I was immediately hooked when I saw the first episodes of Hannibal, recognizing that this was something quite different than most, often pretentious series about killers, cops and violence, or mysticism, for that matter. Hard to get a grip on just watching the first seasons episodes, it soon grows on you, when the intellectual battle between Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) and Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) gets increasingly complex and dangerous, when you start to wonder if one of them could actually exist without the other one.

Hannibal recognizing himself in Will, toying with him and his ability to get into the most twisted mindsets of the most twisted humans, and his own inner battle to keep himself sane in the progress.

It only gets better. You never tire or stop being amazed of the twists and turns in this mad dance. It was a huge disappointment that in the country I reside in the series had dwindling numbers of viewers, making the network showing it counter that by moving it to worse times, from almost prime time to whatever slot that was not occupied by other more mediocre series.

It was clear the mainstream viewers had missed out on the cleverness and artistic splendor that was on show, but it has got a growing following now, thankfully.

Season three has to be mentioned especially, as from what I have heard it was very unclear for a period if it should be continued at all. It took it's time, but in the third installment we are taken from the often grey, desolate US east coast settings, and into the core playground of Europe's cultural elite. The brutality is worse than ever, but has been accompanied by a breathtaking beauty, featuring artistic shots of ancient cities and buildings, almost classic paintings, or art-interventions, when the story is unfolded.

You constantly have the feel that you are watching a high-class feature movie, not a TV-series, wanting to concentrate on every moment of clever conversations between the fantastic actors (the guest stars are brilliant, Eddie Izzard for example making one of the absolute top performances of his career) and the fantastic environments and ornaments, filled with symbolism and hints of what is to come next...who will be on tonight's menu? Who has to be sacrificed and who is to be spared?

This is a must for any fan of high-quality TV entertainment!