A quick review of tonight’s “Hannibal” coming up just as soon as I have a stack of gift cards…
“Potage” did a strong job of continuing to explore the themes of the series (what it means to kill someone, the emotional toll it takes, etc.), and the relationship between Lecter and Will, and it continued the story of Garrett Jacob Hobbs through the story of his daughter Abigail. Though we’ve had a standalone killer in last week’s mushroom man, it’s important for the series to depict the lingering aftermath of these horrific crimes.
Where I thought “Potage” struggled a bit was with some of its plotting, particularly in the ways in which a TV series is different than a movie. Lecter and Abigail somehow getting the body out of a house surrounded by cops, reporters and other looky-lous would be iffy in any format, but it was the material with Freddie Lounds that really left me scratching my head. Last week, Jack Crawford warns her that if she keeps writing about Will, he’ll have her arrested on obstruction of justice charges. This week, she keeps writing about him, and in other ways interfering with their work, yet she’s allowed to stay out there free? That just makes Jack look like the sort of man who makes empty threats, which he shouldn’t be, and makes the show look like one that wants to keep this character in play as long as possible because she creates conflict, even if the story they’ve told so far gives the FBI an easy out for sidelining her, at least for a while.
Still, the atmosphere and performances remain terrific and disturbing. But of the five episodes I’ve seen (these first three plus another two from later in the season), this one was the bumpiest.
What did everybody else think?