10 Best Hannibal Episodes

A TV series is only ever as good as its opening, and Hannibal succeeds in starting up its time on screen with a debut that is gripping, gritty and goes a long way in influencing the remainder of the series going forward. Introducing audiences to the brilliant, if slightly mentally troubled Will Graham, in one of the coolest opening sequences in television, Apéritif opens with Graham exploring a violent home invasion and using his 'gift' of reading crime scenes in a uniquely empathetic way to see things others don't.

The side effects of this level of empathy and understanding for the criminal mind is pretty heavy on Will's health however, so his new employer, Jack Crawford, employs a brilliant psychiatrist named Hannibal Lecter to keep an eye on him.

The episode revolves around the serial killer Garret Jacob Hobbs and his profound impact on Will's psyche going forward with the series. Hobbs had been using his daughter, Abigail, to lure teenage girls that looked a lot like her to kidnap and kill.

The final standoff between Will, Hobbs and Abigail is perhaps the most important in the entire series and Hannibal's tip to the Minnesota Shrike goes a long way in reaffirming to the audience that this doctor is not one Graham should be trusting.