Bonsoir
So I have finally rewatched "Antipasto"...
I think that Hannibal the show is guilty of the same thing Hannibal the character is, that is choosing "aesthetics over ethics".
“You no longer have ethical concerns, Hannibal. Only aesthetical ones.” Bedelia said. I'm not sure that the show ever had ethical concerns actually. Fueller said so. He doesn't care about things being plausible and consistent. He wants to play with the material he "inherited", and to give it style...to make it pretty, and have the audience embrace the gorgeous craziness. And what's prettier than Paris or Florence?
I used to mind it, the lack of writing ethics, as I thought that there were too many plot holes, incoherences and continuity errors in the writing during previous seasons, and I'm still able to spot them here and there - for instance in this episode there's the flashback issue of Bedelia going to her apartment just after her conversation with Crawford (She's wearing the same red blouse and Bedelia would enevr wear that twice!)...to find a post-Will-stabbing-and-Abigail's-throat-slicing Hannibal there -, but I guess I'm more shallow and just enjoying the prettiness and the funny jokes now.
The writing was never tight and it never will. So yes, it makes little sense that Hannibal can assume the identity of an academic whose face must be known in certain circles and should be easy to find on google - and this is not an Internetless show given that Freddie's blog was part of season 1-, but it's so fun to have him ride that bike and say "bonsoir" that way to Dr Fell first, and Mrs Fell eventually.
Also,in the book, Hannibal had plastic surgery so he could pretend to be someone else when in Italy without raising any suspicion, but we don't want to change Hannibal's face when he's played by someone as handsome and charismatic as Mads Mikkelsen, do we?
Because he was so gorgeous and hot in "Antipasto"!
Mads' hair was great in the opening scenes in Paris.
In that scene, the music sounded like the growling of a predator, especially a wolf!
I especially liked that shot:
He has a beautiful back and black leather suits him, of course!
And then we were in Florence and he was wearing that nice white shirt!!!
He looks even better in white!
Mads definitley has nice shoulders but it is also the way he carries himself, especially his upper body...years of gymnastics and dance gave him what in French we call maintien (although the word was rather used for women, especially in the XVIIth Century).
Also he isn't that tall but he walks tall.
And of course those cheekbones and pouty lips are still there and still killers!
Methinks that the show is finally acknowledging that it's got a sex symbol.
So yes, some stuff lacked subtlety and was on the nose (Lucifer's picture merging with his face duringt he slide show), but I can go behind the theme of a seductive devil whose beauty and charm wins people over...
Hannibal doesn't look like a monster, and what is the most monstruous about him isn't his killing or his special cuisine, but the fact that he's a manipulative bastard. We saw it with Will and we're seeing again with Bedelia. His hold on her is psychological, not physical - although he could easily crush her -, and she tries to play psychological tricks with him too. It's a battle of wills.
Actually, most of the Bedelia/Hannibal stuff from the opener seemed to be a rehash of the Hannibal/Will thing...except that it began with her, when she killed her patient. Bedelia was Hannibal's pet project before he met Will. And now that Will broke his heart, he's trying to forget Will with her. She's a substitute. He tried to have Will embrace the dark side of the force....to have him participate. He even got Will to cross the line of murder, just like he probably had Bedelia's patient attack her so it would trigger a killing response from her. And now Bedelia is participating again...while she used to be only observing when she was his psychiatrist.
Being a woman, she also stands in for Alanna, especially in the scenes when Hannibal is in teaching mode (sometimes his lecture rings like a threat). And she's belissima enough to hold his aesthetical interest.
Of course, as the scenes with Dr. Abel Gideon pointed out, substitutes don't have the same appeal as the real thing. Hannibal would rather be at the table with Will Graham!
Funnily enough, Hannibal told Bedelia that Will "was not a subsitute for therapy", and doesn't answer when she asks "what was he?".
BTW the white and black interludes with Gideon feeding were great. I don't think they were flashbacks, rather fantasies, letting us know what's going on in Hannibal's mind...or rather memories he replayed and probably slightly re-arranged in his head as fantasies. In there Hannibal acknowledged something he would never do, that he misses Will Graham, that Will is the closest thing to an equal that he thinks he has. As much as he may like some people and wouldn't necessarily eat them, he doesn't consider them his equals, hence his line about cannibalism. Hannibal's ego is that big. He sees himself as super human, or at least above other humans.
In his own eyes, Hannibal would only become a cannibal if he ate Will...which sounds totally naughty!
For Hannibal " morality doesn't exist, only moral". It's a good line. No morality because he isn't bound by the rules made by/for his inferiors. But there's a moral because it's a fairytale ("once upon a time"!), and all fairytales end up with a moral. Hannibal is the wolf in the woods (or in the case of the opener, in the streets), searching and sniffing his preys (and he did sniff them in the Parisian salon) and they are all Little Red Riding, drawn to the sexy beast at the risk of being devoured!
