Hannibal: The Complete Series One. Review/Trailer/UK Blu-ray/DVD Details. UK release 2nd September 2013.

Eat The Rude!

Hannibal: The Complete Season 1 Official Trailer.
Hannibal 

It's been a very long time since I have seen anything of this quality, substance or menace from a TV series, in fact Hannibal: The Complete Season 1, is in a life time of following horror films and strange TV for over nearly 40 + years or so now, one of the first, the best and the most gripping "procedural" TV shows I have ever had the pleasure to experience or witness.

All though this series is named after the cinema's most famous and prominent cannibal, Hannibal Lecter, his true, highly educated, monstrous, ghoulish genius is only suggested and hinted at by the writer's, Hannibal is superbly played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelson, so far as this the first season of 14 episodes is concerned. I thought I would have trouble with this fact as Anthony Hopkins is the "definitive" Dr Lecter in the films to me and many others but my concerns were readily dashed by Mads Mikklesons interpretation of the super calm and cunning cannibal Dr.

The focus and attention is mainly upon Special Agent Will Graham and his ability to have complete and total "empathy" with the deceased victims of some of the most truly strange and macabre serial killings or slayings, if you prefer the term, you could ever possibly imagine and it is about his "apprentice" like relationship with his boss, FBI Special Agent In Charge, Jack Crawford played by Lawrence Fishburn and his team of FBI Forensic Scientists as in the original premise and story by Thomas Harris, in "Red Dragon".

What you do get to discover is, Dr Lecter's and Criminal Profiler, Will Graham's early affiliation and symbiosis together, but placed before the time of Dr Lecter's capture, arrest and incarceration as was portrayed in Micheal Mann's excellent film of the book, "Red Dragon", "Manhunter". Thomas Harris' characters and Brian Fullers series of 13 brand new scripts expand this early time period of their relationship, before Dr Lecter is exposed as a psychopathic murderer and cannibal, an eater of human flesh and organs from his victims corpses.

Procedural Television shows of this nature, ie Police Forensic Murder Investigations are quite common these days but few, if not any have ever come up to the calibre and intensity of what developer for TV, Brian Fuller and the fantastic cast have delivered with "Hannibal". 

"Eating the kill, is to honour it"!

The term "Elegant Horror" has been used to describe "Hannibal: The Complete Season One" in the "making of" featurette included on disk 4 and this is undeniably correct. I was thinking Alfred Hitchcock and Dario Argento, themselves, would enjoy the neo-realistically portrayed, exquisitely grotesque, ritualistic murder cases depicted. The visual representations of the extremely bizarre premeditated murder's or "un-natural deaths", are shown-off like the most hideous un-earthly macabre sculptures you might ever have the misfortune to encounter. "The Minnesota Shrike", "The Gardener" and "The Chesapeake Ripper" are but a few of the new serial killer characters under investigation by Will Graham and Jack Crawford's FBI Forensic Team.

The new batch of serial killers that inhabit the 13 episode, four disk set season one are, "creative" to say the least in the way they dispatch their victims and then parade their kills. "This Is My Design" Special Agent Will Graham says as he regresses his very open and sensitive mind into those of the serial killer perpetrators at the murders scenes, as he does this we are then treated to selective "flashbacks" scenes of the events during the kills.

The intricately detailed plot development and story lines are effortlessly enacted by all the stunning cast, it is totally immersing and gripping as Will relates his  visceral visions back to Jack Crawford and the FBI Forensic Team, completely believable performances are given by all, you will be fully engrossed as each chilling murder detail and secret is revealed.

"There are presents for you, waiting under the Christmas tree"!

The subtle connections between the fact that murder is also a way of procuring a meal are deftly inserted into the plot, Spanish designer chef José Andrés, has actually been a consultant on ways of preparing human flesh for consumption for the series, during the 13 episodes Dr Lecter invites everybody round to his place for a dinner party. Lungs, heart and kidney's are prepared, cooked and artistically presented by Dr Lecter for his dinner guests, Jack Crawford and his wife, Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier, Dr Lecter's psychotherapist, played by Gillian Anderson all have meals with him. Your never sure early on, if these organs are the exact same ones that have been surgically removed from the murder victims?

The emphasis underlined around many if not all of the slayings is cannibalism, copycat killing and the then subsequent exhibition of the carcasses. There is a longing from the different serial killers to have their "work" discovered by the FBI, almost like they have committed the murders for them particularly, there is also a "hunting" aspect, of stalking the prey and the joy that can be derived by the instant and moment that their lives are "taken", man, woman or beast.

