DJariya

1.6 for a 10pm show is actually not that bad. Considering this is a network and timeslot that hardly anyone watches. It was facing new episodes of Scandal and Elementary, so at least it wasn't a disaster like Do No Harm. NBC isn't going to cancel this show so late in the season. Just going to ride it out and see how it goes. Right now Hannibal is scheduled to air until the end of June.

Geofferson

If the quality keeps up, I can see this building some momentum through word-of-mouth. Hannibal is a pretty familiar character to many.

DJariya

FYI
For those who missed it or were unable to record due to lack of tuners, this episode is now on Hulu, Hulu Plus (for TV streaming) and NBC.com.

I just read an interview with Fuller and he said if the show continues beyond a first season, he plans to keep each season 13 episodes.

andicus

You're going to base whether you give the show a chance on its premiere numbers? I don't get it. Or are you just concerned that it's going to be cancelled quickly?

DJariya

I read a few tweets from some TV writers and they seem to be in consensus the numbers are good considering the horrible timeslot and night. I mean NBC comedy Thursday gets shit ratings now, so for this to get the 2nd highest ratings on NBC last night behind the Office is good.

DJariya

Just a thought, but did Crawford and Graham kind of remind you of Carrie and Saul from Homeland? Especially considering Dancy played Graham as kind of manic and obsessive like Carrie. Kind of ironic considering Dancy is married to Claire Danes.

The promo for next week showed that:



Looking forward to that.

boredsilly

I enjoyed this quite a bit. It felt better than most of the other network TV shows that deal with this type of subject matter. I only have two complaints. First, I had the same issue a lot of you had in understanding Mads. This usually isn't an issue, but I'll just use captions going forward if this continues to be an issue. Also, I know this show isn't about us trying to guess the killer before Graham does, but I felt like a lot of his deductions felt like bullshit. The leap from realizing the killer was trying to find girls that were his daughter? Whatever, dude. But everything else around the show was good enough to make this issue not be that big of a deal for me.

fujishig

I didn't watch the show, but man the in-show ads for this on the network were terrible... they take up the entire bottom of the screen.

dex14

You mean you didn't join us for dinner...?

Also...it was nice to see David Slade direct something with some balls again after the Twilight misstep. Coincidence...he directed the Awake pilot as well.

DJariya

Fuller said on Twitter that Slade directed 3 episodes.

Supermallet

I liked this a lot. Fishburne is great, and Mads is perfect at evoking a sense of eeriness that you can't quite put your finger on. His introduction was exceptional.

The first thing that sprang to mind when I saw that bathroom was The Shining, definitely.

Apparently, if Fuller can get enough seasons, he wants to go so far as to cover the events of Red Dragon. That would be interesting.

JeffTheAlpaca

The TV critic in the local paper liked though complained that Mads the guy playing Hannibal is boring.

Is that true?

dex14

superdeluxe

Move it to Friday, team it with Grimm.

4.3 and 1.6 demo you can have a long shelf life on Friday.

Lt Ripley

Thought it was well done. On board for the remainder.

Shannon Nutt

That's a good idea...Grimm/Hannibal would be great Friday-night appointment TV for those of us without lives.

Eddie W

Ugh, this shit is driving me to cut the cord. Every broadcast version is littered with promos & onscreen ads, while the versions streamed from the network websites, itunes, or Hulu plus don't have the constant reminder bug that READY FOR LOVE IS IN 5 DAYS ON NBC.

Because if there's any crossover potention with Hannibal, it's some reality romance show. Maybe Hannibal was good, I don't know because I got tired of looking at that after about 20 minutes.

boredsilly

I agree with the complaints about the ads on the bottom of the screen. They used to go away, but now it's up there for the whole entire show. It can be distracting.

Ringmaster

What I loved about Red Dragon (the book) and Manhunter was that the story was allowed to develop at a calm pace, with Grahmn's detective work being the centerpiece that drove the story. I liked the 1st episode of Hannibal, but my complaint is that they try to cram a lot in a one hour show. It shouldn't follow the conventions of "here is the crime and here is the resolution at the end of the episode). The show should slow down a bit and let it breathe.

MikahC

I'm not sure today's TV audience has the attention span for a slow burn.

mwbmis

Especially on a network show that is almost entirely ratings dependent. I would feel much, much more confident about this show's prospects if it were on a cable channel.

Personally, I heard Hannibal Lecter series, and I had no interest. It's pretty much been run into the ground at this point. Then I heard it was by Bryan Fuller and starring Mads Mikkelsen. With that, they have me for as long as it runs.

I'm still hoping Mikkelsen gets famous enough to get cast as Roland in the Dark Tower series if/when that gets made.

Wazootyman

Bryan Fuller brought me into this. I liked it, has potential. I've only seen Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, around the time when Red Dragon came out, so I'm not super up with Lecter/bored of his schtick. I'll be back.

One thing that made me smile is having Kids in the Hall-er Scott Thompson in a (seemingly) dramatic role. When I saw his name in the credits I said "Well, that's got to be someone else with a similar name. Looking at IMDB though, it says he's in every episode.

sleepyhead55

I liked it a lot. I didn't really have a problem with Mads accent. I'm curious to see how they're going to develop the Hannibal/Graham relationship. And yeah, this felt more like a short motion picture than a tv series and that is a good thing.

Also, I laughed at the beginning of that bathroom conversation between Crawford and Graham. I'm definitely tuning in for the next ep.

Supermallet

The episode had a lot of setup to deal with. I imagine the rest of the episodes will be more balanced.

I thought that was him in the morgue scene, but thought he looked too good (I recently watched Death Comes To Town and the KitH are looking pretty raggedy at this point). Then I saw him again in the field scene and knew it was him. Happy to see him, too.

Joe Schmoe

Didn't care for it, and I agree with others who said Mads was difficult to understand. I wasn't a fan of Fishburne on CSI, so I was disappointed to see him in this.