I keep thinking a "pannibal" ought to have something to do with bread

[cleolinda]

To begin, Miss Freddie has posted her interview with director/producer David Slade (pictured here with her business card. Nor is he the only one...). She was, in fact, my date to the Pannibal last night, in the sense that we sat on Skype all night on the other side of the country and laughed our asses off. ppyajunebug was actually there, liveblogging under

Comments

[cleolinda]

Hee, yeah. I basically live for gag reels and behind-the-scenes stuff, so I really enjoy that kind of thing. Looking behind the curtain, as it were, actually highlights the hard work and talent involved, for me--to see how different it is to be on set with all the fake props and the flubs and laughing between the really great takes that actually get used. It's more impressive to me that you can watch that scene where Hugh Dancy looks like actual death warmed over, and then see him break out of it and then go right back into it. Also, I find it reassuring that he was not, in fact, like death warmed over. Like, intellectually we know it's just acting and makeup, but this show put us so thoroughly through the wringer that it's nice to see that it really was just pretend.

One of the things I like about the show, and about how a lot of the fandom has turned, is the acknowledgment that the artfulness of the violence and the grimdarkness doesn't necessarily mean we are celebrating or recommending it

I am personally super relieved that this turned out to be the case, yeah. It's one of the reasons I was all "HAY GUYS, NEVER FORGET, ABSOLUTE WORST" right out of the gate on the first recap, because I wanted a fun, affectionate, analytical atmosphere, not the swooning creepiness I had seen in, uh, earlier incarnations of the fandom. I mean, I'm sure that's still out there, but I wanted this corner of it to be fun, and I like that the fandom-wide memes are very light and affectionate.

[meleth]

I think part of that (although obviously only a part, since everything else about the show is also top-notch) is Mads' portrayal of Hannibal as Lucifer. He's not a gleeful sociopath, or a rudeness vigilante, or any of those other human kinds of monsters. He's so completely alien that we can't woobify him completely, can't side with him against all of his victims, can't justify his actions. Milton managed to give Satan a sympathetic backstory, but we never forgot that he was the Father of Lies. Mads makes Hannibal just repulsive enough to keep us aware of the fact that he's a terrifying predator.

Although I'm pretty sure I'm just re-stating conversations that have happened in the recap discussion threads. But I wanted to fangirl over Mads Mikkelsen again, because that's always a good life choice.