Tag / NBC

Chyler Leigh as Cat Sullivan
by Andrea

New show: Taxi Brooklyn (NBC)

Two weeks ago, a new show appeared on the NBC canvas: Taxi Brooklyn, starring Chyler Leigh in her first leading role (on TV, that is) since Grey’s Anatomy and Jacky Ido, who’s probably best known for his role as as Marcel in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, but has since starred in many English-, French-, and German-speaking productions. Here, he’s playing the French-born Leo Romba, taxi driver, to Leigh’s Caitlyn “Cat” Sullivan, New York City cop. Two episodes of the first season have aired so far, and these are my thoughts below the cut. Beware of spoilers. Continue reading →

Gillian Anderson as Bedelia Du Maurier
by Andrea

Hannibal: Sorbet.

Previously: Entrée.

Today: Sorbet.

“How do you see the Ripper?”

“I see him as one of those pitiful thing sometimes born in hospitals. They feed it, keep it warm, but they don’t put it on the machines. They let it die. But he doesn’t die. He looks normal. Nobody can tell what he is.”

That’s because Hannibal is “wearing a very well-tailored person suit.” A “human veil.” That’s why no-one suspects Hannibal, that’s why Alana’s doubts about Abigail don’t extend to Hannibal, that’s why the betrayal will hurt so very badly. Will is relying on this man for his mental health and safety, and that same man is slowly but steadily taking it away from him. Continue reading →

Dr Gideon (Eddie Izzard) thinks he's the Chesapeake Ripper
by Andrea

Hannibal: Entrée.

Previously: Coquilles.

Today: Entrée.

It’s easy to pick my single favourite scene from this episode: aside from the revelation that Hannibal Lecter is the Chesapeake Ripper. Aside from the fact that not only Will comes to Hannibal for comfort, but Jack does, too. Aside from the fact that the serial killer who broke Jack’s first pony, Miriam Regina Lass*, is now comforting him and revelling in Jack’s pain. Aside from Will, Jack, and Alana meeting with Freddie Lounds to enlist her help, and Freddie’s astute observation of “just a bunch of psychopaths helping each other out.” I love all of that. But that’s not it. Continue reading →

Vlad Tepes, shirtless
by Andrea

“Death Is Coming.” — Dracula: the Complete Season Finale.

Previously on Dracula: Come to Die.

This is a collective review of the last two episodes of Dracula, Four Roses and Let There Be Light.

This is a mess. One huge, out-of-control mess. It’s motivations, plot-lines, and characterisations all over the place, and the writers don’t even seem to be trying to clean up after themselves. It’s incoherent, it zigzags back and forth, things that are a huge deal, like Van Helsing breaking up with Dracula, sort of just happen on the side, while other stuff that, yes, we get already, are drawn out over and over, totally ad nauseam. It’s one thing for characters not to be able to make up their minds. It’s quite another for the narrative to screw the characters over ten times per episode. Continue reading →

Will and Hannibal visiting Abigail in Potage
by Andrea

Hannibal: Œuf.

Previously: Potage.

Today: Œuf.

It just all stacks up so well for Hannibal. This case, the Lost Boys, hitting Will so squarely in the chest as he is caught in his need to help Abigail survive and recover, plays right into Lecter’s hands. Using his anger at being unable to help the boys, Hannibal convinces Will that it is indeed his duty to help the daughter of Garret Jacob Hobbs. Continue reading →

Will (Hugh Dancy) at the shooting range
by Andrea

Hannibal: Amuse-Bouche.

Previously: Apéritif (pilot).

Today: Amuse-Bouche.

My favourite scene in this episode is Beverly Katz (Hettienne Park) teaching Will how to shoot. Because, whilst Hannibal is coaxing Will into admitting that killing Garret Jacob Hobbs felt good not for the fact that he saved Abigail’s life, but for the sake of killing, whilst everything Hannibal says can be twisted into the opposite, revealing a gruelling picture of a master manipulator casting a net — there is a support network forming. A network that Hannibal is going to go to great lengths to isolate Will Graham from. Continue reading →

Jack Crawford, Will Graham
by Andrea

Hannibal: Apéritif.

Hannibal Season 1 promo/DVD cover

Today: Apéritif (pilot).

What I love most about the pilot episode, apart from the very way that the characters are introduced to us and the way this world is set up on the screen and in our minds, is not one specific scene. It’s how the many, many ways that Hannibal manipulates Will are introduced in that one single inference and implication of Hannibal killing the girl in the field. Continue reading →