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

[sarren.livejournal.com]

my bff has been madly pimping at me so I will finally start watching it when I visit her next month - I plan to have my laptop in front of me so I don't have to watch the gory bits though.

(I also watched the final scene back when it happened and broke the internet and that sold me too)

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

kindkit has just started watching Hannibal post-Christmas, and we're doing an episode-discussion watch along thing at his and my journals as we've done with stuff before - Episode One discussion up at his journal now, if you're interested to look at some of things people are saying (you'd be very welcome to chat too, no need to commit to anything i.e. necessarily watching it all, but academic discussion can help with distance?)

One thing I realised re-watching episode one for the discussion yesterday was that it is in many ways the most grim dark and 'real' of the episodes - it's more like a procedural, there are all those dead girls (which is such a cliche, and, as I've said, 'suffering women' is not really an ongoing theme). Now, there is more *gore* per se in some other eps but _ I would argue - greater detachment from connecting to the real world.

That said, I don't want you having nightmares! *hugs* I would honestly recommend you skip episode 6 of S1. However, I think one could make the case for you reading about episodes 2-6 (either on wikipedia or via our discussion) and then watching Ep 7 and Ep8, which ND and I call the 'romcom episodes' - still violent, but that's the point where the series really does leap off into more camp and ridiculousness and also much more queerness. Still gory, but... well certainly only *as* gory as Ep 1 and in - I think - much less 'real' context. And then you could see if you wanted to persist past that (as I've said, if you ever want me to give you a content rundown for an ep before you watch, I'm happy to do it *g*)

[forthewistful.livejournal.com]

You're right, Hannibal is shot gorgeously. I like the sometimes questionable aesthetics of it. And having Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal is a gem. Hugh Dancy as Will Graham gave me the creeps though. I don't like his looks anyway, and the guy he plays in Hannibal makes it all worse for me. That little cabin he lives in with all those dogs - I think that's the most horrible bit of the whole show for me. (Don't know what that says about me, but that's how it is.)

I can see the slash bits there, but Mads and Hugh just don't work as a couple for me.

But you have fun getting into it a bit more - I reckon it is very well worth it if it doesn't drag you down too much (something I experienced when I read some of the books; I felt they changed me and I had to stop).

[(Anonymous)]

There will be a lot more horrible stuff in the following episodes. The series is gorgeous, the slash is tangible, but it will be gory to levels you wouldn't expect.
I'm not trying to scare you! I really loved the series (apart from the last season, of which I only loved two, maybe three eps, but that's another conversation) and I do think it's worth watching.
But, yes, gory. Very.

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Heh. I did warn you! Explicitly! I don't know if you'll get used to it. I did, but then I wasn't as affected as you are. It gets worse. But it's all also utterly fascinating, and incredibly well done. I've just put it into this alternate, claustrophobic universe where there victims are just...props. Not real. And I look away when I know I should. *g*

[norfolkdumpling.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I like the idea of being a temptress... *g*

I think Halo has said everything I would, and much more eloquently, so I will just say that I'm SO thrilled you've tried it! I know it's hard to take - I am not really sure why I can cope with this and not your normal violence and gore - but the story of these two men is so compelling and the whole show is so visually beautiful that I can't seem to kick my obsession with it.

[m-lasha.livejournal.com]

Wait until seasons two and three. Dear Lord, season three...I curse Bryan Fuller everyday. The Hannigram is so strong.

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Well, thank you! That let me know what not to watch!