Beautifully shot and well-acted, 'Hannibal' Series 1 is an incomplete dish, though delicious in parts.

The writers rely heavily on clichés to drive the narrative along, especially regarding characterisation and dialogue.

For me, this is another 'magic detective' drama with a serial killer cliché.

By 'magic detective', I mean that age-old trope of having a detective who can essentially solve crimes no other person could do, utilising a sort of 'magic' or 'superpower'. They often have an equal and opposite flaw, to balance the character and create drama and tension.

Here are some examples: Sherlock Holmes - powers: incredible perception and deduction / weaknesses: antisocial, drug addiction

Monk - powers: incredible perception and deduction / weaknesses: social anxiety, OCD

Medium's Alison Dubois - powers: supernatural perception

The Mentalist's Patrick Jane - powers: incredible perception and manipulation

White Collar's Neal Caffrey - powers: master manipulator / weaknesses: corruptible, disloyal

Lie to me's Cal Lightman: incredible perception and master manipulator

Colombo - powers: incredible deduction, perception and master manipulator

Perception's Daniel Pierce - powers: incredible perception

Ghost Whisperer's Melinda Gordon - powers: supernatural perception

Unforgettable's Carrie Wells - powers: incredible deduction, perfect memory

Death Note's L - powers: incredible perception and deduction

Body of Proof's Megan Hunt - powers: incredible perception and deduction

Numb3rs' Charles Eppes - powers: incredible deduction

So on and so on... In Hannibal it's 'total empathy' which gives William Graham incredible powers of perception and deduction. Yawn.

Hannibal isn't wholly good or wholly bad; there are some great sequences, creative visualisations, strong performances. But it's hampered by some silly writing and clichéd narrative, in my opinion.