs. There was some talk of progress forthcoming in that regard, but it all seems to have now been dropped entirely. As such, you could just watch this, and then when it finishes go into The Silence of the Lambs movie, and have it all end right there. You probably wouldn't want to go into the Hannibal movie however, quite simply because elements of that story pop up in the series.I've given it 8 stars rather than 10 because it wasn't able to fully embrace all parts of the overall story. I suppose there were some issues with rights, and all that, though I'm not really sure - can only assume.

naskelared To create something off a classical movie is not an easy task, you basically have everything to lose and you know the audience will compare it to it's original. But that's were the directors were smart and said from the start they would not follow the story from the originals in any way and rather create their own universe to stand on, and they really pulled it off brilliantly. Only thing that stays the same would be Hannibal Lecter. He is still the monster we all love. The storyline starts off with Hannibal as a psychiatrist dealing with troubled individuals and offer them the treatment he see fit. And we get introduced to a new character which in many ways replaces the role Jodie Foster had in the original movies in Will Graham which is played by Hugh Dancy, an FBI profiler with the ability to empathize with serial killers. The show really focus on Hannibal's and Will's journey and their fascinating friendship. So to finish it off: The show is brilliantly made. It's a show you can watch without having to read the books or the previous movies. The portrayal of Hannibal Lecter is almost the same level off what Hopkins did in the past. The visuals is some of the best you will see to this date. And they are not afraid to push some borders which for me is great, for others might be a little disturbing so be beware of some very graphic scenes.

Skylightmovies The real crime here is that this show was axed to make way for......SJW, feminist superhero, beta male sidekick, botoxed pc scripted remakes.For the first time in years, or so it seemed, we had a script addressing the least sympathetic of people with an intensity and intelligence not seen since The Godfather.Not sure when they knew they were going to be axed but maybe that explains the poetry of the 3rd season.I really look forward to blueray with extras until someone with a brain picks this up again and does themselves a huge favor.Knowing that it would conclude made viewing this pre novel excursion of imagination, imperative to literally savouring the photography,character arcs and twists.But I am sorry, it was a crime for NBC to back out while they were artistically ahead. Very short sighted of them.There are petitions to give the green light for a season 4 (and 5 I hope). What more could a network want? Once seen this kind of visual cannot be forgotten in its sumptuous context, so if you are happy to leave car chases and flying botoxed models behind for a few weeks, treat yourself to this feast for the eyes and disturbance for the mind.