NBC Gives Serial Killer A Second Chance

Despite being last in its timeslot and one of the lowest-rated dramas on broadcast TV, the grotesque cannibalistic serial killer drama Hannibal is returning for another season by NBC. As Entertainment Weekly reports, the series about a detective who traces serial killers, and whose own psychiatrist is the murderous, man-eating Hannibal Lecter, was given another year on TV by last-place network NBC. This is surprising, given that even shows that perform moderately well are often dropped by the networks, in hopes of finding the next big hit. But Hannibal earned only a 2.0 rating – meaning that fewer than 5 million of the nation’s 115 million TV viewers watched the show. The series is also notable in that Salt Lake City affiliate KSL refused to carry the graphic program.. And no wonder: various episodes have featured a tower built out of human corpses, a teenage girl impaled on deer antlers, and people half-rotted after being buried alive…not to mention scenes of Hannibal devouring a man’s liver off fine china. But such scenes are merely demonstrations of Hannibal’s “richly textured, psychologically complex, and very compelling vision,” according to NBC’s President Jennifer Salke. Such spin is typical of the entertainment industry when discussing its most perverted programming. Despite the show’s failure to catch on with viewers, its renewal is unsurprising…especially given the fact that NBC Chairman Robert Greenblatt was responsible for the similar serial killer drama Dexter when he worked at Showtime. With NBC’s top executive enamored of mass-murdering cannibals, no matter how bad Hannibal’s ratings get, viewers had best become accustomed to even more ultra-graphic violence invading their living rooms.