Creating Generative Value: Why was Hannibal Cancelled?

An article I came across recently, really made me sit down and take a moment to think about Hannibal, and the reasons it was cancelled. Something that seems so bizarre under the circumstances, and really took me by surprise when it happened, was hearing that NBC was cancelling Hannibal due to the low ratings it was receiving.

The article that inspired this post, was bluntly titled “Hannibal Cancelled By NBC After Ratings Slump“. The article states that although the show was critically acclaimed, and rated very highly, viewer ratings were low, and continued to decrease as the show went on. At first, I thought to myself “how could it get such low viewer ratings when it has such a large cult following, and as a show, it was rated so high?” and then I realised that it wasn’t the overall views that were the problem, it was the recorded views.

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When NBC aired Hannibal, they placed it in a very odd and inconvenient time slot of 10:00pm on a Thursday night. This meant that a lot of people who would normally watch the show on t.v. when the episodes initially aired, couldn’t because it was too late for them, or it was just an inconvenient time. In addition to this, people living in countries that didn’t air the show, weren’t able to watch it at all. This meant that a great deal of people would either record Hannibal when it aired on television and watch it another time later down the track, or they would download episodes from the internet, illegally. The problem with this was that although people were still watching the show, these views didn’t count towards the overall ratings.

To sum up what I’ve just said, and relate it back to the article; NBC aired Hannibal in an inconvenient and unpopular time slot which led to lots of viewers downloading episodes rather than watching them when they aired, which meant that the view counts looked very low, which inevitably ended in NBC cancelling the show.

Without putting the blame on anyone per se, I would love to know how differently this would’ve played out if NBC had aired Hannibal in a more viewer-friendly time-slot. I guess that’s something we’ll all have to keep wondering.

Rebecca x

Introducing The Topic: Why you should follow my blog

Good t.v is taking over the screens nowadays, with so many big hollywood actors and directors moving from films to t.v. shows. This opens up a whole new space for people online to get involved, as with a t.v show, theres a lot more content to talk about. This is definitely the case with Hannibal. With three seasons, each completely different to the other, there’s so much to discuss, like for example how we think certain scenes or arc should have unfolded, or which characters would make the cutest couple (My vote goes to Hannigram!). With the creation of the t.v. series, Hannibal has gained a large cult following online, and we, the wonderfully named Fannibals, have created a community on the Internet where we understand, and are able to talk to each other.

Unfortunately Bryan Fuller holds some kind of television writers curse where he makes a show, it gets very well received by audiences and critics, and then it gets canceled. It happened with Pushing Daisies, and now again with Hannibal.

I can imagine he’d be feeling a little something like this…

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On the plus side, now that the series has been cancelled, this gives us, the fans of the show a good opportunity to create our own idea’s of how we think the show should have ended. Should there be another season? Another 3 seasons? A movie? It’s up to us now to create our own endings and continuations to the series, and what better way to do this, then through a blog. If you’re a fan of the Hannibal franchise, you should definitely follow my blog to see my views and opinions on the show, as well as my idea’s for where the show could have gone if it continued.

Reading my blog will provide you with not only my thoughts and opinions, but i’ll also deliver an insight into the technical side of the show, where i’ll talk about the way things like lighting, camera angles and music can all contribute to the feel and end product to create what some may consider a piece of art. My goal is to unpack the show episode-by-episode and break down all the elements to find out what made it so much more than ‘just another show’, so if you’d like to see me scratch beyond the surface and explore the guts of the show, then this is the blog for you.

I’m interested in engaging with others, and hearing your opinions on all aspects of the show, so if you’d like to share your thoughts or idea’s, please do so in the comments below

Rebecca x

Narrating Personal Interest: Why I chose Hannibal

When trying to come up with a topic for a blog, the first thing I thought was that I needed to choose something I was passionate about and enjoyed talking, writing, and reading about.

The reason I chose to write my blog about Hannibal was because of the interest I’ve gained with it over the past few years. Like a lot of you, this slight obsession started with the TV series. I constantly heard people talking about it on websites like Twitter and Tumblr with only good things to say, so I thought I’d check it out for myself.

When I started watching the TV series, I was hooked almost immediately. I loved how they weren’t interested in wasting anybody’s time, and just got straight to the point. After three seasons, it can be easy for a show to become repetitive, or ridiculous at times due to the pressure, or lack of new ideas from the writers, but this was something I definitely didn’t notice with Hannibal. After three seasons and 36 episodes, I still hold the same excitement for the franchise as I did from day 1. After looking into it further, I realised the show was based off a series of book by Thomas Harris. Of course I had to buy the books, and it wasn’t really a surprise when I couldn’t put them down. I thought it was interesting comparing the books to the TV series, and seeing which elements were inspired by the books, and which scenes were taken directly from the pages. The books included in depth information and descriptions of the characters, and this was very intriguing, because something I personally find really interesting is seeing how characters in books differ from television or film adaptations.

Usually when people like a TV show or movie, they find a character who they can relate to. I feel like this is one instance where I can say, “thank god I can’t relate to any of the character on Hannibal”. I do however, appreciate Hannibal Lecter’s immaculate style and attention to detail. I feel as though my taste, (style wise, not food wise…) is very on par with Hannibal, and this helped to draw me in when reading the books and watching the series, because the visuals were just as good as the writing.

That’s why the topic interests me, but I’d love to get to know more of you, and find out why YOU’RE all interested in Hannibal. So if any of you have your own blogs or sites where you talk about the show, the film, or the books, please feel free to paste your links in the comments section below so I can check them out!

Rebecca x

Representing the Self: Why Wendigo?

Choosing an image to represent oneself is quite a daunting task. The image must be representative of the space and presence on the web, as well as being able to encapsulate the feel of what a user is trying to achieve through their web presence. I’ve chosen to use Wendigo to represent myself as part of my online presence. I chose Wendigo, or the “Stag Man”, because while being his own reoccurring character in the television series, he is actually an extension of Hannibal Lecter. I took this image, because I feel as though Wendigo is the perfect figure to represent myself on my blog due to his ongoing role in the show, acting as a symbol in Will Graham’s mind to represent Hannibal, which to me means the character stands for representing someone other than himself.

‘Wendigo’ by Rebecca is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Rebecca x

Eat. The. Rude.

Hello, and welcome to my blog.

To find out a little bit more about who I am, you can go to the “about me” page.

You can find the links to my Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pages are on the “social media” page.

All other posts can be found on the home page.

Happy exploring

Rebecca x