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I think we're seeing some of Hannibal's 'true' self now that he is in prison. 

 

The grinning, the snarky remarks, the callousness, eating Chilton's lip, etc. He's lost all claims at normalcy and civility and is just a bad fucking dude.

 

It's Mikkelson finally getting to do Hopkins' version of Dr. Lecter. . 

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This seems relevant now that the show is (I guess??) ending. 

 

The best thing Fuller did with this series was show up Thomas Harris' idea that Hannibal was some cool anti-hero whom we should love.

 

No, he's not. He's a murderer. A savage. He fucks up everyone around him for his own amusement and turns them into sociopathic shells of themselves. Will and Alana were good people before they knew him. They aren't anymore.  Abigail was an abused teen: He turned her into a killer. He set up an innocent woman and her child to be murdered solely out of spite. He murdered a ton of people, like Katz, not because they were 'rude'or somehow deserving, but simply because they were in his way.

 

He's a hideous fucking guy and Fuller, for all the accusations that he glamorizes violence, seems the only one who knows the material, to ever get that. Even the guy who actually created the character never got it.  

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oooof.  I highly resent that after all that they ended it by turning Hannibal Lecter and WiIl Graham into a couple of teenagers on a suicidal crime spree.  Complete with emo (apparently Siouxsie soundtrack though it's quite impressive that they got her to write and record a new song for this).  I didn't watch this for it to turn into the Doom Generation.

 

Goddammit, guys.  That was absurd and unfulfiling in so many ways.  That was like twee fanservice, like they said "If no one wants us, we should at least be loyal to our most hysterical fanbase and give them something to put on their Myspace page."

 

Goddammit, guys.  You were one episode away from basically a perfect television show.  ONE FUCKING EPISODE AWAY!!!

 

Goddammit, guys.

 

I get that there was an element of Damien Karras taking the demon into him and destroying himself to kill it, nevermind Reichenbach falls...maybe that's it.  SHERLOCK has me just about twee-ed out and this was little too that. And so it all makes some sense from Will's perspective.  But goddammit, guys.  The Hannibal I know would not allow that to play out.  I would rather he turned on Will in the end and reminded us that "suicide is the enemy" and freedom is what it's all about.

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The final scene was more like some badly written Hannibal slash fiction culled from a tumblr fanpage than in keeping with the overall story.  So we get some convoluted plot about them allowing Hannibal to escape in order to flush out Dollarhyde and are totally ok with a bunch of cops getting killed in the process?  And Jack doesn't have any sort of surveillance on Will or a tracker on him or anything?  I had really hoped it would end with Bedelia eating Hannibal.

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There would have to have been a scenario in which literally every other person in the FBI and at least three other federal agencies other than Jack, Will, and Alana were dead or on vacation for any of that to have been allowed to happen.  At least in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS they had a plausible reason with politicians getting involved.  But of all the things I've accepted as the show got more surreal, that somehow bugged me.

 

Is there a list somewhere of the final total of wounds that Will Graham sustained?  Even just a total number of holes poked in his body?

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The final scene was more like some badly written Hannibal slash fiction culled from a tumblr fanpage than in keeping with the overall story.  So we get some convoluted plot about them allowing Hannibal to escape in order to flush out Dollarhyde and are totally ok with a bunch of cops getting killed in the process?  And Jack doesn't have any sort of surveillance on Will or a tracker on him or anything?  I had really hoped it would end with Bedelia eating Hannibal.

 

To be fair, the show has hinted a few times that Jack is absolutely fucking incompetent. A crazy, doomed-to-failure plan like that wasn't out of character for him at all. 

 

Honestly, you or me would probably be more qualified to be FBI director than he is. 

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http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/08/30/hannibal-bryan-fuller-on-the-huge-events-in-the-season-3-finale-and-continued-hopes-for-the-future?page=3

 

Fuller clears things up a bit:

 

-Bedelia didn't do it to herself.Hannibal cut off her leg and she's going to stab him as soon as he comes back in the room.

-the Freddie Lounds/Chilton switch was because of gender issues.

-Will was basically sacrificing himself at the end because he didn't want to kill anyone else.

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It's so funny. A few days ago, I was thinking to myself, "What if the big twist at the end of season 3 is that there was never going to be a season 4 and Will and Hannibal die?" I was feeling quite prescient up until the Bedelia tag.

