Dr. Lecter’s meal finally arrives after a long wait.
Review by Brandon Wolfe
Hannibal was one of last year’s many great television surprises. Like Fargo, it was a show that shouldn’t have worked, based on source material that didn’t seem like it would bend to the rigors of serialized television. The fact that it aired on NBC, a network that didn’t seem possible would, or could, ever go whole-hog on the sort of gruesomely explicit content one expects from any story featuring Hannibal Lecter, only made the series’ prospects seem even dimmer. But, after a solid yet not exquisite first season, Hannibal caught fire in its sophomore year, crafting a season as twisty and unpredictable as it was unprecedentedly gory by broadcast standards. Hannibal became this strange fever dream for its fans. We saw it with our own two eyes, but it didn’t seem real. How could it be this good?
The series has been off the air for over a year now, its finale, airing the May before last, leaving the bulk of the primary cast bleeding out on the floor of Hannibal’s home while the good doctor (Mads Mikkelsen, still great, still a little hard to understand) absconded to parts unknown with his chilly former psychiatrist, Bedelia du Maurier (Gillian Anderson) by his side. And the third-season premiere, the cheekily titled “Antipasto,” dedicates its entire running time to picking up with this duo as they’ve settled into their new life in Europe. The opening scene showcases the new visual flair this setting has given the series, as the eternally suited Hannibal zips around Paris on a motorcycle in a stylish leather jacket.
Hannibal is on his way to a stuffy gathering of intellectuals, where he is approached by a snobby poet named Anthony (Tom Wisdom). Anthony makes a few caustic comments to Hannibal about one of the party’s more celebrated guests, one Dr. Fell, who just so happens to be the very person Hannibal is there to see. After greeting Dr. Fell in passing after the event, Hannibal jumps on his bike and is there waiting for Fell when he arrives at his home. We then witness the return of the lovingly decadent food preparation sequences that are a hallmark of this series, and are strangely beautiful as long as you turn a blind eye to where that meat actually comes from, as Hannibal prepares a fine meal out of Fell’s vital organs. When Fell’s wife walks in on Hannibal enjoying his supper, it becomes clear that he will be taking home some leftovers.
Curiously enough, Hannibal is setting its sights on the material provided by the novel "Hannibal," which Ridley Scott adapted into a film in 2001. That story is chronologically the last Hannibal Lecter tale, which is interesting since Hannibal, the TV series, hasn’t even gotten to the meat of Red Dragon or The Silence of the Lambs yet. As in the novel, Hannibal assumes Fell’s identity, and with it his role as the curator of the Palazzo Capponi museum in Florence. In the film, Hannibal had a good thing going at this gig before the law eventually came knocking at his door. Presumably the path will be similar as the season goes along, but in “Antipasto” alone, the similarities to the source material are otherwise scarce.
The big difference, source-material-wise, is Bedelia, who is a character originated by the TV series and thus did not accompany Hannibal on his European vacation in the earlier versions of the story. When we caught our final glimpse of Bedelia on that airplane at the end of Season 2, it was unclear as to whether or not she was there of her own volition. She had always felt rigid and uneasy about Hannibal in earlier episodes, as she seemed to be the only character hipped to his murderous nature at that point. We learn in “Antipasto” that Bedelia isn’t exactly a willing participant in this arrangement, but it’s complicated. She doesn’t seem to be brainwashed, but she is clearly under the thrall of Dr. Lecter, perhaps initially out of a feeling of indebtedness (we learn via flashback that Hannibal once helped her dispose of the body of a patient who attacked her and whom she subsequently killed…though the patient was referred to her by Hannibal), but now seemingly out of sheer terror for what he is capable of doing. Anderson, who had always hit a single note of icy haughtiness in her earlier appearances, gives a commanding performance here as a hostage constantly trying to find an escape route while creating as much distance as she is able to between herself and her captor’s atrocities.
“Antipasto” is an odd episode of the series. None of the other characters appear besides Hannibal and Bedelia (we do, however, get a series of flashbacks to Abel Gideon’s parallel situation to Bedelia’s, as he attempts to muster up as much defiant autonomy as he can while existing entirely beneath Lecter’s boot) and the episode comes across as a dreamy European art film more than an episode of Hannibal. It’s an examination of Hannibal, Bedelia, and their complicated, tension-fraught coupling. The European scenery is a welcome addition to the show’s already sumptuous visual palette. If “Antipasto” feels a little light as a Hannibal installment, I think the title explains why. This is just a taste before the main course is served.
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