NBC’s “Hannibal” returned to television this past Friday for its second season premiere. In spite of incredibly dismal ratings last spring when “Hannibal” first aired, NBC chose to renew this abhorrent show.
“Hannibal” is centered on fictional psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lector who helps the FBI solve cases, even though he himself is secretly a cannibalistic serial killer. Each episode depicts gruesome mutilations of corpses of his victims who had been horrifically tortured before their eventual murder. Hannibal removes their organs which he prepares as “haute cuisine” and then serves to his unwitting dinner guests. Each episode shows explicit, sickening scenes of his “dinner” preparation of human body parts.
Yes, that is how far we have fallen as a culture in America today when cannibalism is featured on a network TV show – as entertainment! Where a demented serial killer is portrayed not as a villain, but as what can best be described as a hero.
And it’s not just the theme of the show that is abhorrent – each week incredibly gruesome, bloody scenes are explicitly shown. While most secular entertainment reviewers have given “Hannibal” an enthusiastic thumbs up, extolling its “cinematography,” one writer, while still praising “Hannibal,” acknowledged that such stomach-churning imagery made it difficult for him to watch the show: “Watching any given episode of Hannibal can be something of an ordeal … The camera lingers upon scenes of horrific violence and gore …
“Frankly, it can be punishing to watch more than one episode of Hannibal at a time …
Other reviewers have expressed shock that such content is actually shown on network television.
However, relatively few people in America want to tune in for such demented violence when curling up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn. Since the show premiered last April, we have tracked the ratings and the advertisers of “Hannibal.”
Last year, ratings fell week after week. Usually a show’s season finale will garner the show’s highest ratings. However, the ratings for the season one finale of “Hannibal” were the lowest of the entire season!
And the ratings for the second season are also starting out at the bottom of the barrel. During the same timeslot last Friday, CBS drew 11.8 million viewers and ABC drew 7.3 million viewers while the season premiere episode of “Hannibal” on NBC had only 3.3 million viewers.
However, it’s not enough to just not watch “Hannibal.” Turning a blind eye to the impact of such imagery and themes upon individuals and our culture makes us complicit by our silence.
When headlines of “man’s inhumanity to man” flood the nightly news, we are rightly outraged. “How can a person be so conscienceless, so cruel?” we question. Yet where is the societal outrage when shows such as “Hannibal” not only desensitize viewers, but even plant ideas in twisted minds?
Of course the secular elite not only doesn’t make the connection, they praise such “artistic” shows, as the following Yahoo entertainment reviewer writes:
… The cinematography on this series is amazing, leaving bizarre images imprinted in the brains of the viewers and taking them on a freakish journey into the minds of serial killers. Some of the images are grotesque, but in a surprisingly artistic way. …
Grotesque in an artistic way?? The writer is correct on one point, however. “Hannibal” does leave its gruesome images imprinted upon brains of viewers. What will be the impact upon those who are “entertained” by such depravity? I fear one day we will find out when horrific headlines are once again splashed across the news.
1 comment:
Your advertisement on "Hannibal" promotes dangerous ideas and disturbing violence, especially in light of the recent shootings that have been on the national conscience. Do you really want to encourage empathizing with psychopathic killers and cannibals? That is the premise of NBC's "Hannibal."
Consider what the Daily Beast had to say about this repulsive show. " All of this talent and effort to burnish a (and let’s face it, that’s what he is here) hero who maims, kills, and eats people (most of them female) while feeling nothing regarding their suffering: ick, to use the shortest, most polite word."
The Salt Lake Tribune calls Hannibal “one of the most violent, bloody shows on TV.”
I strongly urge you to pull yoursponsorship of “Hannibal.” I will be following the advertising results to see whether or not your company empowers this show in the future. If you do, you will lose my business and that of thousands of others who are greatly concerned about the impact of such sickening themes upon our families and the American culture.
You have a choice, obviously, in where you place your advertising dollars. I, too, have a choice in the companies I support with my patronage. Please do the right thing and choose a more deserving and life-affirming show on which to advertise.
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