Okay, so the last 20 minutes were kinda messy. I felt like they needed another 5 minutes to set up and then unpack the convoy attack, because so much of that is unclear. I mean, I presume Will tipped off Dolarhyde about the convoy, but I don't know that. And if he did, was he expecting Dolarhyde to execute all those policemen in the process, was that acceptable collateral damage to him? Or did Dolarhyde, through some means, discover that he was being set up and jump the gun on Will's plan? And there seemed to be a suboptimal number of law enforcement officers involved in the transport of one of the country's most notorious killers, so was that on purpose, or just a sign of the show's low budget?

So, yeah...messy.

As for the climax, I loved it from a thematic perspective. I thought Will's decision totally jived with the story that's been told to this point. He's too damaged by his exposure to Hannibal's world to ever be normal again, especially not in a world where Hannibal continues to exist, and the only way to get Hannibal to drop his guard long enough for Will to kill him is to embrace the version of himself that Hannibal has been grooming. In that context, the hug turning into a death grip is pretty much a perfect allegory.

And according to Fuller, there are even slash-ier takes on the embrace that got left on the cutting room floor!

I just didn't care for the exectution of the fall. It was pretty much a verbatim reenactment of the classic image of Holmes and Moriarty from The Final Problem, and that was a little too on the nose, for my liking. Like, there had to be a way to invoke that without putting flashing arrows around it. And it weirdly put me in the mindset that I had just seen the same thing on SHERLOCK, which was disappointing, except that upon further review, they didn't actually do that in their take on that story.

And, on top of that, the Bedelia tag was a little too cute, too much like a JAMES BOND WILL RETURN after the credits. I thought it undermined the power of Will's choice and the fall to immediately suggest that one or both of them survived.

If they had cut the Bedelia tag and just faded out on the roiling waters, then, fuck it, that would've been amazing, and even though I would miss it, I think I wouldn't want them to make anymore. A pitch black end to a pitch black show, and a perfect conclusion to Will's journey.

But they had to put the tag on there...so now I have to know what happens next.

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But they had to put the tag on there...so now I have to know what happens next.

 

I'm just the opposite,  I'm not interested in what would have happened next.  I'm glad the show seems to be wrapped for good.  I was in an odd spot with the finale.  I was really invested in the finale because I assumed that there would be some wacky cliffhanger/twist at the end.  But I've really fallen out of love with this show.,  I admire the craftmanship Fuller puts into the show.  I like how they push the boundaries and challenge the viewer.  I really like that Fuller put his own stamp on the show and didn't feel constrained to keep the story within the boundaries established by Harris' novels and the movies.  It's a great show on a technical level.

 

I just stopped enjoying it - which is what usually happens with me and Fuller.  I realized a few weeks back that the show wasn't for me.  It's a much better show, but I enjoy Hallmark's Cedar Cove a lot more than Hannibal.  Fuller lost me a bit in season 2.  He really lost me this season, when the stylistic tics seemed to overwhelm the substance and it became clear everyone in the show is an awful person.

 

I get where Fuller was going.  Hannibal either kills or corrupts everyone he comes in contact with.  But a show about cold, broken people isn't all that satisfying for me.  There's no one left to empathize with on this show.  Hannibal's a psychopath who acts civilized when it suits him.  Jack is a cold manipulator.  Alana seems mostly dead inside.  And Will... Will lost his moral compass and went way over to the darkside.because he found a soulmate in Hannibal.

 

I felt like this season became one of those experimental living art pieces where you feel compelled to say you like it and discuss it's meaning because if you don't, you'll be dismissed as some sort of low-class plebian who doesn't understand highbrow art.  Weird imagery?  Check?  Hard to follow storytelling?  Check?  Moody music playing while a guy growls and makes wacky faces?  Check?  Characters you can't relate too and find despicable, but THIS IS ART so they are somehow interesting?  Check.

 

Fuller's explanation of why Will threw himself over a cliff makes sense but I wish i had gotten more of that out of the scene,  I wasn't sure what Will was thinking.  At the same time, I think the idea that they both (probably) were meant to survive the fall and come back for season four cheapens the idea.  Fuller doesn't seem to have intended either one to die, so it's really just a cheap season-ending cliffhanger same as most every other show does nowdays.

 

I was more interested in the Bedelia post-script when I thought she decided to eat her own leg.  Although the scene was so dark that I wasn't even sure that she was missing a leg.  Add that to my checklist above?  Scenes shot in near darkness so they look like the show was filmed in a cave.

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That is the one positive that might come out of there not being a season 4.  We're left with the possibility that Bedelia is so crazy and feels so jilted by Hannibal preferring Will, that every year on the anniversary of his death she is going to cook one of her own body parts and sit there and wait for the two of them and then throw an (increasingly smaller and less powerful because there is less of her each time) fit about it.  Like a wife who's husband doesn't come home for dinner.

