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Author Topic: Hannibal (NBC)  (Read 12921 times)

1SO

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Re: Hannibal (NBC)
« Reply #130 on: September 17, 2015, 11:47:43 PM »
Season 3 Episode 9
I read Read Dragon 3 times. I owned Manhunter on VHS. I even saw an episode of Miami Vice (produced by Michael Mann) that told the same story. I probably know Red Dragon too well to enjoy yet another version of the story. On one hand, I enjoy seeing everything played out in long form, scenes I had only read which never made it into either film adaptation. And there's a small benefit to plugging that tale into Brain Fuller's fully-realized vision of Hannibal. However, there are just as many scenes (like the last 5 minutes here) where Fuller's world is being forced into a story that shouldn't have it. They now have to wrestle with getting as much Hannibal as they can into a show that no longer has much use for Hannibal. It's something Brett Ratner's adaptation did unsuccessfully too, but there wasn't as much to lose there. Fuller's great achievement was the smooth transition outward into Mason Verger's grand opera. I find the show struggling unsuccessfully to reduce its scope back down while trying to still feel like it's all of a piece with the series.

At this point I'm extremely grateful that the series will not get to remake The Silence of the Lambs. I don't think I'd be able to watch it and would blindly dismiss anybody who makes the claim that the show would or could do a better job of it.

philip918

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Re: Hannibal (NBC)
« Reply #131 on: September 18, 2015, 12:24:16 AM »
Hang in there.

1SO

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Re: Hannibal (NBC)
« Reply #132 on: September 18, 2015, 09:06:07 PM »
Finished.

Overall, I liked Hannibal. There are episodes like nothing else ever produced for television and it works as an excellent alternate version of the text. There are also a handful of glaring logic errors I've pointed out throughout this thread. The series also proved something I always thought. The books have the eating of the painting scene and it stood out as being monumentally silly, wisely cut from both film adaptations. Here they show it and it remains psychologically thin, more like someone writing crazy with no understanding of it.

I remain on the fence with the Red Dragon story, though I liked some of the shots where Francis had his wings spread out. Still, nowhere near as impactful as the feathery stag or the ebony stag man, but that's because they were more impressionistic creations and the dragon was literal, story-wise.

Junior

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Re: Hannibal (NBC)
« Reply #133 on: September 18, 2015, 10:19:18 PM »
Thoughts on the last 5 minutes or so? I thought it was a great ending, loved the song and the fight and what happened at the end of it. Plus the stinger was great.

I see where you're coming from on the Red Dragon front, but the confidence the show had in itself to just bring it all out there was pretty cool. Loved the tiger thing, and what happens to Chilton, who was one of like 5 or 6 MVPs of the season and series.
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1SO

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Re: Hannibal (NBC)
« Reply #134 on: September 18, 2015, 10:46:53 PM »
To be honest, one of the least convincing parts of this saga was the intertwined needs of Will and Hannibal for each other. I thought it was forced in their final therapy session before Hannibal surrendered (so that Will would always know where to find him?) It would come up in future episodes, especially Will's scenes with Dr. Du Maurier, where they both share and deny an attraction for Hannibal. All of this telegraphed to me that Will and Hannibal would end up in some kind of comforting embrace. (The moment was also in the final Harry Potter, with two similarly linked characters.)

When I saw them going for the book's ending, I wondered if they would include Will's facial disfigurement from the book. So I was anticipating that. Of course, in the book, Hannibal isn't also present.

I do like how they reworked Chilton, pushing Lounds into the background. Very interesting that they used up the Lounds burning from Red Dragon in Season 1 and managed to have it here too without seeming like this wasn't part of the plan all along. That being said, the burning was done so much better in the Michael Mann version.

Speaking of the Mann version, do you remember the way he filmed the tiger? Because he managed to get all of the same beats. So much so that Hannibal's version of the scene was like Gus Van Sant's Psycho, just a copy under different lighting conditions.

The MVP was Mason Verger and it's not even close.

 

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