History Series / Hannibal

* BirdsOfAFeather: [[OppositesAttract Despite being drastically different people]], twitchy, unsociable, empathetic Will finds a deep connection with the charming, approachable, sadistic SerialKiller Hannibal, enough that he [[spoiler: gives up any semblance of a normal life to be with him since his company and affection proves ''that'' addictive to him.]]

* {{Elopement}}: The second half of season two of has the titular Hannibal and his [[MadDoctor patient]]/[[FoeYay frienemy]]/[[OneTrueLove soulmate]] Will plotting on murdering Will's boss Jack and leaving their old lives behind together, complete with plans to go to Italy and to have [[spoiler: Abigail, whose survival Hannibal had been keeping secret to surprise Will, join them.]] [[GoneHorriblyWrong It doesn't work out according to plan]] [[ConflictingLoyalty since Will's loyalties were deeply conflicted.]]

* HeldEyeContact: Happens often between Hannibal and Will during moments of connection between them. Given Will's distaste for eye contact and his inability to do this with any other character, it's done to symbolize their unique, pure understanding of the other.

* LonelyTogether: A huge basis for Hannibal and Will's [[OddCouple odd but mutual relationship]]. The former is distanced by his intelligence and removal from the rest of humanity, while the latter is so overcome with his intense empathy disorder that he actively avoids other people. Turns out Hannibal adores Will's extraordinary senses and [[MindGameShip the challenges he presents]], while Will is drawn in with Hannibal's charisma, intelligence and later [[spoiler: [[OneTrueLove his unwavering romantic attention]].]]

** Season two features Hannibal exclusively dating Alana while he courts Will and plans on starting a new life with him [[spoiler: and Abigail.]]

* HollywoodNerd: As seen in "Sorbet", Will has the torso musculature of a Greek god. He may be scruffy and his cold demeanor be off-putting, but that is one hot FBI profiler. Also applies to the other forensic lab rats, especially Beverly Katz and Brian Zeller.
* HowWeGotHere: The first episode of Season 2, "Kaiseki", opens with [[spoiler:Jack and Hannibal fighting, with Hannibal wounding Jack]] before it flashes back twelve weeks to the ending of the previous season.

* TVGenius: Hannibal is a psychiatric genius, polymath, and ex-surgeon.

* BiTheWay:
** Alana is revealed to be bisexual in Season 3, after having previously been involved with Hannibal, when she has a sexual encounter with [[spoiler: Margot Verger]]. After the season's time skip, it is revealed she is now married to her, and the two have a child together.
** In Season 3, [[spoiler:Hannibal and Will are revealed to have romantic feelings for each other, and Bedelia not only confirms to Will that Hannibal is in love with him, but it then culminates in the season finale with them embracing rather intimately. In fact, it got to a point where Fuller, Dancy, Mikkelsen, and other members of the cast and crew ended up wiping away doubts of subtext by flat out saying they're in love -- even if not traditionally, then to some degree.]]
** CrimeMagnet Anthony Dimmond flirts with Hannibal in the course of their short-lived acquaintance, and at some point asks Hannibal and Bedelia if they'd like to have a threesome, as he finds them both very interesting.

* AdaptationExpansion: A few flashback scenes from the books were combined with a minor change in the second ''Red Dragon'' movie[[note]]Unlike the book and ''Manhunter'', Hannibal and Will were changed to be old friends as Hannibal helped consult on FBI cases.[[/note]] and blown up into what Bryan Fuller describes as "missing novels" in the Thomas Harris series.

** Alana is revealed to be bisexual in Season 3 when she has a sexual encounter with [[spoiler: Margot Verger]]. After the season's time skip, it is revealed she is now married to her, and the two have a child together.

** The same goes for Abigail and Garret Jacob Hobbs, who are occasionally mentioned in the books and the former of whom Will recalls briefly meeting with again after the incident. Come the TV show, Hobbs' impact on Will is thoroughly explored in the first season, and Abigail is a direct part of Will's life -- to the point he even finds himself caring greatly about her.

** As his therapist, Hannibal asks Will quite a few, notably whether Will feels so bad because killing Garret Jacob Hobbs felt so good, and how his ability to empathize with killers has been affected now that he's felt the thrill of killing firsthand.

* FullNameBasis: Will Graham, Jack Crawford, Garret Jacob Hobbs, Alana Bloom... every character but Hannibal usually gets this treatment.

-->'''Mason:''' I've benefitted greatly from Dr. Lecter's therapy. I'm ''still'' benefiting from it. I will always be grateful for how he's helped me. [[{{Revenge}} I only hope that I may repay him one day.]]

