I'm not entirely sure where I stand on Hannibal, but having managed to catch every episode so far I think I've come to like it. It has incredibly strong cinematography, easily the highlight of the show; the visions, projections, and hallucinations of its lead character, Will Graham, expertly conceived and executed to convey an eerie unease that TV usually fails to produce when attempting. There are clearly skilled artists at work behind the scenes who know their craft, as most of the images and sets work very well to convey emotions.

The story is also a relatively solid one, catching and holding your interest; the relationship between Hannibal and Graham a genuinely interesting one to watch develop.

Where the show loses me, and why I can't give it the much better rating it would otherwise deserve, is its hesitance to abandon the common cop-show 'episodic' formula, and the excessive, sometimes silly levels of gore/disturbing set-pieces. Television is in a state of transition, perhaps even in its death throws, and as such has reached unheard of highs and unheard of lows. While the sea of tripe is wide and daunting, there are many absolute gems surfacing; Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, Walking Dead, The Wire, etc. etc. The common trend among these fantastic new shows is their abandonment of the 'Episodic' formula so common in the 90's/early 2000's. Instead of new situations cropping up and individually dealt with every episode with only vague references to a broader plot (X-files, Law and Order, every version of CSI and most all crime shows since), shows are becoming more trusting of their audiences to pay attention, and are going with running plots which are focused on and developed from each episode to the next. Hannibal is almost there, but is still burdened with a want to introduce a new murderer with a new crazy methodology almost every episode. While it all connects back to the primary story of Hannibal and Will Graham, it often seems like a distraction, a waste of time. There's also an unhealthy obsession with disturbing gore in this show which, while understandable given its nature, goes overboard frequently. I remember I was watching this show with a friend who's critical of it, in a scene where Will Graham stands in an observatory, and looks through the lens of the telescope. "..there's like, some brutally maimed corpse on the moon..." he quickly quipped, and I couldn't help but laugh my ass of, as it almost wouldn't have surprised me. Near every episode there's a grisly, over-creative murder-scene, and while sometimes it's entirely plot appropriate, at others it's just excessive and silly. The 'Totem Pole' killer was particularly nonsensical, his motivations for his wildly gory arts and crafts project bordering on the non-existent, and making his whole story seem like nothing but an excuse to bust out that flesh-pole idea they'd been peddling.

Definitely worth a watch though, just not if you're squeamish.