10 Reasons Hannibal Was The Best Show On TV

It’s a hard act to follow Brian Cox. It’s an even harder act to follow an Oscar-winning Anthony Hopkins in a performance riddled with iconography, in one of only three films to win the Big Five (picture, director, actor, actress, screenplay) at the Academy Awards. 

That was the task awaiting Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen as he stepped into the venerable Dr’s shoes, but now, three seasons in, it’s hard to imagine anybody else in the role (Hopkins included), such is the exquisite nature of Mikkelsen’s performance—where every line, every word, every syllable is delivered with a surgical precision, a stridency that suggests a connoisseur’s devotion to his craft.

It is a lifetime-best performance from an artist always at the top of his game, and not a word is wasted; not a mark is missed; not one moment is sullied by anything even close to a tonal misstep. (It helps that he looks the part too, his cheekbones art in their own right; his superb suits fitted and worn to absolute perfection). Despite everything that has been mentioned, Hannibal could never have worked without the right Lecter, and it stands as a masterstroke that Fuller and co. cast the now inimitable Hannibal that they have. 

This is his show, this is his design.