HANNIBAL: A Feast for... All Parts of Body

CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN ALL OF THE FIRST TWO SEASONS.




Original Post Date: Jan 29 2015

Last episode of 2nd season was one of the best season finale I have ever seen. And I've seen some of them.
Many things could happen, more importantly; many things could happen differently. What happened in the show was one of the most unpredictable, unique possible scenario anyone could dream of. For instance, we all thought something was going to happen between Jack and Hannibal. But in reality, all the previous events came together in a single point to form a singularity. This alone is simply mindblowing. Adding this to the getting away of Hannibal made this episode possible. I truly love flashforwards when they are used in place. Just like Breaking Bad's 2nd season. There is a known fact in horror genre: Scaring in plain sight but doing it slowly has been much harder and worthy of respect than simple jump-scares. Horror, or terror, in Hannibal can't be created by simple momentary scares. You have to spread it to whole 13 episodes. The magnitude of 13th episode doesn't come from 13th episode, but the whole 2nd season. 13th episode is actually made of the entire 2nd season. 50 minutes is 650 minutes.

In Hannibal, all of the senses of power, death, stress, tension, excitement, shock, amazement came together in this confrontation. But to feel this first we need to acknowledge it. By acknowledging I mean to feel the character. Not just Will, Jack; Hannibal too, even silly Alana. When there's good character development, you find yourself caring for anyone; even for the ones you feel less of them and you are affected by their destiny. This show made me think this; the side I support is obvious, 'but what would happen if I was Hannibal in that episode'? Despite my lack of support for Hannibal I thought about this because Hannibal is a character who connects himself with the viewer as much as Will. Maybe even more than Will, because he manages to connect himself to you despite his characteristics.

Now when this confrontation took place, you find yourself placing yourself in everybody's shoes in milliseconds, and your mind is exposed to shocks after shocks. Other than feeling the sensation of the characters, you get to realize; the resolution of the confrontation will be vital. You know, that, whatever happens will be a great change and this will be a shock to you. Besides feeling the sensation of characters, you also need to feel this. The screenplay does also make this possible. Who will die, or will not die, or what will happen to them is unknown to you. But this does not just come from unpredictability of events, this comes from the unbelieveably realistically depiction of the events. Thus, you believe wholeheartedly that the outcome will not be caused by a fictional screenplay, but by natural results of events. This is just like the collision of two unstoppable forces resulting in an unknown outcome. You wide open your eyes, and watch the particles flying everywhere to guess where they will land. But there is so much movement that while you were following one single particle and still far from guessing, the whole event ends in the blink of an eye, leaving you shocked by the result. 

I can't describe the thrill I had while I waited for the 13th episode. Because it bursted out intelligence, was made with the full capacity of a human brain. But I've seen tons, many, action, thriller, horror movies that didn't even raise my heart rate a single beat. I see one common thing in all these genres: The thriller. But in truth, I describe it a thriller in a "horror", "terror" level. Clearest characteristics in this is the wait. The overwhelming force of realism. Many action movies can't do that, or know that, and are ignorant to that.
That is why there's such a 21st Century phenomena as action movies that bore us to death. Of course, the cinematography do also play a great part in this. Cinematography in an average action movie is give or take pre-defined. Somewhat pleasing, but unrisky decisions are made. Characters and events are two dimensional. For instance, very few movies have had as much people die as the number of people who had died in the movie '2012', but who wept for those who died? Yet a single person can do that to you. "A death is a tragedy, a million death is just statistics". This isn't just restricted to death either. Thriller without action is sometimes more terrifying. It all depends on realism.
If I asked about the best thriller moments of the cinema history to you, everyone would answer differently. Some would list some horror films, even some action scenes would be mentioned. But besides many possible examples, the Monolith scene in '2001' would be a strong candidate for top spots, as it is an example of how a thrill emotion would ascend to a horror, terror level with no action at all.

Hannibal exactly has this thriller in its 13th episode. It all depends on the imagination. What we see moves us to the horror and terror feelings by using our imaginations and our feelings through what we imagine; more than by using what we see. And we live the feelings we wouldn't live, had we been there in flesh and blood.
I take the issue of relativity of time in Einstein's Theory of Relativity very seriously, but whatever happens, the time in reality is only infinite for just a second and then we can forget that feeling of infinity. In this work of fiction, the infinity of time spreads to an infinite width and it simply doesn't ever end.


Many people are able to watch many average action scenes with excitement, but in turn could be clueless in such 'next level' works. And I can sleep through many average action scenes but in return I can fell to the ground before swinging a single sword swing in the independency war that my heart declared in such 'next level' works.
Of course this was the peak moment. What many works fail to preserve is this level. In fact this can lead to the request of taking the "endings" subject in a philosophical and deeper meaning and examining them. Hannibal too may not preserve this but the trailer of 3rd season seemed different like never before, and it seems to me that we will be seeing a lot more 2nd season finales.

Some try to understand Black Stag. I don't see limiting the Black Stag to a single thing or trying to solve it with a single thing right. In fact, even trying to solve it isn't right. Even to talk about it is only to a point. Black Stag must be felt. Black Stag will always exist until Hannibal dies. I never really tried to understand it. I don't think it can be understood. I don't mean that it is meaningless, but in Quantum Mechanics there are things we just can't possibly know even if we had limitless technology and resources. Black Stag, to me, is just like that.

Some say there is a gloom in the show. Sure, there is a gloom. But why is this a bad thing? This is an artistic choice. Even if the whole world was shown gloomy, which isn't being done so, we couldn't argue. This is one of the most fundamental steps of 'suspension of disbelief'. Of course each person like some things averagely more and some averagely less. But personally I liked some works in the past despite the fact that they were not my style. Hannibal can more than easily become one of these works for someone who doesn't like the style.

Say, in Matrix eveyone is super-serious, but the moment you question this it is over. Matrix is Matrix because of this. Not despite this. And Hannibal is Hannibal just the way it is now. Remove the color filter or bell ring sound effects from Hannibal and it is no more Hannibal.
As rare it may be, sometimes I too dislike gloom, but this is not about the style itself but the way it is used. Hannibal, with the greatest cinematography of the world's television history is to me the definition of perfection but someone with an unmatching rate of frequency with the show's screenplay could start to question this. Just like someone who would question The Matrix.

Hannibal is one of the peak points of the modern art of storytelling. In such a story that dependant of the resolution of the events, being both "deep", and "event-free" is a truly mind-bending achievement. I think there's no other work I've seen in my life that gave this exact feeling to me. There's only one work which is also a psychological story with also a psychologist in centre, with also bell ring sound effect; an anime called "Ghost Hound"... but other than that, even tough I had many different beautiful feelings in many films and tv shows, I didn't exactly live this feeling in a tv show or a feature film before. Of course I'm not just talking about the thriller here, otherwise I wouldn't not mention 'Lost'... but such a time-stopping work of fiction that makes you feel like you are almost an arm's reach away from answers to most incredible questions in the world is what I'm talking about.