10 Things You Learn Rewatching Hannibal

Hannibal sliced his way onto our screens in 2013, giving us the third iteration of the cannibal psychiatrist, now played by Danish star Mads Mikkelsen. Unfortunately for us, the show was cancelled after only three seasons, leaving fans desperate for more.

Mikkelsen proved he was more than adequate, bringing much more than just a new face to the character of Lecter, all with the help of show runner Bryan Fuller and a superb supporting cast including Hugh Dancy, Caroline Dhavernas and Laurence Fishburne. With rumours beginning to surface of a fourth season in development (and a possible spinoff Clarice being shopped around the networks), this is a perfect time to rewatch Hannibal from the very beginning and discover all the grisly details and recipe ideas that one might have been missed the first time round.

Fuller's ‘cooking’ is not for everyone’s palette and if Hannibal got any saltier we’d all be lying down on our very own therapist’s Chaise Lounge, so what can be learned upon rewatching Hannibal? How to take on Lecter and survive? Cannibal romance? With these burning questions and many others examined in detail, it’s time to take a seat at Lecter's dining table once more, if you dare…

Throughout the books, films and television series combined, there are very few people who have met Hannibal Lecter and survived to tell the tale. One notable exception is Barney, an orderly at the facility holding Lecter after capture, in The Silence Of The Lambs.

According to Hannibal (2001), Barney survives by simply being courteous and polite to Lecter, a life lesson to us all if ever there was one. Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) is polite enough, yet as the lead investigator into Lecter's murders, conflict was inevitable. However, something before unseen happened during this story: Crawford fights Lecter and survives – twice.

Crawford first takes on Lecter at the beginning and end of season two (same fight over two episodes), in a brutal kitchen set knife fight, leaving both half dead and Crawford hiding in the fridge with a piece of glass protruding from his neck. Incredibly, Crawford survives the attack. The second time sees Fishburne going full Morpheus and taking on Lecter mano-a-mano in a Florence library during season three. This time Crawford drives an antique hook into Lecter's leg and puts his face through some glass display cabinets for good measure.

No one claims to have taken on the cannibal in a fistfight and survived, no one but Crawford.