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.

akelso-08121 Jump on the Hannibal show bandwagon a little later. I loved the movies. Seeing as the show is a "reimagining" of the books, namely "Red Dragon" and "Hannibal", I was very intrigued to see how the TV show would compare. The short answer is Eh. The first season was great. Intense, graphic, compelling. I couldn't get enough. I was a little put off by Will Graham's mental instability, but it never really stopped me from enjoying the show. The relationships felt natural, and you could care for the characters. Then something happened about halfway through the second season. The show went off the rails big time. Nothing made sense anymore. Jack and Will are trying to catch Hannibal, they are competing against each other to catch him, they are working with Hannibal to screw the other one over. It just didn't make sense. Luckily the show got back on track for the thrilling second season finale. It was brutal and shocking to say the least. It's to bad the third season couldn't carry the momentum I'm going to focus on the third season heavily for a moment because I feel it's a example of what went wrong with the show. The third season is a heavy reimagining/retelling of the books "Red Dragon" and "Hannibal", in which the season starts with Hannibal on the run in Italy. Right away we see the reimagining going on. Since the show never brought in Clarice Starling, Hannibal instead has romantic interests in a new character named Bedelia Du Maurier (played horribly by Gillian Anderson). She plays the character, who's supposed to be a psychiatrist much like Hannibal mind you, in a extremely monotone, nasely, sultry way that you want her off the screen as soon as she comes on. I was praying she was going to be killed. Much like the book/movie "Hannibal", Mason Verger plays the main villain for the beginning of the season. Again the show has sequences that make no sense at all. Jack Crawford beats the hell out of Hannibal one episode, only to have dinner with him and Will the next episode. The Mason Verger storyline is concluded hallway through the season, culminating in Hannibal finally being captured and imprisoned for his crimes. The show jumps ahead 3 years and introduces Francis Dolarhyde, aka the Red Dragon. This Red Dragon was never intimidating nor frightening. Nothing about him was intriguing or interesting. It's a shame they brought him in. I'm not going to spoil the ending of the season and series, but prepare for a facepalm and disappointment. For me, the problem with this series is there are 3 far better movies out there from the same source material. The movie "Red Dragon" is infinitely better than the 6 episode arc in this series. The show is great for one season, goes crazy for the second, then just loses steam for the third. If your gonna watch it, stop at season 1 finale. That's the only reason I gave it 7 stars. The strength of the first season was that good, plus the incredible season 2 finale.

siulam-96603 The show is not bad but Will Graham's acting sucks. He always has the same face expression!

JOK3R I would be lying if i say this show is not disappointing, with all that they had in their hands they could have made a masterpiece which would have stayed on TV making a name for itself in the league for the best TV shows.The good: The show has one of the best visuals i have ever seen and a very fitting soundtrack. The casting is very well done , all the characters are very well acted to say the least if not very well written, with major kudos in picking Mads as Dr Lecter. The murders are twisted and gory as would be expected from a show called Hannibal with each crime significantly different and twisted as compared than the previous. The Bad: Notice i said crime in the "Good" above as the crime is interesting the solution to find the criminal is utterly bland. The story is very poorly written , there is hardly any character development. Will Graham is supposed to be smart but the way he is presented he might as well be psychic, which is why even though the visual presentation is fantastic it effectively makes him appear like a psychic. There is no connecting the evidence no creating a profile of the killer. It feels like writing the answer to the math problem without actually showing the work. How you get there is very important in a show about psychology. I am still watching it in hopes that it will pick up and start patching the holes in the story that could make it an interesting watch but so far haven't seen any. The more you watch the less sense the story starts to make. The direction it is going so far after 5-6 episodes i am not surprised it got cancelled. I would love a reboot by someone else , possibly by people behind Netflix's Mindhunter because atleast they are jumping in the psychology which this show seems to miss so much. I will still finish the show because its just 3 seasons and there might some good things around the corner (i doubt it but i have to know)