REVIEW: Hannibal (NBC) "Savoureux" Season 1 Finale or "Friends, Romans, Countrymen...and Abigail Hobbs"

UPDATE: Bryan Fuller Interview About Season Finale

Season 1 is officially over.  This means that a lot of elk wranglers will be out of work this summer. Honestly, the elk imagery on this show is at the "beat a dead horse" level. Enough.

The show opens with Will dreaming about an elk with a man's head.  (See below).  If I had these kinds of dreams, I would avoid sleep at all costs by drinking coffee by the gallon.

When Will wakes up from his gruesome nightmare, Will vomits up a human ear in his kitchen sink.  He calls Hannibal Lecter for help (bad idea) which quickly leads to Will's arrest for the murder of Abigail "Freckles" Hobbs.

The "Encyclopedia Brown" Syndrome

I do not like this version of the Will Graham character. He is constantly miserable. He seems very weak-minded and always caves in when his boss, Jack Crawford, is pushing him to his limits.  Will goes around telling other characters things like "I don't trust myself to know what is real." They shouldn't let him drive a car, let alone hunt down serial killers.

Will Graham, and later Dr. Lecter, have what I call "The Encyclopedia Brown" syndrome.  The police have to go to Will (and later Dr. Lecter) because he is the ONLY person who can possibly crack the case.  You have to accept this premise, if you are going to enjoy the "Hannibal" universe.

What would Thomas Harris' books Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs be without having Dr. Lecter as a consultant?  Unlike miserable Will Graham, Dr. Lecter gets a kick out of investigating gruesome serial murders. He loves to play mind games with the investigators ("quid pro quo") and he enjoys trading information for small freedoms and privileges. 

Again with the handcuffs? 

Haven't we learned anything from Dr. Gideon?  We saw two episodes where the same middle-aged, somewhat out of shape man busted free from handcuffs and went on a killing spree. What are the odds of Will, who looks as frail as a 90 year old woman with brittle bone disease, busting out of the handcuffs?

Will in handcuffs

You won't believe what happens next...

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REVIEW: Hannibal (NBC) "Entree" - Eddie Izzard as Dr. Gideon (Part 1)

Dr. Gideon returns tonight.  I'm going to re-watch his first episode "Entree".

OPENING SCENE/MEET DR. GIDEON
If you are shocked at the "twist" at the end of this scene, then you are as naive as this guy...

Opening:  ECU on sweaty man lying motionless on the floor.  Pull back to reveal that he is behind bars being watched closely by 5 people (3 officers, 2 orderlies). No one is rushing in to save him.  "This is your final opportunity to comply. On your feet, Dr. Gideon, or we will restrain you." After checking his pulse, they order a gurney.

CUT TO: Dr. Gideon on a stretcher in an empty, darkened infirmary where a solitary nurse is hooking him up to a heart monitor.  Where are the five people who were watching him a moment ago?  They were so suspicious of Dr. Gideon lying motionless his cell, why aren't they suspicious now?

You won't believe what happens next...

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REVIEW: Hannibal (NBC) "Roti" - Dr. Gideon - Part II

When Eddie Izzard, a very smart British stand-up comic, first showed up as Dr. Gideon in “Entrée”, I had high hopes. He has the intelligence, presence, and acting ability to create a memorable villain. When we see Dr. Gideon this week, he is threatening to sue Dr. Chilton for making him think he is the Chesapeake Ripper. I thought we would get some genuine excitement from Dr. Gideon, not a frivolous lawsuit.  

Even if Dr. Chilton planted the idea in Dr. Gideon’s brain, Dr. Chilton’s thumbs didn't gouge out a nurse’s eyes, kill her, and mutilate her dead body by impaling it with everything that was not nailed down in the infirmary. For some reason, this preposterous lawsuit is being heard by a judge (give me a break) and a handcuffed Dr. Gideon gets out of his cell again to be transported to court.

Also, does anyone remember what happened the last time Dr. Gideon was in handcuffs? (Hint:  It involves eye gouging, murder, and mutilation in an infirmary.)

There is no way that a person could break out of handcuffs twice.

You won't believe what happens next...

REVIEW: Hannibal (NBC) "Buffet Froid" or Hannibal Flintstone

Seriously.  When is the last time you saw someone eat a piece of meat this big outside of "The Flintstones" cartoon?

Tonight's menu:  Giant Leg

REVEW: 

For the first time in the series, I could identify with Will Graham.  He kept checking his watch, I kept checking my watch. He feels like he is losing time, I feel like I am losing time. Most of the scenes just drag on and on.  Will seems to have the same few conversations with the same few people (Hannibal, Jack Crawford, annoying Asian CSI lady). Blah, blah, blah.

