Author Archives: Sam H.

Hannibal 1.08: Fromage

Posted on May 17, 2013 | 27 Comments

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Hannibal airs Thursdays at 10pm on NBC

PREVIOUSLY: HAHA I think Hugh Dancy did the PREVIOUSLY ON HANNIBAL voiceover this time but I literally said “who the fuck was that.” to my computer so IDK. Hannibal tried his damnedest to put Will out to sea with nothing but Hannibal himself as a paddle; Alana had morals as well as a sense of professional ethics; Will was super duper attracted to that, and also her pretty hair and steely yet comforting gaze; Franklin introduced Hannibal to his cute boyfriend Tobias (Demore Barnes); Franklin also is in love with Hannibal pretty hard.

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Hannibal 1.07: Sorbet

Posted on May 11, 2013 | 33 Comments

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Hannibal airs Thursdays at 10pm on NBC

WHAT’S UP GUYS. I’m sorry this is late, I just got back from visiting family in South Carolina. (We’re cannibals, too, but not the sexy European kind. We’re the hillbilly kind. The Wrong Turn kind. The 2,000 Maniacs! kind. Let’s not talk about it.)

PREVIOUSLY: FREDERICK CHILTON WAS THE WORST EVER AT EVERYTHING; The Former Surgeon Known as Dr. Gideon took credit for the Chesapeake Ripper murders, thanks to a combination of unethical psychiatric methods and an FBI/Freddie Lounds merger; the real Chesapeake Ripper didn’t take too kindly to that and gave Jack an arm belonging to the possibly dead/hopefully just maimed (????? wtf samantha. this show has given me weird priorities) Miriam Lass, his former protege/Will Graham; our Not Benjamin Raspail, Franklin, put a Kleenex on Hannibal’s side table LIKE A GROSS HORRIBLE MONSTER; and Alana and Will have never been alone in a room together.

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Hannibal 1.06: Entrée

Posted on May 3, 2013 | 24 Comments

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Hannibal airs Thursdays at 10pm on NBC

PREVIOUSLY: Will started sleepwalking and wanted to quit the F.B.I. for the 80th time, the Crawfords made sure we will never be happy ever again, Hannibal started driving a wedge between Jack and Will, and a cancer patient did some Christian arts ‘n crafts before killing himself in a barn. Just like at Bible camp.

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Vikings 1.08 & 1.09

Posted on May 1, 2013 | 24 Comments

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Vikings airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on The History Channel

PREVIOUSLY, ON VIKINGS: Ragnar invited King Aella’s unending hatred by murdering his brother, and Lagertha miscarried. That’s it.

Okay, full disclosure! This is an email I sent to Laura on April 23:

OKAY AS YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED I HAVE NOT FINISHED THE VIKINGS RECAP YET BUT. I have a problem. This past episode made me so fucking angry with every aspect of it that I know I definitely can’t be funny about it, and probably can’t even be impartial and do a dry basic “this is what happened” recap (which nobody would want to read anyway). It’s like they took everything I loved about the show and fucked it up in every possible direction and I don’t know what to do! I’ve been trying to write it for like two days, and I’m just so frustrated with it that I keep stopping. I know HDJM is supposed to be positive but I genuinely didn’t enjoy a single thing about the episode. WAT DO I DO HOW DO I WRITE ABOUT IT OMG. :(

At that point I also had what I can only assume was machupo, so I figured that maybe by the finale A) I would be better and B) so would the show. MAIS NON. Something terrible happened between episode seven and episode eight that turned a previously literally perfect show into a hideously-paced mess of destroyed characterization and nonsensical plotting. Laura emailed me back pretending to be Oprah and gave me a special dispensation to “write my truth,” so it’s gonna get complainy in here. I FULLY UNDERSTAND IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ FURTHER AS THIS WILL NOT BE A RECAP AND WILL PROBABLY NOT BE FUNNY. Just for completion’s sake, I wanted to put this down–because I did really adore this show, and will maintain that the first six episodes are worth it all on their own. Its downhill journey was just so fast and so furious that the only explanation is darck magicks.

The only other show I’ve ever felt like this about was Community, but that show had 3 seasons to make me fall in love with it and there was a discernible reason for why I can’t stand it now. I was sold on Vikings after the first episode, and I seriously have no idea how this disaster happened.