** Though it happens off-screen (mostly because the scene would be unbroadcastable if filmed), at one point Mason gets someone to [[spoiler:surgically install Margot's reproductive organs in a pig, which Mason then proceeds to impregnate.]] This leads to an on-screen scene where Margot and Alana [[spoiler:cut the resultant foetus (which is now dead) out of the pig.]]

* DissonantSerenity: [[spoiler: Abel Gideon]] seems only mildly peeved when he realises that [[spoiler: Hannibal has amputated his leg with the intent of serving it up to him as dinner. [[CrossesTheLineTwice Then he tucks in and gives his compliments to the chef.]] ]]

** Will's methods for dealing with Hannibal in the second season are essentially seduction. "You gotta make [a fish not interested in the bait] bite, even though he's not hungry. [...] You have to create a reality where only you and the fish exist. Your lure is the one thing he wants, despite everything he knows." He in turn plays up his vulnerability and his twistedness to appeal to Hannibal and keep him interested.

** This is becomes inverted in Season 2, which is arguably even darker than Season 1 but [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments also considerably funnier.]] [[spoiler:It is worth noting, however, that as the season goes on the two comic relief characters (relatively speaking) suffer greatly from Hannibal's proximity, Chilton is shot through the face, and bringer of BlackComedy Mason Verger is [[LaserGuidedKarma quite deservedly]] mutilated by Hannibal.]]

Premiering on Creator/{{NBC}} on April 4th, 2013, the show was later renewed for a second season in 2014, and a third in 2015. The show quickly gained popularity by drawing Fuller and Harris fans together, and for spawning an enthusiastic fanbase that has been skillfully and gleefully mirrored by [[JustForFun/OneOfUs the official blog]] [[http://nbchannibal.tumblr.com/ (MAJOR UNMARKED SPOILERS)]]. As to the full arc, Fuller announced an ultimate [[CrazyPrepared six-season plan]] for the show: after the two original seasons, the third-through-fifth were to be a re-ordered, re-imagined version of the book series[[note]]The books in release order: ''Red Dragon'', ''The Silence of the Lambs'', ''Hannibal'', and ''Hannibal Rising''[[/note]] before the show closed on an original ending come Season 6.

** Shortly after Hannibal tells Gideon where he can find Alana, he tells Will -- who just regained consciousness from a seizure -- that he's going to check up on Alana because Gideon is on the loose. He also stops Will from trying to go himself, telling him he needs to rest up, casually sets down Will's gun (which he previously confiscated) as well as the keys to his own car, and leaves the room saying he's going to phone Jack. A moment later, he re-enters with no intention of calling Jack and entirely unsurprised to find Will, the keys, and the gun have vanished.

** The very first scene of the show has an EarlyBirdCameo by [[Literature/RedDragon Francis Dolarhyde]], who (as Bryan Fuller confirmed) committed the murder Will is investigating. The second half of the final season is centred around actually hunting and arresting Dolarhyde in fitting with the ''Red Dragon'' storyline.

** Also {{subverted|Trope}} on occasion, with book and film characters (albeit [[PlotArmor not the starring ones]]) occasionally dying. [[spoiler:Especially notable in Season 2 is Beverly Katz, who acted as a forensicist during the events of the ''Red Dragon'' novel.]] Later on, during the series' adaptation of ''Red Dragon,'' [[spoiler:Chilton is set ablaze in a wheelchair instead of Freddie Lounds.]]

* FanDisservice: It's a safe bet that whenever nudity shows up it'll be this, from a naked girl impaled on a stag's antlers to a mural of naked people stitched together (without pixellation, even).

** In the first season finale, [[spoiler:Alana discovers that Will is suffering from a neurological disorder he isn't aware of. It seems ripe for a PullingTheThread storyline that will prove Will's innocence and perhaps expose Hannibal's malfeasance... but no, Hannibal effortlessly spins it to avoid all blame and reinforce the FrameUp]].

* HypocriticalHumor: Meta-example. Jack states that he first met Will at the opening of the "Evil Minds Research Museum". He says that Will didn't like the name because he felt "the title mythologised banal and cruel men who didn't deserve to be thought of as supervillains", even though Hannibal and many other killers on this show are portrayed exactly as that, as they are far more competent and dangerous than most RealLife serial killers and their murders are much more elaborate and even artistic.