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It's hilarious that Bedelia fucked herself because she just couldn't stop playing the game.

 

Hannibal was in jail. She was safe. But she just HAD to keep messing with Will's head. I really think she was the one who sent him over the edge: She convinced him he'd never have a life without Hannibal and was too morally damaged beyond repair. Hence Will coming up with this crazy plan to free Hannibal and (presumably) leading to her long, horrible death.

 

And why? There was no reason to. She just got arrogant and likes messing with people's heads.  

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I get where Fuller was going.  Hannibal either kills or corrupts everyone he comes in contact with.  But a show about cold, broken people isn't all that satisfying for me.  There's no one left to empathize with on this show.  Hannibal's a psychopath who acts civilized when it suits him.  Jack is a cold manipulator.  Alana seems mostly dead inside.  And Will... Will lost his moral compass and went way over to the darkside.because he found a soulmate in Hannibal.

 

 

I kinda get Jodie Foster's point about why she hated the ending of the Hannibal book.

 

You like to have one character who can stand up to Hannibal. Someone to believe in. Otherwise we're just watching a show about a puppet master who manipulates everyone and ruins them and barely breaks a sweat. This show doesn't have that person. Even if you buy Will throwing them both over the cliff to do the world a favor...eh, he still got a lot of innocent cops and FBI guys killed in the process and he has a taste for killing now. And what he did to Chilton was unforgivable. 

 

IMO, even if Fuller did get the rights to Clarice...I think she'd eventually get broken by him too. Fuller just seems way to into the idea "Hannibal ruins everyone."

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A nice reminder of a couple of things:

 

1) How completely different and original Fuller's version of Graham had become by season 3 and

2) How amazing William Peterson was as the character.  So underplayed.  So nervous but without being twitchy, just kind of awkward and meek liek he was a kid going to see the principal.  Like he could bolt at any second.

 

 

...also what non-entities Norton/Ratner are in this.

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In fairness to Norton, he was basically playing second-fiddle to Anthony Hopkins' Chewing Scenery Act in Red Dragon. I thought he was generally fine. He looks like you think Graham would look at least.

 

Hannibal Will has just become increasingly unlikable and self-absorbed by season 3. But in the early seasons of season 1 I thought Dancy nailed it. 

 

Peterson was great. 

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I think you can be a little quick to throw broad tags like "unlikeable" or "incompetent" on characters sometimes. I thought Will was very likeable mid-season 3, after the time jump, when it was clear he had put a lot of effort into breaking free of Hannibal's influence. Not that I even think "likeable" is a prerequisite for a good story, anyway.

Will was a completely different character by the time they actually got around to doing the GRD story. Can't really compare him to the character from the other movies, or the book really.

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I thought Will suddenly gave up, like psychically, a little easy at the end.  After all the other traumas he survived in the first 2.5 seasons, and was still able to reach out to someone to build a family.  That was impressive.  And the thing that ended up destroying him was losing thisone relationship.

 

But then, sure Hannibal messes that up for him.  He's able to reach out and destroy that one more time.  And so, yes, Will is going to lose that family, his wife and stepson will probably never be able to "be with him" now...and he will probably not be able to hold it up with them.  Let's say, it will be awkward.  But I bet Molly was at least willing to give it a fucking try...if Will gave her a chance. 

 

And he takes that, that one relationship as the breaking point.  Like, he's probably going to lose Molly so he gives in and embraces the beast.  I'd like to think that losing this one relationship, as painful as it is, doesn't have to be defeat.  It is his first real relationship after all and how many does any regular person go through before the give up?  More than one I would hope!  Lots of people have to deal with thinking they have one kind of future and then watching it fade away and having to rebuild.

 

It seemed a little abstract that Hannibal could say some words about how you'll never be able to believe again and go back that now...and Will was just like, "yeah, that makes sense.  hannibal wouldn't, like, lie about that!"

 

After all he fought through, he should have been able to work through that.

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I never quite bought that Will could truly love Hannibal. The man framed him for murder, stabbed him, murdered his surrogate daughter in front of him, was basically responsible for the death of his unborn child, tried to have his new family killed and took a buzzsaw to his head to boot.

 

Seriously: Lovingly embracing the man who tried to have your wife and young kid by a serial killer-rapist killed out of spite? Man, I think that was the moment I really started to dislike him. That and the Chilton thing, 

 

Basically Will is brainwashed or crazy or incredibly callous.  

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I remember when they did that story line and I was thinking: "Well, finally Hannibal has done something to Will that even Will can't forgive and this will be the thing that convinces him to sever ties."

 

But, no.

 

Molly should get a divorce. 

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