HANNIBAL -- "The Number of the Beast is 666" Episode 312 -- Pictured: (l-r) Raul Esparza as Dr. Chilton, Hugh Dancy as Will Graham -- (Photo by: Brooke Palmer/NBC) Let’s get one thing straight immediately: “The Number of the Beast is 666” is a non-stop tour de force, from beginning to…
By most measures Amy Schumer is an unlikely It Girl. She is crude and often vulgar. She does not look like or present herself as a vapid, bleached-blond wastrel. She speaks bluntly and frankly about the very system that regularly anoints It Girls, and what she has to say is sharply critical. And yet here…
Photo by Vulture How will Don Draper die? Throughout the final episodes of Mad Men, which aired the second half of its final season this past spring, it was this question, and increasingly speculative answers to it, that dominated so much discussion of the show. As is so often the case…
HANNIBAL -- "...and the Beast from the Sea" Episode 311 -- Pictured: Hugh Dancy as Will Graham -- (Photo by: Ian Watson/NBC) As Hannibal has adapted Red Dragon proper, it has been as consistently great as we’ve come to expect from the series, but it has also been something new: conventional.…
Given its parallel title, it should be no surprise that "And the Woman Clothed in Sun” is, more or less, a direct continuation of the preceding episode, even more so than this highly serialized final run of episodes. Mostly, what’s here is further explication of Francis Dolarhyde, specifically and more generally, a further explication of…
By now, the project of what is essentially Bryan Fuller’s version of a Red Dragon miniseries is abundantly clear: Hannibal is portraying two parallel and intersecting stories about the lasting effects that a man like Hannibal Lecter and his various, horrible misdeeds can have on the world around him. That’s a thread that runs through…
HANNIBAL -- "The Great Red Dragon" Episode 308 -- Pictured: Caroline Dhavernas as Alana Bloom -- (Photo by: Brooke Palmer/NBC) There’s really no getting around the fact that with “The Great Red Dragon,” Hannibal has become an entirely different animal. While it’s always had elements of adaptation to it, especially in…
In Italian cuisine the digestivo is had last, and its purpose is right there in the name: essentially a nightcap. It’s a small drink used to aid digestion of the meal. “Digestivo” is more a binge than a nightcap, but it does such a beautiful job of synthesizing not just the preceding season, but the…
Well. That certainly took an unexpected turn. As the season (and series) begins to wind down, I imagined “Dolce” to be a sure shot; obviously Hannibal was on the ropes, and Will and Jack would close in on him once and for all, setting the stage for the adaptation proper of Red Dragon that will…
HANNIBAL -- "Contorno" Episode 305 -- Pictured: (l-r) Fortunato Cerlino as Inspector Pazzi, Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter -- (Photo by: Sophie Giraud/NBC) “Contorno” presents an interesting question with regard to episodic television writing. To wit: how much does an absolutely killer final act compensate for an episode that otherwise doesn’t…
