Reviews

Hannibal: Amuse-Bouche, Review

After a delicious first episode, we move on to the next delectable course.

By Gerri Mahn | April 12, 2013 | | 0

“Innocent until guilty.”

Now that is an interesting turn of phrase. I would say we apply this philosophy to most anything; TV shows, films, books, comics, video games, significant others, you name it. The object of our affection is perfect. Until it screws up. Then we condemn it forever.I am happy to report that I cannot apply this logic to Hannibal. Although the pilot was pretty friggen guilty of being wonky and tone deaf, the follow up episode indicates that the show is definitely going to find its legs. Go ahead Bryan Fuller, get your cannibal on!The cinematography is beautiful, with oversaturated color (like watching a TV series filmed in Instagram) and wonderful set design. Dare I say the set design is as lovely as the wardrobe is hideous? Those giant ties man, they just make me twitch. If I had to guess, I would say that Chris Hargadon over in wardrobe was specifically trying to evoke late 1980’s fashion. An interesting dynamic, if true, especially considering when the novels were originally published.So what the hell is going on with poor, rumpled, Will this episode? I am very relieved that they are still considering the copycat Shrike (aka Lecter) as something worth investigating and not just a convenient anomaly. Meanwhile Will has succumbed even further to the crazy after shooting the Minnesota Shrike and effectively orphaning his daughter Abigail. But Abigail is not a little girl, and Crawford (now played as dickish AND bumbling by Fishburne) seems to think she might have been complicit in her father’s crimes. Did the Shrike hunt alone or did he have a partner that he took to his rustic log cabin; a great place to get away for some relaxation and copious amounts of taxidermy. So much taxidermy. Heck, one of the rooms is completely hemmed in by three walls of antlers.Nice. I think the Shrike would have been a huge success as an interior decorator. Very outdoor minimalist. Speaking of the great outdoors, nature seems to be playing quite a role in this series. There are great juxtapositions between life and death, nature and science. Of course during their quiet bromance moments, Lecter and Will contemplate the big questions: is there a god and if so, is he also a cannibal killer? Kidding, kidding! But seriously, if god kills and man is made in his image …You get the point, and so do the characters. A large part of what makes Lecter such a fascinating character is his adherence to a seemingly moral code. Many of the people we have seen him kill in books and film were either evil or incidental. Will also kills “bad” men; so what if he secretly likes it?But we could go round and round in this vein. Where was I? Oh yes, the cabin. Turns out the FBI were not the only ones who paid a visit to the Shrike’s cabin. Freddie Lounds, yellow journalist extraordinaire also managed to sneak a peek, snap some pictures, and then nude blog them onto the interwebz. Good thing Lounds is played by Lara Jean Chorostecki in this series and not Philip Seymour Hoffman. I saw quite enough of Hoffman when he was duct taped in his underwear to that old timey wheelchair in Red Dragon. Remember that scene? When he was burned alive? Yeah. Poor Freddie Lounds.Lounds is not winning many friends in the TV series either. Although she sure is getting noticed by the wrong people. Lecter has his eye on her, and she also managed to catch the attention of tonight’s primary serial killer, the farmer.Hannibal is certainly trying to rival Dexter in serial killer creativity. A group of teenage boys are shown hiking through the forest when they come across a sight which will surely lead them to a life of substance abuse and late night crying jags. Yay! There, in a clearing between the trees, they find a row of garden beds, each with a harvest of mushrooms marked by a hand, connected to a body underneath, rising up out of the soil like a little macabre sign post. The FBI comes, the bodies are unearthed, and oh my, are they magnificent. Buried alive while trapped in a diabetic coma and provided a breathing tube and glucose drip, these people have become, well, planters.What in the hell? Apparently our farmer is a big fan of how fungi are connected, how spores “reach out” and communicate. Look, I am not a scientist, but the TV told me something about the connections living fungi make resemble the physiology of the human brain? I have no idea. I just know it sure looked cool. The guy also kept a chick in his trunk, buried in fertilizer with an oxygen mask on her. That is a serious commitment to a hobby. I mean, I can barely keep garden herbs alive on my kitchen windowsill, sheesh!So not only was the farmer all about getting in touch with his fellow man, he was also one heck of a considerate guy. Of course his attempts to bury the Minnesota Shrike’s daughter alive so that she could communicate with Will were not well received. Which is odd since I can totally see Will as one of those people who talk to plants. Sure, he already talks to his inordinate number of pet dogs, but there is just something infinitely sadder about talking to plants.In general, Will is just a sad guy. He is becoming obsessed with the Shrike’s daughter. He keeps hallucinating the Shrike on the shooting range. And his spirit animal is apparently a giant friggen elk. Okay, that last bit is actually awesome.