** Will. Although it [[BewareTheNiceOnes might not]] [[KillerRabbit look like it]], Will can be as apt as Hannibal at manipulation. He had a plan to make Hannibal kill Mason so he'd be caught in the act, and he succeeded at making Hannibal turn himself in by rejecting him -- which he claims he did on purpose to get that result. Another example is putting the hand on Chilton in the picture, imagining this move would make the Dragon go for Chilton and get Chilton [[LaserGuidedKarma punished karmically for what he wrote on Hannibal]], as he later admits to Bedelia. This is not a direct manipulation of Dolarhyde, but it's a manipulation of events and of unsuspecting people (Chilton) so that Will's likely to obtain a wanted result.

* MindlinkMates: a downplayed, nonmagical version aided by Will's empathy and the [[TrueLoveIsExceptional exceptional intimacy]] between Will and Hannibal. While Hannibal and Will ''don't actually'' share a consciousness, they understand each other so deeply that they're able to reproduce the other faithfully in their respective Mind Palaces, making it "as if" the other were actually interacting with them. For example, Will uses this to have an effective conversation with his Mind Palace version of Hannibal in "Secondo" that helps him better understand the real Hannibal's childhood, and Hannibal points out that he and Will share certain chambers in the palace and he found a 'victorious' version of Will there in "Digestivo".

** An even darker example occurs in "Tome-wan" when a cocktail of very powerful drugs helps induce severe hallucinations, giddy euphoria, and [[spoiler: self-mutilation and autocannibalism]] in [[spoiler: Mason Verger]].

* NextSundayAD: After the TimeSkip in Season 3, episode eight and onwards takes place in mid-2018.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Currently DramaticIrony, but there's going to come a point where Jack realises how many lives he could have saved [[spoiler: by letting Matthew Brown hang Hannibal]] instead of saving him.

* OhCrap: Chilton has a pretty epic freakout in "Yakimono", [[spoiler: when the true extent of Hannibal's frame-up is revealed and FBI agents are found butchered throughout his home.]]

* OneTrueLove: As it progresses, the show revolves more and more around the idea that this is what Hannibal and Will are for each other. Both Will and Hannibal believe the other is this for them, as reluctant as Will is to face the consequences of that notion. Similarly, the narrative favors the idea that they cannot find another person whom they ultimately would want to be with more than each other, and that one could never stop being drawn to the other, because they accept each other unconditionally and understand each other so profoudly and uniquely. This is both [[ThePowerOfLove their salvation]] and [[LoveHurts their damnation]] -- [[CrazyJealousGuy whole new]] [[LoveMakesYouEvil levels of it]].
* OnlyBarelyRenewed: The show was given the 10 o'clock Thursday time slot, which is notorious at NBC for getting bad ratings that often lead to shows' untimely deaths (for context, the show ''Hannibal'' replaced was ''Do No Harm'', which had the ''lowest premiere ratings in TV history''). Predictably, despite good reviews, [[AcclaimedFlop the show had below-average ratings]] and there was much speculation that it would either be cancelled or [[ChannelHop moved to a different network.]] However, thanks to large DVR numbers and an incredibly passionate social media fanbase, NBC decided to renew it for a second season, and later even a third.

* QueerRomance: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin As romances betwen two guys tend to be.]]

** This is becomes inverted in Season 2, which is arguably even darker than Season 1 but [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments also considerably funnier.]] [[spoiler:It is worth noting, however, that as the season goes on the two comic relief characters (relatively speaking) suffer greatly from Hannibal's proximity, Chilton is shot through the face, and bringer of BlackComedy Mason Verger is [[LaserGuidedKarma quite deservingly]] mutilated by Hannibal.]]

* StringTheory: In the pilot we see Jack standing in front of a pinboard with the missing victim's home addresses linked via strings.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: All right, not so much unwitting, but so far Freddie has unintentionally managed to sic ''two'' threats on Willor someone close to him. Time will only tell if she keeps up this track record...

->''I leave the series {{deconstructed|Trope}}, and end on a [[TheStinger stinger]] quip. The pieces glitter before me. All is orderly. Catalogued. Defined and dissected. [[ArcWords This is my design.]]''

*** Miriam Lass is also this for Will Graham, of all people. The way she discovers the identity of the Chesapeake Ripper is the same way that Will Graham did in the novels.

** The highly unsettling opening title sequence. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3roU23gs3s Watch here.]] It's particularly sinister in "Savoureaux", where the theme music inexplicably plays at a far lower pitch that usual. While it's unclear whether or not this was intentional, it's very effective.

** The highly unsettling opening title sequence. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3roU23gs3s Watch here.]]It's particularly sinister in "Savoureaux", where it inexplicably plays at a far lower pitch that usual. While it's unclear whether or not this was intentional, it's very effective.

** The highly unsettling opening title sequence. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3roU23gs3s Watch here.]]