Hannibal. Why do we love him?

In case you are not aware of it, Hannibal is a TV series that ran for three seasons from 2013 to 2015. The titular character is Hannibal Lecter of Silence of the Lambs fame. I recommend the show. You can currently watch it on Amazon Video.

If you are entirely unfamiliar with the character Hannibal Lecter—or if you only think you know about him because you have some idea of a mad man who eats people—then read on, because that is not what Hannibal is. Hannibal is not insane. He knows full well what he is doing at all times. He's also urbane, surpassingly intelligent, and an excellent cook.

Undoubtedly the most famous appearance of Hannibal Lector in any medium is the movie The Silence of the Lambs, where he was played by Anthony Hopkins. People seem to adore Hopkins' performance. Frankly, I think it lacks subtlety. I've read the books, seen the movies and now the TV adaptation. It's that thing Hopkins does during the most iconic scene—he says the line, “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti”, and then he does that weird air-slurping thing.

It makes Hannibal look like a goddamn lunatic. While Hannibal is most certainly a sociopath with no sense of empathy with other human beings, he would never appear to be a lunatic. Hannibal is worldly and sophisticated. He does not appear insane. That is my problem with Hopkins' performance. He made Hannibal appear insane.

Mads Mikkelsen of the TV adaptation gets it right.

The show is an extended cat-and-mouse between Hannibal and the FBI. Most of the time Hannibal is well known to the FBI as a consulting psychiatrist. All the while he is killing people and leaving them to be found in tableaux that are grotesque and sometimes beautiful. Even if you cannot possible conceive of these tableaux as “beautiful”—and I admit it may be a poor choice of word—they are certainly designed with a sense of purpose and aesthetic, just as much as any painting.

There is gore, quite a lot of it. Some of it may be quite shocking. But that isn't really the main event. For every gory scene, there is a scene of Hannibal preparing some exquisite and artistic meal, either just for himself or for himself and a guest or for an entire lavish party complete with cater waiters. (Hannibal appears to be quite wealthy in the TV adaptation.) Do the meals contain people? Often, but not always. And the preparation is always interesting. For example, one dish he prepares involves encasing the meat in clay before putting it in the oven. Afterward, the clay is hardened and he brings the entire dish to the table and theatrically cracks open the clay to reveal the meat.

Hannibal cares very much about presentation and beauty. He writes beautiful letters in delicate calligraphy. He folds origami. He composes and plays harpsichord music. He despises rude people and, when possible, he eats them. He maintains a Rolodex of rude people for use when he is planning a dinner party. He removes things that are not beautiful.