cop shows for people who don't like cop shows: 3/?
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 sure how I feel about NBC's Hannibal.
I mean, I'm engaged enough that I'm confident I'll be tuning in for S2. It has so many elements that should have me super-excited: it's sheer backstory, it's meta, it is relentlessly both aware and critical of a lot of ideas around our constructions of both mental health and masculinity and ofc the intersection thereof, it is dark and dreamy and experimental. And I don't mean "it promises these things and doesn't follow through," or "I see the potential in the concept," it does a very good job with these things, on top of which, it knows when to get out of the way and let this wonderfully talented cast do its thing. And yet...it's not a must-watch for me. I've seen the first episode and the last two episodes and a handful of the ones in between, but I didn't feel pressed enough to keep up with it throughout the season.
I don't care for the food porn. Not even solely for the obvious "ew people" reason? Like, I wish I could say it were that, but this is a show all about the taboo. I just really HATE cooking shows. Looking at food in a television screen is the same aesthetic experience as listening to a hockey game on the radio. Stupid! But also ew people. So....I get the function it serves, but there's not that desire/revulsion response, it just doesn't do anything for me.
Part of that, maybe, is that Will is the kind of character I would find easy to empathize with anyway, and so the work the show does to simulate Will's POV...certainly doesn't hurt, but just has lower returns for me, I think?
What I really keep coming back to is the way everyone around Will starts expecting him to PROVE his state of mind to them, well before Hannibal sets him up to be arrested. Like, I was finding myself more pissed at Jack than I was at Hannibal? Because it is a fact universally acknowledged that Hannibal Lecter is the actual worst! But Will's vulnerability to Hannibal is created at least in part by the environment around him in which he must depend on the people around him for reality checks, and he has absolutely no experience with people who understand what that means for him.
I don't think Jack is using Will, as I think I've seen reviews here and there postulate? At least, not more than any one person who employs the skills of another person (and who amongst us wouldn't rather be useful than patronized?). But he does destabilize and dehumanize Will through aggressions which become progressively less micro as the season goes on. Will is either "broken" or he is not, a fundamentally dehumanizing binary which Jack reminds him of frequently, which ends up serving as less of a check on Will's well-being than a demoralizing exercise in stereotype threat. (I GET PROTECTIVE, OKAY.) The "using" terminology makes him look detached but purposeful, when in actuality Jack's behavior toward Will is callous and counterproductive.
But all that gets to the most interesting thing the show is doing, about honesty and confidence. Will's forthrightness about his very uncertainty puts him under suspicion and scrutiny; Hannibal's certainty convinces people to buy into his created realities. SWIGGITY SWAG, the sausage is people.
TALK ME INTO IT GUYS. I'm so close. I want to love it.
This entry was originally posted at http://pocochina.dreamwidth.org/303441.html. Leave a comment here, or there using OpenID.
Still, I'm not sure how I feel about NBC's Hannibal.
I mean, I'm engaged enough that I'm confident I'll be tuning in for S2. It has so many elements that should have me super-excited: it's sheer backstory, it's meta, it is relentlessly both aware and critical of a lot of ideas around our constructions of both mental health and masculinity and ofc the intersection thereof, it is dark and dreamy and experimental. And I don't mean "it promises these things and doesn't follow through," or "I see the potential in the concept," it does a very good job with these things, on top of which, it knows when to get out of the way and let this wonderfully talented cast do its thing. And yet...it's not a must-watch for me. I've seen the first episode and the last two episodes and a handful of the ones in between, but I didn't feel pressed enough to keep up with it throughout the season.
I don't care for the food porn. Not even solely for the obvious "ew people" reason? Like, I wish I could say it were that, but this is a show all about the taboo. I just really HATE cooking shows. Looking at food in a television screen is the same aesthetic experience as listening to a hockey game on the radio. Stupid! But also ew people. So....I get the function it serves, but there's not that desire/revulsion response, it just doesn't do anything for me.
Part of that, maybe, is that Will is the kind of character I would find easy to empathize with anyway, and so the work the show does to simulate Will's POV...certainly doesn't hurt, but just has lower returns for me, I think?
What I really keep coming back to is the way everyone around Will starts expecting him to PROVE his state of mind to them, well before Hannibal sets him up to be arrested. Like, I was finding myself more pissed at Jack than I was at Hannibal? Because it is a fact universally acknowledged that Hannibal Lecter is the actual worst! But Will's vulnerability to Hannibal is created at least in part by the environment around him in which he must depend on the people around him for reality checks, and he has absolutely no experience with people who understand what that means for him.
I don't think Jack is using Will, as I think I've seen reviews here and there postulate? At least, not more than any one person who employs the skills of another person (and who amongst us wouldn't rather be useful than patronized?). But he does destabilize and dehumanize Will through aggressions which become progressively less micro as the season goes on. Will is either "broken" or he is not, a fundamentally dehumanizing binary which Jack reminds him of frequently, which ends up serving as less of a check on Will's well-being than a demoralizing exercise in stereotype threat. (I GET PROTECTIVE, OKAY.) The "using" terminology makes him look detached but purposeful, when in actuality Jack's behavior toward Will is callous and counterproductive.
But all that gets to the most interesting thing the show is doing, about honesty and confidence. Will's forthrightness about his very uncertainty puts him under suspicion and scrutiny; Hannibal's certainty convinces people to buy into his created realities. SWIGGITY SWAG, the sausage is people.
TALK ME INTO IT GUYS. I'm so close. I want to love it.
This entry was originally posted at http://pocochina.dreamwidth.org/303441.html. Leave a comment here, or there using OpenID.