DVD/Blu-Ray Review: "Hannibal" season two is a deeply complex feast of fascinating imagery, convoluted characters and thrilling performances from its leads. Written by Dani Walsh.

"Hannibal" Season Two (18)
Created by: Bryan Fuller.
Starring: Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen, Caroline Dhavernas and Laurence Fishburne.
Rated: 18 for containing very strong gore, sadistic violence and gruesome images. 
Combined running time: 559 minutes. 
Out on DVD/Blu-Ray now. 

When it was announced that Thomas Harris’ most enduring creation would be coming to the small screen, it was difficult to get enthused about the project. 1991’s “The Silence of the Lambs” is quite rightly regarded as horror/thriller masterpiece, a rare book-to-film adaptation that equals, if not surpasses, the source material and Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of Doctor Lecter was instantly iconic, netting the Welsh actor an Academy Award for Best Actor with only a mere 16 minutes of screen time.  An unlikely franchise was born, but after a succession of lacklustre sequels and prequels both on page and on screen, was there really anything left to say about Hannibal the Cannibal?

To say that Hannibal’s first season - under the stewardship of show-runner Bryan Fuller- surpassed expectations undersells just how good it really is.  Mads Mikkelsen found a way to make the character his own, moving away from the sometimes larger-than-life stylings of Hopkins’ performance and making this new, pre-“Red Dragon” incarnation of Hannibal Lecter charming, ruthless, dangerously unknowable and truly evil.  Matching him step-for-step in the acting stakes was Hugh Dancy as Will Graham, and their relationship became one of the most compelling things on television to behold.  The question was, how were they going to top that?

Season two begins with a startling narrative device, showing the audience a thrilling and brutal fight between two major characters that clearly happens quite far off in terms of chronology from where season one left us, and then jumping back in time to fill in the gaps.  It immediately lends the entire season a ticking-clock sense of urgency, as week upon week and episode after episode you are left wondering how they will reach that point.

The cinematography and soundscapes of “Hannibal” are a thing of real beauty and really help the show stand out as something far grander, more cinematic, even operatic than most other shows, even in this golden age of US TV drama.  Much was made of the first season’s heavily stylised and visceral on-screen violence, but season two takes the level of gore to stratospheric new heights, with arteries spraying and flesh eviscerated with giddy abandon. Hannibal’s culinary prowess is demonstrated so effectively that cannibalism almost seems like an attractive proposition.  The sound design is especially effective in these grand moments, but also used to devastating effect in the quieter, personal moments, helping create a general sense of unease that permeates the skin.

Season two has also shown us that Bryan Fuller has no intention of sticking to Thomas Harris’ source novels as if they were some sort of sacred text.  Although based upon the characters in “Red Dragon”, Fuller and his team seem to be taking an almost gleeful approach, subverting expectations and changing the preconceived ideas that fans of the books and films may have about the characters and situations they find themselves in.  I am of course being deliberately evasive about plot specifics, but needless to say that there are electrifying moments in this series that will shock you and haunt you for days to come.

It’s not perfect - there is a brief mid-season lull that threatens to revert back to generic serial-killer-of-the-week territory that season one also occasionally suffered from, and Caroline Dhavernas works hard with her role of Dr Alana Bloom but ultimately is given short shrift by the writers as a character who is either making baffling decisions given her occupation as a professional psychiatrist, or merely serving as a narrative pawn to further the story.  Luckily, Michael Pitt turns up late in the season to give it a much-needed boost and focus as Mason Verger, last seen in Ridley Scott’s 2000 movie “Hannibal” as a horribly disfigured survivor of Dr Lecter.  Pitt’s performance is so gleefully deranged and unhinged that he proves a perfect antithesis for the mannered, considered approach to psychopathy that Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham have taken.

There are plenty of welcome cameos and recurring characters from season one (Eddie Izzard and Gillian Anderson both reappear at pivotal moments), but the thing that keeps “Hannibal” a cut above its competition is the relationship between Hannibal and Will.  

Both Mikkelsen and Dancy have settled into these roles so well that it’s becoming harder and harder to remember there being any other versions of their characters, and for all of the abundant, Grand-Guginol-style lashings of gore, the really thrilling thing is getting to watch two actors at the top of their game, tackling deeply complex roles and playing deadly psychological mind-games with each other, turning from friends to enemies and back again at the drop of a hat, and making you genuinely care about two characters that are capable of truly deplorable things and wonder what the outcome will be.  This is Bryan Fuller’s design.  Roll on season three.

9 Stars out of 10

Written by Dani Walsh.

Film/TV Rating Key

1-2 stars out of ten = Awful.

3-4 stars out of ten = Average.

5-6 stars out of ten = Good.

7-8 stars out of ten = Excellent.

9-10 stars out of ten = Amazing.

Trailer