Hannibal

wish i could watch it but i assume im nation blocked in nz

Love rewatching this series, it truly is one of the best.

I wish I had the energy, skills, motivation to run a successful psychiatric practice while also hunting and eating people. Inspiring.

What a fine blend of elements from all of Harris' books, combined with a few original ideas. A deep dive into Will and Hannibal's complex relationship. Madds Mikkelsen is phenomenal as Hannibal. A cut far above usual TV fare.

I had only seen Manhunter and Silence of the Lambs before binge-watching the series. Its dreamlike, macabre aesthetics and metaphysical ramblings are best savored in small doses, like all the gourmet meals Lecter meticulously prepares for his guests. One could superficially boil down its theme as a debate between ethics and justice. Murder victims become grotesque works of art. Can one turn down an exquisite meal made from human flesh? While logic dictates that killers would have to be superhuman to a) be undetected while lugging, dissecting, and rearranging multiple corpses for theatrical purposes; b) leave little or no evidence for the authorities, and c) have the patience to do all that surgery along with mixing in other media for effect, again with nothing for medical examiners to follow up with. The police procedural aspect is really beside the point. I wondered why no one ever bothered to go through Lecter's trash or excreta to gather evidence. Counterintelligence as well as police stoop that low. We know there are many murderers and mutilators in society, some of whom cannibalize their victims, or preserve parts of them for study or admiration. H. H. Holmes, during the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, comes to mind. In the world of Hannibal Lecter, we are asked to see killers as perverse artists. Hannibal himself is a sadistic god who likes to put friends in harm's way by betraying them and their loved ones to their murderous adversaries. Why? To see what they would do to extricate themselves. You could call it Nietzschean psychology. That which doesn't kill us can only make us stronger. Since most religiously observant people can't account for unmerited suffering, grief, and adversity in life, a god who is either indifferent to our plight or who delights in our misery would make sense. I don't believe that personally, but I also believe there is no gain without pain. We live in a world of fallen nature where, as Werner Herzog observed in Burden of Dreams, we can't escape the chaos of copulation, consumption, and death.