I know a lot of people already love this show but I am not one of them. This week's opening was a generic "girl alone in a big house gets murdered" situation.  There is nothing new or fresh about this scene.  

After a lackluster first half, there is this amazing scene.  Will goes back to re-examine the crime scene late at night.  He slowly searches the crime scene with his flashlight. He shines the flashlight...

on the dresser...

on the bedside table...and

...under the bed

Heart attack. The murderer is crouched silently under the bed like a praying mantis. Once she sees Will, she skitters backwards under the bed.  The bed flips over and she runs past Will.   As she runs by, he grabs her arm and a hunk of dead skin pulls away from her rotting flesh.

A few questions...

#1:  The murderer, Georgia, has a medical condition that makes her unable to recognize faces. People look like they are wearing masks. That doesn't give her carte blanche to go around hacking up people's faces. You can't go around stabbing everything you can't recognize. I don't understand string theory or PBS's "The McLaughlin Group" but you don't see me stabbing them in the face.

There is a character on Season 4 of "Arrested Development" with a similar condition.  Lindsay's new boyfriend has face blindness. Somehow he is able to muddle through life without hiding under beds and running amok with a scalpel.

#2:  Who needs million dollar MRI machines, if Hannibal can smell encephalitis?  I am sure many members of the medical community could overlook his little cannibal "quirk" if he would lend them his nose. Win-Win?

REVIEW: BEHIND THE CANDELABRA Starring Bugs Bunny as Liberace ("I Wish My Brother George Was Here")

Who the hell wants to see a Liberace movie?  Is there an audience for that?  I am having flashbacks to 1988 when there were inexplicably two Liberace made-for-tv movies competing with each other.  Surely, those two movies are more than enough for a lifetime.

There is some major star power in this movie.  Steven Soderbergh directed it and it stars Michael Douglas and Matt Damon.  It was made to play in theaters but it was deemed, and this was after the success of Brokeback Mountain, too gay.

                                                                                        Give the guy his dignity!  

I am not denying that Liberace was an excellent piano player and showman extraordinaire but enough is enough. Let the guy rest in peace. 

Which defunct celebrity will get the movie treatment next?  Charo, Jaye P. Morgan, Rip Taylor (the guy who throws confetti over himself), the Kooky Lend Me Your Comb Guy, the San Diego Chicken?

This is the only Liberace movie you ever need to see (below):

Bugs Bunny as Liberace

UPDATE:  Started watching "Under the Candelabra" and only made it to the 29 minute mark.  After a passionate (and extremely sweaty) lovemaking session in bed, Matt Damon's character asked Liberace "How do you stay hard for so long?"  BLECH!!!

Liberace's fan base consists of little old ladies who no not want to believe that he was gay. If one of them has a heart attack from watching this film, the blood is on your hands, HBO.

8 Unaired Episodes of "Don't Trust the B-- in Apt 23" on HuluPlus

Hooray! Hulu Plus is playing the 8 unaired episodes of "Don't Trust the B--- in Apartment 23". Where's my credit card?

I can count the shows I have ever enjoyed on ABC on one hand.  First, "Bosom Buddies" with Tom Hanks.  I remember crying when a Presidential State of the Union Address bumped the show off the air for one night.  (Priorities, people!)  Two, "My So-Called Life" one of the best teen dramas ever + Jordan Catalano.

UPDATE:  Paid the $7.99 and put the shows in the queue.  There is immediately an ad.  The show starts... and it's Charo in heaven playing flamenco guitar. You used to be able to see this hogwash for FREE on the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon and ABC's "The Love Boat" (two shows I could not turn off fast enough).  According to the internet, Charo was on "The Love Boat" 8 times.  "Don't Trust the B" is an ABC show.  Is it possible that she really cuchi cuchi-ed some bigwig at ABC in the 1970s?

Having Charo be someone's hero/role model is not believable, especially in this day and age.  It is like saying the one book you would choose to be stranded on a desert island with is a free charity newsie or a Bazooka Joe bubble gum wrapper.  Anyone with any sort of sense would choose almost anything else.  

Flesh Angels & Human Cellos! NBC's "Hannibal" is Too Gross For The Rusty Walrus

Who knew that one of the big three networks would make a prime-time show that is too gross (for me) to watch?

I knew that watching NBC's "Hannibal" would entail cannibalism.  Fine. I did not sign up for flesh angels (don't ask) and a human cello (really, don't ask).

I loved Jonathan Demme's "Silence of the Lambs" but watching each subsequent spin-off has resulted in disappointment.   Anthony Hopkins created one of the most charismatic movie monsters of all time.  Hopkins is chewing the scenery in the movie (when he is not chewing flesh).

This is the sort of cannibal show that is more my speed: