Savoureux

This was a shocking and eventfull finale that both felt like the thing it was all building towards, while still took me by surprise, where I had no idea what was going on, but that the consequences would be felt!

This was the culmination of Will's unstable mind and Hannibal pulling the strings! Hannibal managed to cerment himself as a highly intelligent character! It feels like everything happened the way he planned it! He got all the information about the case, and acted acordingly!

The finale scene was perhaps the best of the entire episode, promissing an intense and thrilling second season!

Hannibal likes to present its characters dead, gutted, skinned and cooked, but none resemble the above breakfast item more then Will Graham by the end of this episode. The writers have done an effective job of it slowly throughout the season and it all leads to this episode. Importantly it ends in a way that perfectly hooks you into the next season.

All characters are used well especially Graham, Hannibal, Crawford and Dr Bloom. You do have suspend the disbelief that nobody seems to suspect Hannibal, but maybe my bias is informed by prior knowledge of the character. Dr DuMaurier's scenes are intriguing as ever.

As always the visuals are top drawer and performances are great.

As a first season it surpassed what my expectations were beforehand. It is hard seeing anyone other than Anthony Hopkins as Lecter, and although Mikkelsen's version is a bit to glamourised, it works well for the story.

The first season of Hannibal is very strong. The show is amazing. It has great dialogue, and cinematography. The only show to rival Hannibal is DARK. This is a great dark show.

Okay so here we go with Will in the woods, he's hunting. A lot like Elmer Fudd in the old Bugs Bunny cartoons. Okay maybe not.

+1 Star for the Graham / Stag sound effect they use. Adds a level of creepiness with that whirring noise.

Will is more and more having problems figuring out if he's dreaming and asleep, or is he awake.

And then....all hell breaks loose!!!

+1 Star for all hell !!!

Lecter again meeting with Dr. Maurier about Graham's latest bad luck, along with Abigail Hobbs.

+1 Star for how good Graham looks in his orange jumpsuit!!!! Hahahaha

Graham apparently doesn't like being held captive and he BUCKS the system!

A very very entertaining climax of the story or at least episode is reached near the end, with Lecter, Crawford , and Graham.

+1 Star for the confrontation !!!

And then silly Du Maurier she goes over to Lecters house for Dinner after all of this??? Oh dear Lawd what's gonna happen????

And then at the very end of the Season, a beautifully scored final? scene between Will and Hannibal??

+1 Star for this and a perfect ending to Season 1 !! 10/10

Hannibal Lector is one of the most intriguing characters in the history of cinema. But could it be inhabited by anyone else but Anthony Hopkins? In the hands of Bryan Fuller: a definitive yes!

For a very basic overview, Hannibal S1 centers on Will Graham (Hugh Dancy)--an FBI special agent with a rather erratic talent: that of pure empathy. It comes in handy in being able to re-create any crime scene in his mind, with himself walking through the role of the killer. Will is deployed to strange & violent FBI cases by Agent Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne)--this despite the persistent warnings of Dr. Alana Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas), who believes that Will might not be emotionally stable enough to continue diagnosing violent crimes. When Will is forced to take a life in order to save another, it haunts him to the point of being referred to the best psychiatrist around...one Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen).

Right from the get-go, this is the perfect mix of "network procedural" and "Silence of the Lambs lore". Very much like its near-immediate predecessor Fringe in its ability to do "cases of the week" while simultaneously meshing them with the canon characters. Fuller takes the slow-and-steady approach here--parceling out information in ways that absolutely tantalize viewers. We all know what Hannibal will eventually become--but of course no one on the show does. Dramatic irony at its finest.

Hannibal is also distinctive in how "artfully violent" it is. It is a wonder it was allowed on network TV, in a certain sense. But though there are large amounts of bloodshed in each episode, the killings are almost operatic in their form and function. Because Graham is only dispersed to the "worst of the worst"--and viewers know Dr. Lector is exactly that--the violence works without coming off as sickening or pointless.

Mikkelson as Lector? While I don't know if "as iconic as Hopkins" is even possible, he certainly brings his own unique flavor to the role. Even with this season's focus largely on Dancy's Graham, every Hannibal scene crackles with intensity.

Overall, this initial Hannibal campaign is a strong example of 2010's "peak TV" in its prime. It expertly combines a network episodic sensibility with the built-in lore of Silence of the Lambs being an all-time cinematic classic. A few episodes "fall" to 8/10 stars, a few reach 10/10, but mostly this first season lives in the 9/10, extremely entertaining range.