Hannibal Is Dead, and It’s All NBC’s Fault

Bryan Fuller’s TV series Hannibal stars Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the cannibal psychiatrist made famous by Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs. But unlike the film, which often seems all too real, the TV version features enough humor and whimsy to draw in viewers like fantasy author Kat Howard, who wouldn’t normally watch a show about a serial killer.

“It’s surreal, it’s nightmare logic,” Howard says in Episode 156 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “At the end of each episode I feel like I’ve been wound up like that guy who got turned into a cello.”

The announcement this week that NBC is canceling the show was disappointing but not surprising. Hannibal’s ratings are low for network television, and it almost got the axe after Season 1, only to be saved by a fan campaign. TV critic Theresa DeLucci faults NBC for not doing more to engage the show’s devoted fanbase.

“I don’t think NBC really understands the kind of show they have,” she says. “I don’t think they understand social media and their fanbase and how [fans] use social media. I don’t think they’ve been that helpful to the fandom.”

Science fiction editor John Joseph Adams is also frustrated with the network. Given the show’s obvious excellence, he thinks NBC should have stuck with Hannibal longer and done more to support it.

“It sort of highlights the failure of the network model,” he says.

There is still hope for Hannibal fans. Showrunner Bryan Fuller says the odds are 50 percent that the show will continue on another platform.

Theresa DeLucci is eager to see how Fuller plans to adapt material from Red Dragon, and hopes the story doesn’t end here.

“It would be such a shame,” she says. “I think I would always have a Hannibal-shaped hole in my heart.”

Listen to our complete interview with Kat Howard, Theresa DeLucci, and John Joseph Adams in Episode 156 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.

John Joseph Adams on Hannibal Lecter:

“The fight at the end of Season 2 is such a beautiful, wonderful fight. I can’t even think of another one-on-one fight like that that I can compare it to, that felt more realistic and visceral than that. That just felt like two people really fighting each other—even if Hannibal maybe seemed like he has super abilities that we didn’t know he had. But that was still really cool to see, because everything else he does is so exceptional, why should we be surprised that he can also throw down? … One of my favorite lines is where Hannibal is sitting at a table with [someone], and he’s eating [that person’s] leg, and Hannibal says, ‘This isn’t cannibalism. It’s only cannibalism if we’re equals.’ That so perfectly encapsulates what Hannibal is about. I just love it.”

Theresa DeLucci on female fans:

“It’s surprising, given the nature of the show—’based on the Thomas Harris novel with the cannibals’—that it became such a huge hit with the female audience, and I think part of that started on Tumblr. Because the show is so visually arresting, it’s easy to take different images from it and re-post and re-blog them, and build a fan ring around it. So it had easy marketing built in there, among that community. But I think what really draws female fans to it is this ‘romance’ between two beautiful male leads. They have a chemistry, in a certain way. Will has more chemistry with Hannibal than he does with Alana Bloom. … And then you’ve got Freddie Lounds … this stylish, smart, blogger. … I think that struck a chord with some female fans, and the Freddie fandom is strong on its own.”

Kat Howard on Hannibal as fantasy:

“I’m sort of watching this as a straight up [fantasy] genre show at this point, and to me it feels like we’re watching a really twisted fairy tale. In the most recent episode you’ve got Will walking through the dark woods over toward a castle, and I’m like, ‘You made this episode just for me, didn’t you, Bryan Fuller?’ And the line that Hannibal and [another character] trade, ‘All sorrows can be borne if you put them in a story.’ I feel like we’re watching a fairy tale right now. And the Italian setting, and all of the gilt and the churches and the art, and Hannibal yelling out Dante across a crowded dinner party. It’s like, this is my show this year. The change in atmosphere has really just made it perfect for me this year.”

David Barr Kirtley on Hannibal’s wardrobe:

“Hannibal is just such a compelling character—the way he dresses, and the way he talks, and the way he fights, and the way he cooks. … It’s funny, because there’s a part where they say, ‘Hey Hannibal, we need you to turn over your whole wardrobe to us so we can search it all for hairs and stuff like that.’ And that must be about 500 suits. I just imagine they must need a fleet of U-Haul trucks to carry his whole wardrobe in. But also, he never wears the same suit twice, so maybe that’s part of it. He wears each of those suits for one day and then he throws it out, and then he doesn’t need to worry about anyone collecting any evidence off of it.”