Hannibal: How TV's most gorgeous, pretentious drama has managed to survive

How does a show this dense, strange, and low-rated air on any network — let alone NBC?

There was no reason to expect anything special when Hannibal premiered on NBC in April of 2013. A TV series based on a franchise that hadn't spawned anything decent since 1990, the only intriguing thing about Hannibal was its pedigree: creator Bryan Fuller, who earned critical acclaim (if not ratings success) for shows like Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies, and stars Hugh Dancy and Mads Mikkelsen, two talented and intriguing actors who had popped up in blockbusters but never quite broken through in the United States.

Then Hannibal premiered, and everything was exactly the opposite of what you'd have expected it to be. Hannibal wasn't a shameless cash grab designed to squeeze a little more money out of an established name; it was a gutsy, thrillingly innovative reinvigoration of a franchise that had long grown stale. And despite the ongoing popularity of the Hannibal Lecter character — and an unexpected deluge of critical support that has only grown in the years since — U.S. audiences turned up their noses at Hannibal, resulting in ratings that have never risen above anemic.

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Scott Meslow

Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.