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Hannibal 1.05: Coquilles

Posted on April 26, 2013 | 22 Comments

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Hannibal airs Thursdays at 10pm on NBC

NOTE: I will try my best to get episode 1.04 recapped when it’s available in its entirety. Until then, go check out the webisodes if you haven’t already!

PREVIOUSLY: The PREVIOUSLY is mostly from the unaired episode, but you can watch this actual episode without having seen that one. It’s a little more procedural than the previous episodes, so there’s not a lot of continuity wrangling to do.

FUN FACT: I’ve got a fever and have been pounding cough syrup like someone who pounds cough syrup recreationally. This is, honestly, the best fucking way to watch this show that I can think of. Highly recommended!!!

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Hannibal 1.03: Potage

Posted on April 19, 2013 | 10 Comments

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Hannibal airs Thursdays at 10pm on NBC

PREVIOUSLY: We met Freddie Lounds and she fucked all the shit up and Will Graham started therapy, but the PREVIOUSLY is mostly a recap of the first episode–Will shot Garrett Jacob Hobbs, but not before Hannibal gave him a killer-2-killer courtesy call.

Before we start, here’s a link to food stylist Janice Poon’s totally charming and informative blog about working on Hannibal–it’s full of recipes, photographs, and lots of interesting tidbits about the food aesthetics for fellow behind-the-scenes nerds.

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Vikings 1.07: A King’s Ransom

Posted on April 15, 2013 | 22 Comments

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Vikings airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on The History Channel

PREVIOUSLY, ON VIKINGS: Ragnar killed Haraldson in the holmgang and became the new earl; Lagertha is pregnant; Rollo is schemey.

(This is going to be shorter than normal/more of a review because a bunch of junk came up at one time in real life.)

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Vikings 1.06: Burial of the Dead

Posted on April 9, 2013 | 12 Comments

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Vikings airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on The History Channel

PREVIOUSLY, ON VIKINGS:

Ragnar’s village got murdered by Haraldson’s men as revenge for…what, we are still not certain. Ragnar sustained some serious injuries, so Lagertha moved the whole family in with Floki. Haraldson tortured Rollo for not giving up Ragnar’s location, which prompts Ragnar to send Floki to challenge Haraldson to one-on-one combat.

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Hannibal 1.01: Apéritif

Posted on April 5, 2013 | 12 Comments

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Hannibal airs Thursdays at 10pm on NBC

HANNIBAL. FINALLY. I’ll be real with you guys: I watched the pilot last night, and then proceeded to have a dream that they were canceling it after one episode, and woke up more distressed than I did after the dream where someone gave me 45 dogs and I kept losing track of them and crying. That’s how awesome the pilot was.

Hannibal stars Hugh Dancy (2004′s seminal hit King Arthur) as FBI Special Agent Will Graham, and Mads Mikkelsen (also 2004′s seminal hit King Arthur) as Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The cast also includes Laurence Fishburne as AIC Jack Crawford, Caroline Dhavernas as Dr. Alanna “Al” Bloom (making her one of two characters changed from men in the source material, YES), and Hettienne Park as CSI Beverly Katz. Also, though he doesn’t appear in the series, it’s worth noting for the gastronomically inclined that José Andrés is the food adviser for the show, so all of the body parts are going to look delicious.

The show is probably the most aesthetically beautiful show on television right now (Bryan Fuller, duh). The palette is dark and sensual, pretty much following that cast picture at the top of the page (lots of blues, reds, violets, etc.) and the entire cast is lovely and very, very good. And the costuming! I DIE.

The writing is wonderful–none of the normal pilot-episode weirdness and infodumps–and the pacing is excellent. I’m a horror fan and an artful gore fan, and even with the restrictions on what they can and can’t show, I was satisfied with what was done with the violence/bloodshed–nothing was really over-the-top gratuitous. There’s a focus on eerie and macabre rather than outright disgusting, which is welcome. Additionally, Hannibal is a perfect way to get your creepy fix if you’re feeling the loss of American Horror Story!

ONTO THE RECAP PROPER.

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Vikings 1.05: Raid

Posted on April 2, 2013 | 3 Comments

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Vikings airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on The History Channel

Apologies for the lateness! I was doin’ stuff, Lori. Thaaangs. (Actually I was fishing with my dad.)

PREVIOUSLY, ON VIKINGS:

Ragnar got put on trial, but won his case in about 14 seconds because Rollo stepped up and was actually decent. Unfortunately, they’re attacked by assassins who manage to kill Erik. Then Ragnar sits on a cliff a lot.

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