Over on Fox’s The Following, Kevin Bacon is chasing down a vicious serial killer (played by the creepy/hot James Purefoy) whose crimes are rooted in mythology and pop cuture (here: the tales of Edgar Allan Poe). Over on NBC’s upcoming Hannibal, Hugh Dancy is about to chase down a vicious serial killer (played by the creepy/hot Mads Mikkelsen), whose crimes are rooted in mythology and pop culture (here: Hannibal Lecter). And, much like The Following, Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal looks like its main objective, other than attempting to be a smarter, darker procedural, is to make sure you lose any and all sleep with its graphic imagery and overall spookiness.
The first promo video for Hannibal, the TV series based on Thomas Harris‘ terrifying books, which spawned the Oscar-winning Silence Of The Lambs (and the not-quite-so-Oscar-winning Hannibal and Red Dragon), features Dancy as FBI detective Will Graham (played by Edward Norton on the big screen) and Laurence Fishburn as agent Jack Crawford, trying to get to the bottom of the horrific crimes committed by Mikkelsen’s Dr. Lecter. Hannibal picks up before Dr. Lecter’s cannibalistic tendencies start, but he’s still terrifying, and damn good at playing those mind games. (In the spot, we see that Lecter toying with Graham, a la Clarice Starling).
While we don’t know whether the NBC drama will swing more towards Silence of the Lambs or the movie version of Hannibal on the Dr. Lecter pendulum of quality entertainment, we know one thing for sure after watching this promo: television seems to be hell-bent on making sure we have nightmares. Watch:
Hannibal premieres on NBC on Thursday, April 4 at 10 PM ET.
