[S3 Ep 1:Antipasto]

It feels strange-but right-to type that!

So this review is going to be a bit free-form, less structured than the ones I was doing before.

Before I start:The ratings were not very good. Hoping that changes.
****

So..Oh my goodness. So much to love about this episode-I was actually OK with the time jumps(though I think I have permanently gone off of snails..) to explain what was going on-though I can't wait for the later episode where we see Bedelia's patient(played by Zachary Quinto) alive.

Will Graham's name was mentioned, more than once. I'm also very curious to get the flashbacks with what happened to the people at the Red Dinner right after Hannibal left(we sort of got that with a scene where Hannibal is at Bedelia's house washing the blood off of him from the Red Dinner, and it seemed like a lot more than it was(though some of the blood was probably Hannibal's own blood.) Obviously Bedelia knows that something happened, and she asks Hannibal about it.

In this episode, it's clear that Bedelia is scared-and wants to leave. I increasingly-watching the episode-thought that she had been subjected to some sort of hypnosis in order for Hannibal to be able to get her to go with him. But she has moments of..searches for a word and settles on "lucidity" where she realises "Oh shit,I gotta get out of here".But Hannibal's not going to let that happen.

We get a Will doppleganger, Anthony Dimmond. From the start, it's obvious that he is doomed(and yes, by the end of the episode, he is dead.. and put on display.)

The first bit of the episode takes place in Paris, and then moves to Florence. This is TV show as travelogue(it  *definitely* made me want to go to Florence!)We get food/cooking porn almost right out of the gate(one of the big reasons that I watch this show,TBH) but several of them were equal parts "that looks so good!" and nausea inducing(see my earlier comment about the snails.)

 Bedelia goes to a store a couple of times in this episode and buys a VERY expensive bottle of wine and truffles(?). Being on the run hasn't changed Hannibal's tastes-and in fact I'd guess that one of the reasons that he picked Florence(apart from that he had probably,at a guess, been there before, and the other being that it being Florence there are so many good ingredients are readily available at hand for him to cook with.

One of the most striking scenes(and there were a few in this episode) was the scene  with Hannibal lecturing on Dante, and a picture of the devil is superimposed over his face. Seriously... It is one of the most nightmare-fuel inducing things I have ever seen on this show and this is Hannibal we're talking about!

 It's eerily similar to a similar scene in  Ridley Scott's Hannibal(I think they may have even used some of the same pictures,too)

Hannibal has always been very cinematic, but that has been taken to a whole new level in S3....especially a scene with Bedelia  in the bath(and I want that bath so bad!I can't even imagine how expensive it might be!)

I couldn't believe how fast it went-I blinked and we were already halfway through it! There was so much going on I'm pretty sure I missed some stuff but yeah.. 10 plus out of 10.(Am I biased?probably.LOL).Can't wait for next week, which is very Will-centric(yay!)