Manipulation and Sexism...and Cannibalism?

This post contains mild spoilers for the TV show Hannibal.    

http://pop-break.com/2014/05/30/binge-watch-hannibal/

      Personally, I’m not a big fan of television and I it takes a lot to keep me hooked to a program. But from the first moment I saw Hannibal, I was hooked and I’ve watched both seasons endlessly. The dynamic characters, the complex relationships (both platonic and romantic), and creatively disturbing murders intrigued and engaged me in a way I’ve never experienced by a TV show, and that’s probably what kept me re-watching episodes. Though the more I watched, the more I was bothered by the treatment of characters, specifically Will Graham and Alana Bloom.

     The thing about Alana Bloom is that in a show that does so well depicting numerous intelligent and successful women, it also at times degrades Dr. Bloom, a well-respected psychiatrist, to little more than a love interest. It is incredibly frustrating to watch a well-educated and highly respected woman have her entire character completely drowned by the intertwined relationships between Lector, Graham, and herself. One moment she will be fighting to protect the well-being of others from characters like Crawford and the next the she will go silent and almost complacently accepts actions she finds fundamentally wrong.

http://www.fox8.tv/shows/hannibal/cast/dr-alana-bloom

     Her relationship with Graham demonstrates this. Graham has romantic feelings for her and she knows that she can’t pursue a relationship with him because she has too great of interest in him professionally and isn’t looking for a relationship. She tells him this, maintains an awkward friendship with him, and tries to protect him from those who wish to exploit him. But the writers decided to complicate things and turn Dr. Bloom into a bit of a hypocrite by placing her into some kind of sexual relationship with Lector. This reduced Dr. Bloom to a means of complicating and straining the relationship between Graham and Lector. Dr. Alana Bloom is a woman of means and intelligence and to see her objectified and degraded is more than distressing to me because I fear for how her character may be depicted in the future.

http://pop-break.com/2014/05/30/binge-watch-hannibal/     

     What frustrated me about Will Graham – or perhaps for him – was how almost every character on the show manipulates and exploits both his character and his empathy. His boss and head of the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU), Jack Crawford, continually forces Graham into looking at crime scenes and using his empathy to get into the heads of serial killers when it is apparent that Graham is mentally unstable and is suffering because of his work. When Crawford sends Graham to see a psychiatrist, I, at first watch, thought it was out of genuine concern for Graham’s well-being and mental health, but after a few watches I realized that Crawford sent Graham to a psychiatrist to protect himself from backlash and further his own agenda. It almost disgusted me that Crawford could reduce Graham to little more than helpful tool to catch dangerous people in order to better his own reputation.

https://sites.sonypicturestelevision.com/aboutspt/viewPR.php?id=165

     It wasn’t even just Jack Crawford that exploited Graham (or tried to exploit him), others, like Hannibal Lector, a renowned psychiatrist who also happens to be a serial killer and cannibal, manipulated Graham until he barely knew who he was and made him almost suffer a mental break down. Crawford sends Graham to have unofficial therapy sessions with Lector. Lector uses the sessions to manipulate Graham and eventually use him as a scape goat for his crimes as the Chesapeake Ripper. Lector’s manipulation was apparent from the beginning and surprisingly didn’t upset me as much as Crawford’s exploitation, but perhaps that’s because of my pre-conceived notions of Lector. I expected Lector to be cunning and use people, which is what happened, but I didn’t expect Crawford to use Graham and push him to the point of breaking and then throw him aside.

     This show included human cellos, diabetic mushroom gardens, human beehives, and countless other horrors but nothing bothered me, or repulsed me, more than the treatment of Will Graham. But I kept on watching and I will keep on watching because the complex web of character relationships – minus the triangular relationship between Bloom, Lector, and Graham – and story of how an evil man hides in plain sight and uses his knowledge of psychology to manipulate others, incite corruption, and cause the nearly inevitable downfall of those we’d consider heroes. Despite the abuse and reduction of characters, Hannibal proves to be intriguing, engaging, and more than just a bit morbid.