Rent Hannibal: Series 1 (2013)

Mad Mads Mickleson - Hannibal: Series 1 review by DO

Loving this series. Mads is very believable and always good value. The main FBI guy can get a bit annoying,but this is more than compensated by the rest of the cast. Rent it.

Far too icky - Hannibal: Series 1 review by VA

The first Hannibal film starred Brian Cox as a perfectly reasonable Lecter, controlling and organising from his prison cell, and co-starred William Petersen as the hapless Will Graham, directed by Michael Mann to brilliant effect. Then we had Sir Anthony Hopkins chomping the scenery, and apparently scaring the stuff out of crew from his cage even when the camera was idle. Now it's the distinguished Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen doing duty for the hungry psycho, and Hugh Dancy as Will. Only trouble is, we've seen it all before and somewhat classier done. These guys are very fine actors, but I for one cannot see the point, unless of course it's an exploitational, melodramatic and gut wrenchingly explicit point, in re-treading such a well, well worn path.

William Goldman was correct when he famously opined, 'Nobody knows anything.' He was speaking of how Hollywood was unable to guess what the public would go for next, but these days, it's because nobody knows how to write a decent psycho thriller anymore. Without thrusting our noses into the yuk.

For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they will like.

Absolutely Brilliant TV Series with Breath-taking Attention to Detail - Hannibal: Series 1 review by PV

I had no idea what to expect of this BUT have long admired Mads Mikkelsen as an actor (eg The Hunt) so know he would nail it, and he does, with other characters. He plays Hannibal Lecter as a dandy, and the cooking skills are admirable! References to future films of The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Red Dragon make me want to watch them again, esp the latter.

The story is complex and all very moody in tone, with the sort of long pauses and time taken for emotions to register which may try the patience of youngsters with short attention spans. This then is really not for those with puppy brains.

However, I revelled in the psychological complexity here, the mind games, though of course suspension of disbelief is needed - in reality DNA, CCTV, and NPR would catch a killer pretty quickly.

This is highly enjoyable 'grand guignol' drama - to the reviewer who called it 'icky', OH PURLEASE? It;s Hannibal Lecter. So what were you expecting then? Unicorns, rainbows and group hugs with teletubbies?

Loved it. 3 series apparently all filmed in Toronto. Then TV company cancelled it because of lower ratings. Maybe not a bad thing - some of these US box set series go on way too long.

Loving it for now! 5 stars.