Yesterday NBC premiered what promises to become one incredible ride through the mind of one of the most troubled man in literature, as well as a quick view of one of the most well known serial killers in fiction. I'm talking about the superb Hannibal, a series that could only be delivered by Brian Fuller. Note: This review contains spoilers about the episode, as well as some clues of what may happen during the rest of the series. Plot Synopsis: Troubled criminal profiler Will Graham is asked to work for the FBI in order to catch a serial killer that seems to be hunting down several girls in the State. However, when the case seems to be very complicated, agent Jack Crawford enlists the help of no other than Dr. Hannibal Lecter. When I first heard about this show I couldn't have been more thrilled. Something that has never been explored in the movies (or not too much) is the great character that it is Will Graham. He only appears in one novel of the 4 Hannibal books, and yet he manages to become one of my favorite characters in the story. And the reason for this it is because of how his mind works, in the books is mentioned and we can see how it does what it does, however when we first see him in the book he already had a troubled experience that left him some scars, and we couldn't really see how he was before said incident. What this series is trying to achieve is to show us how Will Graham was before that, and how his character develops through the cases he solves with the help of Dr. Lecter. However it appears that the focus of the show will be Will Graham, and not Hannibal Lecter. Which brings me to my next point; every movie we've seen involving Hannibal Lecter shows him as some kind of villain, which is true. However none of the showed him at that point in his life in which he not only helped with the FBI, but also he was a renowned psychiatrist. I hope this series will deliver and will show a new point of view on the character. And from what I could see in this first episode, I will not be disappointed. In the episode, we see Will trying to catch a serial killer who has a particular fascination towards certain type of victims. Along the way it is explored how Will Graham is seen by different people; from Alana Bloom, a colleague in the same university in which he studies; Jack Crawford, his boss in the FBI; and Hannibal Lecter, his partner during the investigation. What makes Will Graham stand out over other characters in the story is the fact that he can not only relate to the killer, but actually assume his point of view, which allows him to understand them much better, which doesn't please him in the least. Along the way we meet Jack Crawford, an FBI agent who seems to be a little bit reckless at times, but who is in the novels a very close friend of Will Graham, in this episode he just met him for the first time so it would be very nice to see how their relationship develops. We also meet Dr. Alana Bloom, a psychiatrist that knows Will Graham and it's a friend of his, but she prefers not to spend much time with him, since she would start developing some kind of professional interest towards him. And finally, we meet Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who comes to the story to help Will Graham to create a profile of the killer.
The crimes committed by the killer of this episode are really gruesome. Despite how much TV has changed in recent years it's still quite shocking to see the crimes that happened in this series. Some scenes are really violent (especially in the last part of the story) but it has a purpose in the end. Another thing to be remarked is the way the series show how Will Graham's mind works, it does this really cool transition from the scene of the crime to the moment before it, even showing Will performing the crime (which explains why he isn't a normal person) which is a very nice addition to the way the story is being told. The way the story develops can feel a little bit rushed, however. At first I thought they would have a whole case the whole season, however it appears that they would be catching a killer every week. And while it's really well done in this episode I can't help but wishing that this case was longer, that we could see more of the process of how Graham managed to find the killer and catch him. But that's just my personal opinion. I really can't stress out how much this series is a really big event for me. I've been a fan of Hannibal for such a long time and this series will make a deep analysis of one of my favorite characters of all time. Brian Fuller, the creator of this series sadly has this fame of having most of his series cancelled after a couple of seasons. However, on this case he's dealing with one of the most popular characters in fiction, which might help with the audiences. Not only that, but the plans he has for the series are something worth mentioning. Spoiler Alert: According to NBC's panel at comic-con last year, he plans that the series will run for 7 seasons. The first one following Will Graham's Bromance with Dr. Lecter, and the second season showing the "horrible breakup" between the characters (most likely because of Graham's discovery of Lecter's actions, although they could actually have some kind of fight) and the 4th season will be an adaptation of Harris' first book "The Red Dragon." Fuller definitely knows what he's doing. I really can't wait until the next episode, and I'm really anxious to see what kind of adventures Will and Hannibal will have in the future.