10 Reasons Hannibal Was The Best Show On TV

Hannibal expertly plays on the idea of dream logic, the notion that everything is okay and makes sense until you wake up. Not content with simply following the repercussions of the murders that take place, Hannibal instead looks at the corrosive effect it has on its characters’ psyches, and how this alters perceptions of what is real and what is imagined.

In the same way a dream, when scrutinised, makes no sense out of its dream-time context, the events of Hannibal often make no sense when taken out of the context of the show as a whole. This twisted perspective lends Hannibal a modus operandi far different from anything else on television.

Hannibal also presents the dreams themselves as realistic of what occurs in an actual dream (or nightmare), in that nothing is cohesive or logical. Take the visions of Hannibal Lecter Will Graham has in his own nightmares and hallucinations. Hannibal is presented to Will as not one, but many things—from a wild stag to the black, antlered beast-come-man in the picture shown above. A lesser show would’ve had Hannibal appear to Will as one identifiable creature—a sort of literal, human version of a leitmotif. But Hannibal the show understands that this would be too convenient, and that the real fear in nightmares comes from their unpredictability and their capacity for change.