h.p. taskmaster wrote:
You know, I kind of meant to start watching this show and then wound up totally missing it. Dig the whole mythology.
They handle the character well? Is it possible to capture the spirit without Anthony Hopkins?
I've only seen about 20 minutes of Silence, and it was a long time ago so I can't speak with much authority on the subject, but Mikkelsen is really fun and creepy as hell to watch play the character whether he's serving guests at dinner or inserting himself as a father figure. I've seen some people say that Mikkelsen is more compelling in the role, and Silence actually rather tame compared to the show, but again I can't speak from personal experience. Lecter had obviously already been revealed by Silence, but that's not the case here. This is well before any of that, even before Red Dragon, so he's still working his psych practice and maintaining the public facade. So it's not
exactly the same character, or at least the same portrayal, but he's definitely been killing and eating people for awhile as The Chesapeake Ripper is well-established by the time of the first episode.
I would say, bare minimum, watch until the second episode ("Amuse-Bouche") if the first episode doesn't grab you for some reason; but you really ought to watch up to the fifth episode "Coquilles." Also keep in mind that the fourth episode ("Ceuf") wasn't aired in the US because of the Boston bombing. You can watch the "cannibalized" version that's on NBC's website as webisodes which skips over the procedural case and just shows the serialized stuff, but I would strongly recommend tracking down the whole episode as it's one of the strongest of the season.
And don't let that procedural comment scare you off. This is a serialized show, but it takes the procedural format and flips it on its head. The characters and larger plots are very much the focus and meat of the show whereas the procedural cases are the background and are used to develop the characters and highlight the episode's theme.