“Hannibal”: Final Thoughts
by Maureen Ryan
I would not recommend spending a day or two gorging on the first season of “Hannibal,” and not just because the very idea of a gluttonous binge would offend the refined sensibilities of the show’s title character.
And yet I very much hope people catch up on this fascinating NBC drama — in a measured fashion — over the summer.
The show’s first season could be hard to watch at times — so much so that I understand why some people had to give up on it or couldn’t get on board. And yet the very things that made it challenging also made it one of the most compelling broadcast-network shows of the past few years. As the capstone of a fine season that explored the outer limits of identity, manipulation and connection, Thursday’s finale was transfixing.
All season long, “Hannibal” showed its title character serving a variety of gourmet meals (we still don’t know exactly what was in them, and that question added a frisson of horror to each bite the characters took). But Hannibal’s ultimate creation was Will Graham himself: The doctor used the FBI investigator’s capacity for extraordinary empathy and his psychological and physical distress — the rarest of rare ingredients — to bring about a transformation. Will went to Hannibal for treatment, but he could not have anticipated what that would involve.
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