Serial killers fascinate their audience. When Criminal Minds premiered in 2005, critics praised the actors but questioned the psychiatric diagnoses.
Then series’ star, Mandy Patinkin left after just two years, claiming the dark subject matter was too much to handle.
The next year, Dexter started cutting up people on Showtime.
Apparently, it’s okay. They’re all bad guys.
Bates Motel, already renewed for a second season, has started to explain the development of Psycho’s Norman Bates. And The Following brings true creativity to excessive violence and hero worship.
For years, various social groups and studies have talked about the influence of the media, particularly television, on our behaviour. And it’s true.
Luka Magnotta wanted to be famous. So following the examples set by Basic Instinct and Seven, he stabbed a young man with an ice pick, cut him up and mailed the pieces to the authorities. Then he put a video of the murder on the Internet with the soundtrack from American Psycho.
It’s easy to understand the concern that some other lunatic is going to get similar ideas from such brilliant TV killers.
Of course, if they’re that psychotic, they could just as easily get their ideas from the letters in a bowl of Alphabits. Cereal killer, anyone?
So it was with mixed emotions that I watched the premiere of Hannibal.
I haven’t read the books, but I saw the first film, Manhunter, in the ’80s and later, Silence of the Lambs.
Neither made me want to see the two movies that followed.
And yet, here I was watching a weekly serial killer series. And I found myself … intrigued. There’s violence. But so far, it’s rather clinical.
I was more uncomfortable with the discussions of the crimes and with what was hidden in plain view of the audience.
Will Graham is an FBI profiler who can empathize with and see into the mind of a killer. Consequently, he’s barely holding on to his sanity. Enter Dr. Hannibal Lecter who is asked to profile the profiler.
The storyline occurs several years before the events of Silence or Red Dragon.
So we know who Dr. Lecter becomes. Perhaps who he already is. And now he’s toying with a man on a mental ledge while he sautés a pair of human lungs.
Will Lecter’s and Graham’s growing “friendship” give us a better understanding of the monster?
Criminal Minds wants us to understand what pushes people to monstrous acts. The boy at the Bates Motel seems quite likeable, too.
But do we need to empathize with a serial killer? Or are some things better left in black and white?
I don’t know if I’ll last all 13 episodes of Hannibal. Right now, it’s fascinating.
But like most viewers, I prefer a happy ending. And since we all know where this is going, a true happily-ever-after is out of the question.
Especially, once dinner is served.