The element that being and becoming a cannibal sets the individual apart from ordinary people is also toyed with by Fuller and the writing team ... Dr Lecter's heightened sense of smell for instance, where has that come from? Is it from the fact he was born that way or is it an attribute he has acquired by the continual consumption of human flesh and organs. The desire amongst the many serial killers in the series to be different, unique and appreciated is also there for you to pick up on, underpinning the ultimate conclusion that the way they have achieved this is what is classified as criminal insanity to the rest of us but to them it is a route to notoriety immortality and recognition amongst their peers.

"All the signpost's point to Wisconsin, Texas, and possibly Whitechaple, London"!

As with Thomas Harris' original stories, Hannibal: The Complete Season 1 episodes, acknowledges some of the most prominent real life serial killers from the last one hundred years. Amongst the story lines you will find references back to Jack The Ripper, Edward Theodore Gein, Jeffery Dharmer and Ted Bundy. It conjours and juggles many of the murderous acts performed by these historical psychopaths before your eyes and I found, in your mind, long after the series was watched. It also suggests that organ "harvesting" or theft may not always have been for donor purposes, many criminal cases over the the last 15 years or so have had to deal with the removal of certain human organs and the reasons why have never really ever been ascertained, for what purposes was this done? Where they taken for sale or for dinner?

What drove Ed Gein to remove the faces from recently buried corpses and from some of his female victims, was it the fact that nearly 80 years earlier in London England, Jack The Ripper did the same? What drove Ed Gein to remove and eat parts of his victims, was it the fact that 80 years earlier Jack The Ripper may have been doing the same? Why were many of Jack The Rippers victims organs removed and never found and their corpses left in plain view and not hidden to delay his or her possible discovery? Why did Ed Gein exhume bodies from their final resting places, only to fashion them into ghoulish sculptures and incorporate their bones and skin into household everyday objects, like we do with certain animals, that he could later use again and again. Why, was he in fact trying to copy his teacher, was Jack The Ripper the person who inspired Ed Gein, why were all of the victims female, were the killers Oedipal, did in fact their respective mother's indoctrinate them into the ways of hatred of women, killing and cannibalism. 

With Hannibal: The Complete Series 1 there are more questions than answers and the conclusion is left open ended. There will be a follow up series which will be coming out in 2014, so more episodes are on the menu. 

"When Television is this good, it's hard to go back!"
UK TV's, "Silent Witness" and Swedish TV's "The Killing", series's were and are above par, so far as gruesome, twisted plot lines were concerned and indeed if your a fan of those shows, you will be absolutely enamoured by what has been achieved in this new series of Television Programmes by Thomas Harris and Brian Fuller. 

Studio Canal are pleased to bring you the UK premiere of Bryan Fuller’s new critically acclaimed series Hannibal: The Complete Series One. coming to DVD and Blu-ray September 2nd, with the artful direction of David Slade (Twilight: Eclipse, 30 Days of Night). Bryan Fuller is the creative force behind imaginative television such as Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls, and Dead Like Me, and the upcoming Warner Bros. movie Pinnochio. He now brings the classic character Hannibal Lecter to television!

Before Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, Hannibal Lecter was a brilliant psychiatrist in the employ of the FBI. His task: to help an unusually gifted criminal profiler, Will Graham, who is haunted by his ability to see into the minds of serial killers.

After a particularly gruelling case hunting a serial killer known as the Minnesota Shrike, Will Graham (Hugh Dancy: Black Hawk Down) threatens to walk away. Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne: Matrix), the head of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, desperately needs Will on his team to break the tough cases, so he enlists Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen: The Hunt), to ensure Will’s mental well-being. Unbeknownst to Will, Hannibal also has a particular insight into these horrible crimes and the psychopaths who commit them. As Will hunts down brutal killers, he is unknowingly sitting across from the most gifted killer of them all.

Hannibal is a one-hour drama series exploring the early relationship of Thomas Harris’ famous characters – psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter and his patient, gifted FBI criminal profiler Will Graham. This stylized thriller tells an origin story of masterful manipulation.

Extras:
Eat The Rude Featurette.
First Look Featurette.
Forensics 101 Featurette.

Tech Specs:

DVD: Cert: / Feature Running Time: / Region 2 / Feature Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 / Colour PAL / Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital / English language / Cat No: OPTD2619 / RRP: £29.99.

Blu-ray: Cert: / Feature Running Time: / Region B / Feature Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 / Colour PAL / Audio: DTS HD Master / English language / Cat No: OPTBD2619 / RRP: £34.99.