TV shows we love: Hannibal

Hannibal proved not so much a crime series as a staged baroque performance, a modern opera disguised as cable television. Bryan Fuller’s adaptation of Thomas Harris’ mythology rejects realism in favour of ritual and esoteric symbolism.

From its opening moments, the show announces that it will operate on a different register, one where psychology and violence is choreographed with almost religious duty. Episodes unfold like movements rather than plots, driven by mood, repetition and escalation.