It is with great sadness that we must say goodbye to Hannibal, an A-tier dramatic thriller set loosely within the universe created by author Thomas Harris. Hannibal has been a series like few others – a series that does not question the intelligence of its audience, preferring to tell deep thought provoking stories paired with some of the most beautiful, yet horrifying visuals ever to grace mainstream television. With its series finale airing this past weekend, the show’s loyal audience received the perfect denouement – visceral carnage married with pathos in an all too satisfying conclusion. Sure we do not know whether the series will find new life within some other context (a streaming network perhaps), yet in the absence of continuation, every fan can happily hold Hannibal up as one of the most perfect television series ever created.

There was hardly a moment of this series where I was never enthralled. Sure there were some complaints that the exposition building intro to the third seasons was heavy handed and pretentious, yet its voyeuristic approach to Hannibal’s narcissism only made the character stronger in my mind. You see Hannibal has always been about the aesthetic, meaning both the character and the show. That aestheticism gave the show’s slower pensive moments a Renaissance painterly feel, and it reveled in it. Bryan Fuller has created a masterpiece, and it will be one artistically minded show-runners will be chasing for years. I am sad it is over, yet overjoyed that we were all able to experience it.

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