10 Best Crime TV Shows (Since Breaking Bad)

Playing Hannibal Lector after iconic turns from Anthony Hopkins and the ever-underrated Brian Cox might feel like something of a fool’s errand. Amazingly, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen might have given us the definitive Lector on the small screen. He takes more subtle an approach than his predecessors, and with time on his side builds a truly sinister and believable killer.

Hannibal serves as an origin story for the relationship between Will Graham (Hugh Dancy, also excellent) and his hitherto-undiscovered foe. Like in earlier films, Lector works with the FBI in tracking down other killers, but here he does so as a free man. The eventual clash between the two leads is a source of lingering tension, and even though we know more or less how it’s going to turn out, the build is handled expertly.

Combined with some great episodic cases and some of the most shocking gore you’ll see on TV (network TV, no less), Hannibal is horror TV with a touch of class. The creators managed to breathe fresh life into a character that had seemed depleted, and to make perhaps the best use of Thomas Harris’ work yet.