Of course the pretty dandy-like Diammond wouldn't have minded being eaten in a certain way...but he was not Will!
In one way, Hannibal knows he is the monster in the fairytale, and he embraces that role, but part of him wants to be the prince dancing at the ball...excpet that Bedelia is not his princess, it's Will (and Hugh Dancy totally looks like a Disney character!). To Hannibal, Will is the perfect match, hence his sending his origami heart in a paper showing Vinci's drawing of the Vitruvian Man!
But let's go back to the problematic flashbacks that told us how Hannibal and Bedelia met again before...
As inconsistent as the scene is, timeline-wise, I'm glad we got it!!!! Hannibal dripping and naked definitely improved my day when I saw it the first time. I swear I didn't drool...much.
Bedelia was pointing a gun, and probably fearing for her life, but still she was totally checking him out at some point. And he knew it (remember that time he checked his ass in the mirror?), just like he knew that Anthony Diammond was interested when he met him in Paris. Sex is part of the game when it comes to manipulate others.
Mads' body is quite the kind of male body I love. But who wouldn't?
I'm sure that when Hannibal asked "May I get dressed" millions of viewers screamed "No!!!!!!!!!!!!". And again when Hannibal said "I let them see enough", there must have been millions to think "no, not enough". :- )
That said, freshly-dressed but still wet Hannibal was a great sight too. See my new icon.
Oh and despite the timeline issue regarding Bedelia, let's notice the detail of the bruise that Hannibal got from his fight with Jack.
I really like this picture:
Going on with the shallowness, I want Bedelia's wardrobe!!!!!
This coat!
That dress with the red top!
Hannibal had so much fun during that dinner, even though it wasn't "that kind of party"! He really was the cat playing with the mouse, or rather mice...but Diammond didn't know he was being played with, unlike Bedelia.
This one was nice too!
BTW it was fun that Hannibal used a bust of Aristotle to hit Anthony!
And the green hat, of course!
Too bad we didn't get to see close-ups of her shoes, I'm sure they were fantastic too.
So that was a delicious episode in terms of male beauty and fashion.
The only faux-pas in the episode, at least for me, was the food. I loath both snails and oysters. Yes, I'm French, but you'll never see me eat those.
Screecaps credits to: http://kissthemgoodbye.net/hannibal/index.php
I think that Hannibal the show is guilty of the same thing Hannibal the character is, that is choosing "aesthetics over ethics".
“You no longer have ethical concerns, Hannibal. Only aesthetical ones.” Bedelia said. I'm not sure that the show ever had ethical concerns actually. Fueller said so. He doesn't care about things being plausible and consistent. He wants to play with the material he "inherited", and to give it style...to make it pretty, and have the audience embrace the gorgeous craziness. And what's prettier than Paris or Florence?
I used to mind it, the lack of writing ethics, as I thought that there were too many plot holes, incoherences and continuity errors in the writing during previous seasons, and I'm still able to spot them here and there - for instance in this episode there's the flashback issue of Bedelia going to her apartment just after her conversation with Crawford (She's wearing the same red blouse and Bedelia would enevr wear that twice!)...to find a post-Will-stabbing-and-Abigail's-throat-slicing Hannibal there -, but I guess I'm more shallow and just enjoying the prettiness and the funny jokes now.
The writing was never tight and it never will. So yes, it makes little sense that Hannibal can assume the identity of an academic whose face must be known in certain circles and should be easy to find on google - and this is not an Internetless show given that Freddie's blog was part of season 1-, but it's so fun to have him ride that bike and say "bonsoir" that way to Dr Fell first, and Mrs Fell eventually.
Also,in the book, Hannibal had plastic surgery so he could pretend to be someone else when in Italy without raising any suspicion, but we don't want to change Hannibal's face when he's played by someone as handsome and charismatic as Mads Mikkelsen, do we?
Because he was so gorgeous and hot in "Antipasto"!
Mads' hair was great in the opening scenes in Paris.
In that scene, the music sounded like the growling of a predator, especially a wolf!
I especially liked that shot:
He has a beautiful back and black leather suits him, of course!
And then we were in Florence and he was wearing that nice white shirt!!!
He looks even better in white!
Mads definitley has nice shoulders but it is also the way he carries himself, especially his upper body...years of gymnastics and dance gave him what in French we call maintien (although the word was rather used for women, especially in the XVIIth Century).
Also he isn't that tall but he walks tall.
And of course those cheekbones and pouty lips are still there and still killers!
Methinks that the show is finally acknowledging that it's got a sex symbol.
So yes, some stuff lacked subtlety and was on the nose (Lucifer's picture merging with his face duringt he slide show), but I can go behind the theme of a seductive devil whose beauty and charm wins people over...
