Hannibal (NBC)

I can't believe it's already April. Perhaps more so because there is still no official word from the Coroner's office about the autopsy of Elisa Lam (see previous Dark Water post). After repeated searches of the internet there is no available update, although I did find some photos of her family and friends attending her funeral - which leads me to believe that the Coroner released her body to the family. So sad.

If you've found any information that I may have overlooked, please post it in the comments section. Thanks and may Elisa rest in peace.

Someone commented to me the other day on how distressed they were that today's society seems to be so obsessed with horror: movies such as Evil Dead and television shows such as The Walking Dead seem to permeate the airwaves and our conversations. He truly seemed disturbed by this so I did my best to hide my delight. I really love this stuff.

So why wasn't I more excited to discover that NBC was bringing one of the best horror characters to television via Hannibal? Could it be because shows like The Following or American Horror Story start out with such promise only to fizzle toward the middle of the very first season? I wasn't going to add another disappointing item into my DVR's to-do list (Lord knows my DVR has been working overtime) until my son urged me to watch.

Hannibal introduces us to the legendary Dr. Lecter (he's not yet legendary in the show, I'm only speaking from my perspective), a psychiatrist with an appetite for human organs. (Kudos to NBC for making cooked lungs look like a delectable dish from Barefoot Contessa.) What I found interesting about the pilot episode is that we get to view the serial killer's mind through another profiler, not through Dr. Lecter. That profiler, special agent Will Graham (played by Hugh Dancy), is infintely more interesting than Lecter at this point. He's young, he's gifted, he's squeamish, he's vulnerable. I like this character so much that I'm already dreading his predicted demise at the hands of Lecter. Dancy is the best part of this cast, possibly because I'm not familiar with his previous work so I don't see any typecasting with him. The other cast members, however (yawn*), aren't really holding my interest. Laurence Fishburne is the main FBI agent. Someone needs to tell him that he isn't playing the CSI character anymore. Bo-ring! Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Lecter is also underwhelming so far. He and James Purefoy of The Following could be interchanged and I wouldn't even notice. Same voice, same delivery, same... Bo-ring! And can I mention the annoying Asian female medical examiner? I honestly can't wait for her to get killed in the crossfire.

Nonetheless, I did find the first episode of this 13-episode season interesting enough to throw it into my DVR's season pass list, albeit only for Dancy's portrayal of Will Graham.

You can watch the entire episode here: http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi2950997529?ref_=tt_pv_vi_1

Not scary yet, so I'm only giving the pilot episode one jumper. Hopefully I'll return at some point during the season to insert more.

Until then,
L