A review written with the book Red Dragon by Thomas Harris in the hand, ethical knowledge in the head and an illegal internet source giving the eyeful.
***
I have the same thing as Dolarhyde. While he tries to control the Dragon from entering his existance, I try to control the monster that is called Exploding Head. Every Red Dragon episode sofar has that impact on me. After seeing an episode of insanity, I want to scramble the bits of my brain off my attic floor. Then I have to write a review, which to my standards must have more moronic content than 'Yeah, it was watchable.' So I have my initial conclusions directly ready after watching, Then in the course of the next one or two days, my old faithful self, my internal dialogue, tries to reset my brain to initial settings. In that process odd - refrase smart - thoughts pop up. Furthermore, I do not grand myself the joy of watching a whole episode or even one scene at a time. No I pause after every sentence and I write the whole stuff down in a notebook first and then assemble my casual thoughts in a structural blogpost. Then in the last minute, I add images of what I found the most remarkable Dolarhyde moments. Before Exploding Head emerges again, I throw my review online, slamming that door of Blue Beard's room-of-the-week. But because I watch this via an illegal source online to keep up-to-date with the US, Canadian, Korean and UK watchers, I cannot wait too long.
Picture this.
We. Have. To. Play. Along. With. Bryan. Fuller.
In. His. Mental. Mind. Palace.
Or. He. Will. Hide, Our. Dolls.
And. Then. Cut. Our. Braids.
No. He. Is, Nicer. Than. That.
He. Likes. To. Smear. Snot. In. Our. Hair.
We have to play along. An innocent, dark show on murderers with a bit of comedy on the side. I am in too deep. I found that this episode was really in balance and finally on the whole, very understandable for an outsider, coming to this mind palace only for the Great Red Dragon storyline.
'Admit it. You crave change, shy boy.'
In this episode the authorative, but dangerous Experts summon Hannibal that the Tooth Fairy should kill himself and that Hannibal should aid to that. The Experts find out that Hannibal has been speaking to the Tooth Fairy by phone, under the guise of being his lawyer Metcalff, but Hannibal has not been contacted by his lawyer in years. In one of the first scenes Dolarhyde gets counselling from Hannibal as if they were in a room, but the scene begins and ends with a phone. D opens up on his fears for the Dragon as a seperate entity and Hannibal coys him by playing into D's madness, saying 'Save yourself, kill them all.' So D goes to Will Graham's family at night and tries to kill them. Yet mother and son escape. Although mother ends up in hospital, where the son watches baseball on TV, because his real dad loved baseball. Will Graham visits them there, where his wife tells him she knew it was the Tooth Fairy, because she reads that magazine, Tattle Crime. Will Graham feels conned by The Expert that watches over him. Helpful and honest Hannibal reminds Will Graham that Will is letting his family die, by not minding his privacy settings. After his anger, Will Graham wonders if this is some competion between them. Hannibal says that the Great Red Dragon did not murder those families, he changed them, because he craves change.
Oh, and D and Reba are breaking up. Reba predicts that they will not be a match, because she as a blind woman is a burden to men. D is scared by her he says, but he does allow her to touch his face. Reba walks away in tears. They tell each other the truth. It is heartbreaking, because it is the truth from their own perception. If only they talked about it some more they could have overcome this. Or, they could have spared each other.
The blind viewer Teresias in the Greek tragedies says that truth will bring no good. The metaphore of the Greek tragedy is that making mistakes is part of the human condition. The cravings of Hannibal, Will Graham and Francis Dolarhyde to do Dragon predictions is a denial of the true identity of these murderers and leads to some sort of blindness. The lesson of the Greek tragedy is that responsibility for this human factor should be accepted and that truthfinding should come first. Searching the truth may be the only true complete human freedom.
I crave this scene change. (Reminds me of The Crucible play).
I don't crave D hanging around in my back garden.
I guess some actors crave a hanging scene.
Hannibal would say: 'Everyday you learn something new'.
Tweeted by RA on 17 August 2015 after
(1) a remark by @manatee73 who tweeted
'@RCArmitage did that handstand unassisted repeatedly'
(2) to which I replied
'@manatee73 (..) @RCArmitage You forgot the 'hanging by his ankles' bit.'
Quote of the week
A living woman. How bizarre.
Eyeful: D physically wrestling with the Dragon
Best: so many good quotes here
Sad: Reba and D are breaking up. Reba predicts that they will not be a match, because she as a blind woman is a burden to men. D is scared by her he said. This rings a bell to me as to the blind viewer Teresias who says that truth will bring no good.
Scary: D was not alone in the room, scary for this
reason.
No way: last episode Hannibal phishing contact information by phone as written in the book, this episode he refers to Will Graham as to mind your privacy settings, implying internet?!
Not buying: Reba can see remarks adding extra tension to this show. OK, she could see when she was young, but could she have seen the dogs on the film screen at D's house? Then in the film lab, she could tell that D was sitting in the dark, yet she did not feel the lightswitch when she entered?!
Clever: bit was that Hannibal steers the Tooth Fairy into killing Will Graham's family, a plot twist that did not occur in the book. Also for convenience sake, Reba does not get attention by other males. Also Freddie Lounds is a woman and not appearing in this episode.
Prop: notice hanging in veterinarian waiting room to report of pet mutilations, sign on lab door
Hope: D will not give Reba to the Dragon
Verdict: no way back
