cop shows for people who don't like cop shows: 3/?

[pocochina]

This is one that I wasn't sure if I'd include because I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. Ultimately, though, it's definitely a crime show that's not like a lot of crime shows: dreamy and artsy, with a highly unconventional protagonist and antagonist, a prequel to a well-known franchise that delivers on twists and suspense.

Still, I'm not

Comments

[abigail_n]

I'm not sure I can talk you into it, since I'm equally torn about the show (albeit for different reasons) but I do think that Jack is its most complete and best-drawn character. The way I see it, if Hannibal lacks conscience and compassion, and Will has too much of both, Jack has the first but not the second. He knows right from wrong and feels strongly about defending the first and punishing the second, but he has absolutely no sympathy for weakness or for the concept of degrees of guilt.

See, for example, the way that he pursues Abigail Hobbs throughout the season (contributing to her murder of Nick Boyle and her death at Hannibal's hands) even though any sane person can see that she can't be held entirely responsible for helping her father. Or how harsh he is with the kidnapped and brainwashed boy who tries to kill his family. That same lack of compassion eventually plays out with Will when he starts to lose his grip - you can see the disappointment and disapproval wafting off Jack as he realizes how far gone Will is, and when he tries to reach out it's to offer platitudes about bucking up and powering through that show that he genuinely has no idea what it means to be weak and vulnerable.

Which, honestly, works for me. That Jack can be a good person but still an asshole who is utterly useless to Will makes a great deal of sense. I have a lot more problems with Hannibal, who just makes zero sense as a human being, even a crazy one (actually, the problem is that Hannibal, who likes to eat people, doesn't appear to be crazy at all), and with Will, who is frustratingly passive, mainly because the plot needs him to be. There are a lot of things I like about the show, but like you I'm not completely sold.

[pocochina]

The way I see it, if Hannibal lacks conscience and compassion, and Will has too much of both, Jack has the first but not the second. He knows right from wrong and feels strongly about defending the first and punishing the second, but he has absolutely no sympathy for weakness or for the concept of degrees of guilt.

That's a dead-on analysis of Jack.

the problem is that Hannibal, who likes to eat people, doesn't appear to be crazy at all

Hannibal strikes me as someone who has immense intellectual firepower and uses it to operate under the same principles as any other narcissistic control freak. I can't decide if that's a problem with the show, or a thing I find promising about it, though. I think it could end up being a really interesting commentary on the banality of evil - Hannibal thinks he's the greatest of artists, the loneliest and most tortured of souls, but actually he's using the logic of cruelty just like any other predatory animal. Maybe all sadists should look this appalling and ugly; maybe Will is the only one who sees things clearly, not just about Hannibal but about brutality and crime generally. I don't think that's what the show delivered in S1, but I do think there's adequate groundwork to go there next season, and I'd be very interested in that.

[abigail_n]

I think it could end up being a really interesting commentary on the banality of evil - Hannibal thinks he's the greatest of artists, the loneliest and most tortured of souls, but actually he's using the logic of cruelty just like any other predatory animal.

I agree that that could be very interesting, but given the history of the franchise and the character I'm not sure there's much reason to hope for it. Pretty much every creator who has gotten his hands on Lecter, including Thomas Harris, has bought into the notion of him as a lonely artist whose cruelty is cool because it's directed at annoying people. The first season seems to do that as well, and while I agree that there's room for the second season to step back and reexamine those assumptions, I'm not sure I see much reason to believe that it will.