Watching Hannibal

[przed]

Lured by the evil temptresses halotolerant, norfolkdumpling and dorinda, I decided to give the first episode of Hannibal a go.

Never have I been so conflicted with a show.

On the one hand, it's gorgeously shot, well-written, and Hugh Dancy and Mads Mikkelsen are fantastic individually, and an even better double act.

On the other hand, there are two scenes (just quick ones, involving a corpse and body parts) that got under my skin and had me obsessing over them whilst trying to get to sleep.

I should just call it quits there, but the good stuff is sooo good. And the promised slash looks, forgive me, delicious.

Damn you, Bryan Fuller, and your gorgeous, horrible show.

Comments

[przed.livejournal.com]

I did see kindkit's discussion thread and dipped my toe in. I was interesting to see what everyone's take on it was. (I didn't have much to add beyond what I've said here.) But even if I don't continue watching, I'll be seeing what everyone has to say.

I've been analyzing my responses to this episode. Though they were upsetting, the dead girls, per se, weren't what freaked me out. It comes down to one line of dialogue and one shot. It was when they found the girl impaled on the antlers. The dialogue in question was Scott Thompson's character pointing out that her lungs were removed while she was still alive. Then you cut to a close up shot of Hannibal cutting up the lungs. All of which triggered my mind to start going down some very dark pathways of what that girl went through. So here's the thing. If the gore is just dead bodies, I think I'll be fine. (That's similar to the first season of True Detective, which I very much enjoyed.) If there's an emphasis on what the victims went through first, whether through dialogue or actually showing it on screen, then I'm out.

Reading up on episodes 2 to 6, and then watching 7 and 8 seems a possible way to get a sense of the show without doing my head in.

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

Hi! Hope you don't mind my barging in--I sort of followed Halo here. It seems LJ now sends you a notification if someone mentions you in a comment.

I think we're similar as viewers in that I really can't handle torture-porn type things where there's a focus on the victim's suffering. I was nervous about watching the show because of that, but so far (I'm now almost halfway through season 2) there hasn't, in my opinion, been much of it. There've been a couple of moments I could have done without, but for me--of course your mileage may vary--it helps that everything in the show is so aestheticized and grandly operatic, because it's easier for me to detach a bit. But I also don't think the show expects us to enjoy seeing or imagining people physically suffer. Mental and emotional suffering, though, is kind of what the show is built on. But it's Will Graham's suffering, mostly.

I'm very happy that I started watching, for whatever that's worth.

[przed.livejournal.com]

Hey there! Feel free to barge away.

It assuages my fears somewhat that you have the same sensitivities and have made it through the show thus far. Because I am intrigued by what I've seen so far, and would like to continue. I may use your posts with Halo to pre-vet episodes, though, and makes sure I can handle things.