Hannibal doesn't look like a monster, and what is the most monstruous about him isn't his killing or his special cuisine, but the fact that he's a manipulative bastard. We saw it with Will and we're seeing again with Bedelia. His hold on her is psychological, not physical - although he could easily crush her -, and she tries to play psychological tricks with him too. It's a battle of wills.
Actually, most of the Bedelia/Hannibal stuff from the opener seemed to be a rehash of the Hannibal/Will thing...except that it began with her, when she killed her patient. Bedelia was Hannibal's pet project before he met Will. And now that Will broke his heart, he's trying to forget Will with her. She's a substitute. He tried to have Will embrace the dark side of the force....to have him participate. He even got Will to cross the line of murder, just like he probably had Bedelia's patient attack her so it would trigger a killing response from her. And now Bedelia is participating again...while she used to be only observing when she was his psychiatrist.
Being a woman, she also stands in for Alanna, especially in the scenes when Hannibal is in teaching mode (sometimes his lecture rings like a threat). And she's belissima enough to hold his aesthetical interest.
Of course, as the scenes with Dr. Abel Gideon pointed out, substitutes don't have the same appeal as the real thing. Hannibal would rather be at the table with Will Graham!
Funnily enough, Hannibal told Bedelia that Will "was not a subsitute for therapy", and doesn't answer when she asks "what was he?".
BTW the white and black interludes with Gideon feeding were great. I don't think they were flashbacks, rather fantasies, letting us know what's going on in Hannibal's mind...or rather memories he replayed and probably slightly re-arranged in his head as fantasies. In there Hannibal acknowledged something he would never do, that he misses Will Graham, that Will is the closest thing to an equal that he thinks he has. As much as he may like some people and wouldn't necessarily eat them, he doesn't consider them his equals, hence his line about cannibalism. Hannibal's ego is that big. He sees himself as super human, or at least above other humans.
In his own eyes, Hannibal would only become a cannibal if he ate Will...which sounds totally naughty!
For Hannibal " morality doesn't exist, only moral". It's a good line. No morality because he isn't bound by the rules made by/for his inferiors. But there's a moral because it's a fairytale ("once upon a time"!), and all fairytales end up with a moral. Hannibal is the wolf in the woods (or in the case of the opener, in the streets), searching and sniffing his preys (and he did sniff them in the Parisian salon) and they are all Little Red Riding, drawn to the sexy beast at the risk of being devoured!
Of course the pretty dandy-like Diammond wouldn't have minded being eaten in a certain way...but he was not Will!
In one way, Hannibal knows he is the monster in the fairytale, and he embraces that role, but part of him wants to be the prince dancing at the ball...excpet that Bedelia is not his princess, it's Will (and Hugh Dancy totally looks like a Disney character!). To Hannibal, Will is the perfect match, hence his sending his origami heart in a paper showing Vinci's drawing of the Vitruvian Man!
But let's go back to the problematic flashbacks that told us how Hannibal and Bedelia met again before...
As inconsistent as the scene is, timeline-wise, I'm glad we got it!!!! Hannibal dripping and naked definitely improved my day when I saw it the first time. I swear I didn't drool...much.
Bedelia was pointing a gun, and probably fearing for her life, but still she was totally checking him out at some point. And he knew it (remember that time he checked his ass in the mirror?), just like he knew that Anthony Diammond was interested when he met him in Paris. Sex is part of the game when it comes to manipulate others.
Mads' body is quite the kind of male body I love. But who wouldn't?
I'm sure that when Hannibal asked "May I get dressed" millions of viewers screamed "No!!!!!!!!!!!!". And again when Hannibal said "I let them see enough", there must have been millions to think "no, not enough". :- )
That said, freshly-dressed but still wet Hannibal was a great sight too. See my new icon.
Oh and despite the timeline issue regarding Bedelia, let's notice the detail of the bruise that Hannibal got from his fight with Jack.
I really like this picture:
Going on with the shallowness, I want Bedelia's wardrobe!!!!!
This coat!
That dress with the red top!
Hannibal had so much fun during that dinner, even though it wasn't "that kind of party"! He really was the cat playing with the mouse, or rather mice...but Diammond didn't know he was being played with, unlike Bedelia.
This one was nice too!
BTW it was fun that Hannibal used a bust of Aristotle to hit Anthony!
And the green hat, of course!
Too bad we didn't get to see close-ups of her shoes, I'm sure they were fantastic too.
So that was a delicious episode in terms of male beauty and fashion.
The only faux-pas in the episode, at least for me, was the food. I loath both snails and oysters. Yes, I'm French, but you'll never see me eat those.
Screecaps credits to: http://kissthemgoodbye.net/hannibal/index.php