10 Things You Learn Rewatching Hannibal

It’s a pretty simple recipe; take the most horrific thing you can think of, add some believable characters, some good twists and red herrings, and hey presto, a horror story. If only it were that simple, yet all these deranged plot lines must come from someone's twisted imagination?

Meet Bryan Fuller, the mind behind Hannibal. His productive brain has given us Heroes, American Gods and oodles of Star Trek, including Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Discovery, all relatively wholesome entertainment.

Let’s make no mistake though, Hannibal is horrific. From the human beehives, bodies used as living fertiliser for mushrooms and trees, to human totem poles, 'blood-eagled' human angels (see Vikings for more on that), Columbian ‘Neckties,’ and that’s just the first season.

Season three decides to see exactly how much we can stomach; a pig is used as a surrogate vessel for Mason and Margot Verger's insestuous offspring and Lecter decides to send Graham a Valentine of sorts in the shape of a human heart, having now taken up biological origami using parts of a cadaver. No one can accuse Fuller of lacking an imagination, his school report card would have made interesting reading.

Hannibal Lecter stories were never going to be gore-free but on rewatching Fuller’s three season puke-fest, it’s clear that there might be something amiss with the kind of mind who can dream up feeding someone their own legs for dinner. Pass the Gaviscon please…