Hannibal Vs. The Following

I've discussed the boom of serial killers on television recently, and honestly one of my favourite ones has to be Hannibal.

It was a different story when The Following began, but about 3 episodes in I lost my love for it. As a whole Hannibal is a much better show, despite its episodic nature which I understand because it's a show in its first season and it needs to get viewers interested rather than put them off with a complex plot line. I find the murders and recreations of the murders stunning from a visual point of view, and seriously who wouldn't? Also the acting within the show is at an elite level for network television. I wish I could say that about The Following because it has a solid cast that includes Kevin Bacon (who I will forever love) and James Purefoy, but I think that they've been given terrible material to work with.



Now my reasoning for comparing these two shows in particular. I was discussing Hannibal with a friend of mine and he said that he didn't really like it because we didn't see enough of the antagonist, we  didn't get enough Hannibal. I had an issue with his statement because I felt that the reason The Following went downhill so quickly was because we saw too much of Joe Carroll (Purefoy) and the premise was solid, a cult of serial killers, but I think they forgot that cult leaders have to be extraordinarily charismatic and convincing to get people to follow them. Especially if the followers are pretty much all the active serial killers in the USA (which is stupid btw). Purefoy is a marvellous actor but the script let him down, he didn't seem like the type of person that could enchant these maniacs, especially from a prison cell. We were told that he was brilliant, but we didn't see it. Yes, it is difficult to represent that on screen so I would rather not see too much of him so I could imagine his prowess rather than be let down.

It's been said before that Hannibal focuses more on Will Graham than Hannibal himself, but looking at The Following I think that can only be a good thing. We know Hannibal is the villain of the show, which none of the other characters are aware of (dramatic irony for any English students. Or 11 year olds that want to impress their teachers), but we get him in small doses which leaves an air of mystery surrounding him and his motivation. The writing is on the characters side on this show as the parts that you get with Hannibal a sheer brilliance, you see his manipulation of others and want to know whats coming next, it kept me on tenterhooks. Its sad to know that if Purefoy didn't have as much screen time as he did he could've been quite an intriguing killer, but then again the show had way more problems than the head serial killer.

Hannibal is a character that you are always wanting more of which makes him the most intriguing of the two, his ultimate goal seems to be the same as Joe's, to mess with the protagonist but we don't know what he's up to every step of the way, it's not spoon fed to the audience like The Following is. It's more intelligent, and it treats it audience as adults with a degree of intellect. By the end of The Following I felt insulted. Because of this Hannibal wins hands down.

Live Long (as long as you're not in a serial killers sight) and Blog.

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