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O ... M ... Gosh, you guys! Hannibal is SO FREAKING GOOD! It's such a novel way of adapting the material - both the novels and the movies - that I'm rather amazed by it.
I mentioned in my other post that there are a lot of winks and nods to iconic lines and images and how I wished they'd do a little less of it. But, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cleolinda pointed out in her most recent recap, there's a design to this that I really was not expecting.
He thinks I'm his nemesis.
The most recent episode, "Entree," has what I think is the largest number of references to date. And not all of them are little things, like iconic lines. Some of them are pretty darn huge things. We've already had Hannibal drugging the girl in a manner very reminiscent of his hypnosis of Clarice in the novel Hannibal. We've had the Angel-maker in "Coquilles" displaying one of his victims and, errr, himself, in a style that is highly suggestive of the famous "snapshot of hell" from Silence of the Lambs, with Lt. Boyle splayed and butterflied over Lecter's cage. And this recent episode ... dude. Let me just list some shit for you.
- Dr. Gideon is the fake Chesapeake Ripper in this episode, played by Eddie Izzard. Dr. Gideon is ALSO the name that is used in the second draft of the Silence of the Lambs script for Lecter, because the studio didn't at that time have the rights to the name Hannibal Lecter. I think they may have had to change a couple other characters' names too. (I printed out that draft of the script years ago, when I was in college, and it is now no longer online that I can find.) Kind of a perfect choice for a character who actually is a cheap knock-off of Lecter.
- The character of Miriam Lass is very Clarice-like, and she is brought on as a "warm body" to help with the Ripper case much like Clarice was brought on to help with the Buffalo Bill case. They even had a nod to her missing a lot of class (in the book, Clarice very nearly doesn't graduate the Academy because she spends so much time away from Quantico digging around the Jame Gumb murders).
- Miriam says that she and the other trainees call Crawford "the guru." I can't remember if there is anything in the novels about this nickname, but it's definitely in SOTL the movie. (Ardelia: "Clarice. Phone. It's the guru.")
- Dr. Chilton taking about Gideon being a pure sociopath and that it's rare to have captured a living one. Straight from SOTL (the movie, at least, and perhaps the novel as well, though I don't have access to it at the moment).
- Lecter talking about "having an old friend for dinner" WHILE SERVING DINNER TO DR. CHILTON.
- AND OMG MIRIAM FINDING THE WOUND MAN DRAWING AND BASICALLY CATCHING LECTER IN A SCENE THAT IS JUST LIKE THE ONE WHERE WILL CATCHES HIM. DOWN TO THE SOCK FEET! *FLAILS*
All this to say that, while it seemed like they were spending a lot of the iconic canon moments way too early, what's clearly happening is that they're referencing the material we all know for a different reason. They're letting us know that, even though we may think we know the story, we don't really know what's coming. Not in the way we thought we did. I was wondering, since they weren't planning to do the Red Dragon plot until Season 4, if they got that far, how they were going to drag out Will's relationship with Lecter and his eventual realization that Lecter is the Chesapeake Ripper (which I'm guessing *must* happen at some point in a hopeful third season). Now we know. We don't know how that's going to happen anymore, because they've already had it happen with another character, so we're going to see something completely new. AND THIS IS INCREDIBLY EXCITING TO ME!
And can we just talk about how fantastic Hugh Dancy is in this show? His reenactment of the killing of the nurse is TERRIFYING.
prettyannamoon, I saw your comment over on Cleo's post, and I'd just like to say 'Word.' I saw the little "what do you see" note and said "Guys, you're IN an observatory. RIGHT NEXT TO A TELESCOPE, DUMMIES!"
NBC announces it's lineup next Monday, May 12, and I *really* hope this show gets renewed. Fuller and the other producers seem confident, since it's a relatively cheap-to-make show. And I can't imagine they'd let such a well-written, well-acted show, with such great production value and that's getting such good reviews, go to waste. But this is NBC, so you never know.
I mentioned in my other post that there are a lot of winks and nods to iconic lines and images and how I wished they'd do a little less of it. But, as
cleolinda pointed out in her most recent recap, there's a design to this that I really was not expecting.He thinks I'm his nemesis.
The most recent episode, "Entree," has what I think is the largest number of references to date. And not all of them are little things, like iconic lines. Some of them are pretty darn huge things. We've already had Hannibal drugging the girl in a manner very reminiscent of his hypnosis of Clarice in the novel Hannibal. We've had the Angel-maker in "Coquilles" displaying one of his victims and, errr, himself, in a style that is highly suggestive of the famous "snapshot of hell" from Silence of the Lambs, with Lt. Boyle splayed and butterflied over Lecter's cage. And this recent episode ... dude. Let me just list some shit for you.
- Dr. Gideon is the fake Chesapeake Ripper in this episode, played by Eddie Izzard. Dr. Gideon is ALSO the name that is used in the second draft of the Silence of the Lambs script for Lecter, because the studio didn't at that time have the rights to the name Hannibal Lecter. I think they may have had to change a couple other characters' names too. (I printed out that draft of the script years ago, when I was in college, and it is now no longer online that I can find.) Kind of a perfect choice for a character who actually is a cheap knock-off of Lecter.
- The character of Miriam Lass is very Clarice-like, and she is brought on as a "warm body" to help with the Ripper case much like Clarice was brought on to help with the Buffalo Bill case. They even had a nod to her missing a lot of class (in the book, Clarice very nearly doesn't graduate the Academy because she spends so much time away from Quantico digging around the Jame Gumb murders).
- Miriam says that she and the other trainees call Crawford "the guru." I can't remember if there is anything in the novels about this nickname, but it's definitely in SOTL the movie. (Ardelia: "Clarice. Phone. It's the guru.")
- Dr. Chilton taking about Gideon being a pure sociopath and that it's rare to have captured a living one. Straight from SOTL (the movie, at least, and perhaps the novel as well, though I don't have access to it at the moment).
- Lecter talking about "having an old friend for dinner" WHILE SERVING DINNER TO DR. CHILTON.
- AND OMG MIRIAM FINDING THE WOUND MAN DRAWING AND BASICALLY CATCHING LECTER IN A SCENE THAT IS JUST LIKE THE ONE WHERE WILL CATCHES HIM. DOWN TO THE SOCK FEET! *FLAILS*
All this to say that, while it seemed like they were spending a lot of the iconic canon moments way too early, what's clearly happening is that they're referencing the material we all know for a different reason. They're letting us know that, even though we may think we know the story, we don't really know what's coming. Not in the way we thought we did. I was wondering, since they weren't planning to do the Red Dragon plot until Season 4, if they got that far, how they were going to drag out Will's relationship with Lecter and his eventual realization that Lecter is the Chesapeake Ripper (which I'm guessing *must* happen at some point in a hopeful third season). Now we know. We don't know how that's going to happen anymore, because they've already had it happen with another character, so we're going to see something completely new. AND THIS IS INCREDIBLY EXCITING TO ME!
And can we just talk about how fantastic Hugh Dancy is in this show? His reenactment of the killing of the nurse is TERRIFYING.
prettyannamoon, I saw your comment over on Cleo's post, and I'd just like to say 'Word.' I saw the little "what do you see" note and said "Guys, you're IN an observatory. RIGHT NEXT TO A TELESCOPE, DUMMIES!"NBC announces it's lineup next Monday, May 12, and I *really* hope this show gets renewed. Fuller and the other producers seem confident, since it's a relatively cheap-to-make show. And I can't imagine they'd let such a well-written, well-acted show, with such great production value and that's getting such good reviews, go to waste. But this is NBC, so you never know.
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