Murder Most Boring

Hannibal

This show is a horror-fest.  Good stories involve the battle of darkness and light; good and evil.  Hannibal seems to say that there is only evil; or perhaps degrees of evil.  That there are only prey animals and predators.  That goodness and mercy are mere artifacts of the cortex which developed around the lizard brain.  It contains a celebration of intellect without soul.  Is this a reflection of our 21^st century world? 

The purported hero, Will Graham, is deeply invested in a dance of death with Hannibal Lecter.  He begins as a fragile weapon being used by the FBI to hunt serial killers.  He lives a solitary life, and loves his dogs.  Broken by his job, horrified by his own ability to see life as a serial killer sees it, he is exploited past the breaking point and thereafter tormented and manipulated by both his FBI handler and Hannibal.

There are almost no normal people in this show.  All epitomize victim or victimizer.  The pace is glacial.  The relationship between Hannibal and Will is almost overtly homoerotic.  The chess game between them involves who will live and who will die. 

The special effects and the music are expertly done; beautiful.  The actors are veterans who are excellent at their jobs.  The gore and violence are enough to satisfy the most bloodthirsty teenaged boy.  The serial killers who comprise most of the murder victims are satisfyingly evil and "deserve” to die. 

My main issue with this show is that it seems to see itself as an art film with everything but the subtitles.  Will Graham has become Hamlet.  He should either walk away or kill Hannibal.  He has been tormented by him enough that no jury would convict him, given the whole story.  That he is determined to match wits with Hannibal and bring  him to justice, or perhaps make Hannibal kill himself has become boring in the extreme. 

The only hope I have is that after all this time Will seems to have convinced Hannibal to reveal himself to the FBI agent.  And  yet, I am so fatigued by all the weirdness that I may never find out.  This is Twin Peaks with cannibalism but without the humor.  I really like Hugh Dancy (Will) but even he may not be enough to bring me back.

Missing the Mark

I have been following a few of the newer series as they come up and thinking about their appeal.  I am aware that the desired demographic of most series at this point includes an appreciation for sex, violence and blowing stuff up.  In fact, I was raised on war movies which were pretty violent, though usually without the sex.  And one of my favorite films of all time is Platoon. So it is isn’t that I dislike any of the above things per se.  The problem I am having is that somehow the storytelling is being sacrificed to mere sex, violence, and blowing stuff up; the more graphic and appalling they are, the better.

Some shows have succeeded in presenting at least one character with whom we can identify, or for whom we can cheer.  Too many of the newer ones have failed in that regard.

I have tried to watch Salem, for example.  I have no problem with throwing out the history and making witches real.  The irritating thing is that there is so much hatred of women in the writing that I can’t find a woman to root for, and most of the men are boring and/or despicable. 

I kept hoping that one of these powerful witches would pull out all the stops and just blast someone to smithereens, or that one of those who so hated and feared these women would just start killing them outright, without the pretense of religion. Not worthy of me as a nun, I suppose, but my Dad was a Marine.  I can appreciate decisive action.  If, on the other hand, they were trying to be complex and subtle, I totally missed the subtext.

The show somehow falls perilously close to satire, as if making fun of fear of powerful women, while reinforcing it at the same time.  It is excruciating to see fine actors and glorious production values wasted in this manner.  I have seen many of these same actors in other shows, and they are quite good.  They seem to be struggling to present an ensemble show, which is a plus.  But even the one who seems to be meant to be the hero, John Alden, a good actor in Nikita, fails to engage my interest.

I found myself thinking that it’s as if someone decided to take Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and satirize it.  (Which creates a real cognitive dissonance when you remember that it was a political response to McCarthyism.)  Then just to add originality, they decided to make the witches real, show off some cool special effects and throw in the elements of a teen angst drama played by adults.  Adults can’t really pull that off. 

I don’t have ADHD, but after two episodes I was becoming increasingly curious about a book or two I am in the middle of, and just plain bored with Salem’s not-quite tragic leading lady, et al.  I hope the show finds its footing, but I believe I will not be watching.