Hannibal: Season Two [Blu-Ray]
Cast: Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen, Laurence Fishburne
Release Date: Own It Today On Blu-ray™ & DVD
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Disc Rating: 10/10
Plot Summary:
Explores the early relationship between the renowned psychiatrist and his patient, a young FBI criminal profiler, who is haunted by his ability to empathize with serial killers.
Warning: This review contains heavy spoilers from Season One and some potential spoilers from Season Two!!
The second season of ‘Hannibal’ picks up following the events of the season one finale, with Will Graham locked in a mental hospital, having been framed and arrested for the crimes of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, now well aware of what Hannibal is yet unable to find anyone to believe him. Meanwhile Jack Crawford deals with his own personal issues regarding Will and as more heinous crimes occur, including a madman abducting and preserving people in order to create a human mural, Hannibal takes over Will’s position as Jack’s consultant on these crimes. While the games and twists continue to play out, everyone has secrets and it seems like everyone is playing someone, but who will prevail and who will lose everything, possibly even their life?
While I was already incredibly impressed by the first season of ‘Hannibal’ the second season only continues to improve on the show in a big way, taking things into new, disturbing and brutal territory. The resulting effect is as beautiful and mesmerizing as it is bloody and disturbing. The eloquent and spot on handling of the material by series creator Bryan Fuller in addition to impressive and notable performances by Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen, Laurence Fishburne, in addition to newcomer Michael Pitt and a number of other talented individuals all contribute to making this one of the best recent shows on television and a series that is not to be missed.
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Hannibal: Season Two’ not only brings home all of the second season’s spectacular episodes in the best video and audio quality possible, it once again provides Producer’s Cut’s for 7 of the 13 episodes that include some edgier and gorier moments on top of plenty of other great bonus content (more detailed information regarding the bonus content can be found in the special features section of the technical specification coverage below) making this one Blu-Ray collection fans of the series will definitely want to add to their collections.
VIDEO:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Hannibal: Season Two’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the show’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio on all of the second seasons episodes. The video presentation looks magnificent, thanks in part to a more than sufficient bitrate provided for each of the thirteen episodes. The bright colors and breathtaking imagery so frequent on the series has never looked better and even the fast moving action sequences look smooth and detailed. I personally couldn’t find any notable faults in the video presentation on the episodes and I’m fairly certain that fans of the series will be quite thrilled.
AUDIO:
The Blu-Ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on all 13 Season Two episodes. These lossless multichannel soundtracks sound truly fantastic and the show easily joins the ranks of the best sounding production for television produced material. There is constant activity making its way throughout all five channels, loud whooshes at moments and just calm and tame eerie effects at others, yet always sounding wonderful and never afraid to really hit hard with the bass either. These DTS-HD MA soundtracks definitely get top marks and it’s hard to believe anyone not being completely satisfied with them.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Hannibal: Season Two’ also includes a nice collection of bonus content for the fans to delve even deeper in the season. In addition to the seven Producer’s Cut episodes (mentioned above in the main body of the review) the release includes a documentary titled ‘This is my Design’ as well as a couple of new featurette’s including: ‘The Style of a Killer’ and ‘Bodies of Lies’. Also included are Commentaries on select episodes with Cast and Crew; ‘Post Mortem with Scott Thompson’ (webisodes); ‘Hannibal Season 2: Killer Intentions’; Deleted Scenes and a Gag Reel.
*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.