NBC has finally done what federal agents Will Graham, Jack Crawford and Clarice Starling never could. The network stopped Hannibal Lecter.
Hannibal had always lived on the edge of cancellation, but the series starring our favorite cannibalistic serial killer has finally slipped off the edge. NBC announced on Monday that the third season of the psychological horror drama would be its last on the network. The show isn’t being pulled off the air and will complete its 13-episode run on Aug. 27. But ambitions for a fourth season (one that executive producer Bryan Fuller said would adapt the famous novel Red Dragon, in which the Hannibal Lecter character was introduced) have likely been thwarted.
@Lady_Lolita WE ARE INVESTIGATING OUR OPTIONS!
— Bryan Fuller (@BryanFuller) June 22, 2015
After its first season, Fuller was confident that another network — perhaps a streaming outlet like Netflix or Amazon (which already carries episodes on-demand) — would pick up Hannibal if NBC had canceled the series, but it’s no longer certain if that option is on the table. The show’s safety net was always its low cost for the network, as NBC licensed the production from French company Gaumont International Television. So moving Hannibal to another channel would be easier than if NBC produced the show in-house.
But as the ratings continued to decline at NBC and the show itself became increasingly abstract — making it difficult to draw new viewers and testing the patience of established fans — you have to wonder if Fuller has accepted his fate and decided to move on. (Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva points out that Fuller’s production deal expires after season three.)
Up next for the writer and producer is an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods for Starz, and with that project now green-lit, it’s possible that he wouldn’t have been able to devote as much time to Hannibal from here on out. Without Fuller at the controls, one of the most distinctive series on TV may have lost what gave it such a unique voice.
Yet maybe another showrunner would benefit the show, shake things up a bit and restore a more traditional narrative. Each episode of Hannibal had become very slow, and the season arcs extremely deliberate, focusing on the psychological battle almost a romance between Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) and Graham (Hugh Dancy), while favoring many artful close-ups of things like wine pouring, meat being sliced and raindrops hitting pavement to get the visually lush “pretentious art film” look Fuller wanted (especially from director Vincenzo Natali).
Some aspects of the series that made it so appealing early on — such as the procedural premise of pursuing serial killers and the forensic team that added levity and personality to what could be some very heavy, grisly storylines — have been almost completely abandoned. Hannibal was probably always going to distill itself to the relationship and battle between Lecter and Graham (with Laurence Fishburne’s Jack Crawford as sort of an anchor to reality), while also delving into the nature of true evil. But it’s sacrificed many of the supporting characters that made it such a rich show to get there.
Deep down, fans of Hannibal (#Fannibals) knew cancellation was an inevitability. The low ratings were just too formidable a hurdle to overcome and there was no sign of improvement, especially as the show doubled down on conceptual storytelling, impenetrably vague dialogue and psychological drama.
Even as a devoted fan myself, I would have a difficult time now convincing someone to begin watching the show. (Though I tried my best with a piece I wrote a couple of weeks ago.) I’m not even sure I fully believe in it anymore. Little has happened in the first three episodes of season three. Quite frankly, they’ve been kind of boring.
Obviously, the pace and stakes could pick up in the remaining 10 shows. (They have to, really. Unless we get full episodes of the camera trained on puddles of blood, snails crawling or Lecter and Graham thinking of each other from afar.) There is still so much untapped potential in this series, even as it works toward stories that have already been told (but could have been reimagined and explored more deeply for television). But Hannibal also has the feeling of a show that may have fallen too much in love with itself and needed a nudge to get the story moving, to give us a reason to tune in for the next episode.
Ultimately, it’s pretty amazing that such a challenging show will have lasted three seasons on an over-the-air broadcast network, rather than a cable network less afraid of difficult material that consistently pushed the visual and storytelling boundaries of serialized, episodic television. Hell, I’m grateful that I at least finally wrote about Hannibal before it was canceled. I hope that this final season on NBC finishes strong, reminding us of why we were seduced by the show and leaving us wanting more, springing to another network with renewed life. However, I fear that it’s going to end on a unfulfilling note, like the aforementioned puddle of blood that is simply left to coagulate.
Is somebody going to clean that up? No, just stare at the blood and contemplate the nature of evil and whether or not we are all capable of acknowledging our sinister impulses. Do you see your reflection in the puddle? There is no mop. Because even if you cleaned that blood up, the stain would always be there.