Ever the eloquent performer for his own implied audience, Hannibal Lecter tells newcomer Anthony Dimmond (Tom Wisdom) that “one can appreciate another’s words without dissecting them…though, on occasion, dissection is the only thing that will do.” It is a piece of dialog which epitomizes the writing in Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal: playful, precise and provocative. Like the violence that the series depicts, one can attempt the fool’s errand of shrugging off the layering of the dialog. You can remind yourself that this is just television and none of it is real just as easily as you can think that Hannibal talking about dissection is simply a fun wink to the viewer. But the horror of Hannibal’s violence is inescapable; so, too, is the depth of meaning in its philosophizing. We cannot help but dissect things (this website and countless others like it would not exist otherwise). Yet, Hannibal’s first point—that appreciation…
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