The FBI in the "Hannibal" Series

...really are the WORST.

The series did some cool things, the coolest being filling in the "prequel" gaps before Red Dragon and Silence, but after semi-binge-watching it, the "gotta top that" murder scenes were becoming an exercise in macabre body count, and the FBI's inability to consider Hannibal, after SO MUCH circumstantial evidence, was hard to believe.

Jack Crawford may be painted as a formidable character (a ton of that is Fishburne's performance), but his operation and the Feds in general seem subpar...not just "outside of the 4th wall knowledge" subpar, but basic caution/procedure stuff seems to be alien to them.

1) from the outset of Season 1, the victims were waaaay too close to not be associated with the FBI. In S1E3, Abigail's friend encountering her and the Feds, then winding up dead a few days INSIDE of the dad's antler room later, and AFTER her dad had already been shot was the "oh he's one of us or close to it" sign. Even the corrupt Italian cops in S3 are like "hunh, 2 murders in one place AFTER you show up...?"

2) to ping off of the "no way they could miss it," somehow in the first season Lecter fought and killed another serial killer IN HIS OFFICE, and no one finds it odd that their "psychiatrist to the serial killer hunter" seems to be attracting serial killers himself...? I mean, I get that in the world of "Hannibal" 1:10 people seem to BE serial killers (more than Dexter for god's sake), but...that's a lot of coincidence to ignore...

3) can't tell if it's "inept" or "impossible" but Hannibal has choked out, stabbed, impaled, mutilated, and done every type of murder conceivable...and never left a single cell of DNA. Not one. He never wears a hair net or goggles, but apparently he not only can smell people you've been near within the last 24 hours, he can also control how his skin cells shed and where they land.🤨

4) at the end of Season 1, when "Will returns without Abigail" from Minnesota, and can't remember "killing her" (after coughing up her ear), they cant find her body because Hannibal staged it...ok, sure, got it...

But...then Will must have blacked out, cut her throat, cleaned every bit of evidence off of him (lest he be seen covered with the OCEAN of blood left at the crime scene while he's in the fugue state on the plane home).

Also, related to that: how DOES Will get home from Minnesota? In later flashbacks, when Lecter triggers seizures, Will is essentially a drooling ragdoll...how does he hide the body, get cleaned up that meticulously, head back to the airport, fly home, and get into his own bed autonomously? Lecter has to have helped him, in which case there'd be security camera footage of the two of them coming back home via plane...unless he came back home lucid and Lecter "flashy-flashed" him back at his place...but then why leave Abigail behind in MN if he was of sound mind?

5) S2 when Jack goes after Lecter...why ON THE EARTH didn't he call for backup before he entered Lecter's home? I get that he "had a warrant to arrest him for attempted entrapment (sidebar: thats a thing? That cops get arrested for...? The same cops who usually get passes for naked, obvious brutality... okaaaay....?), but then he's gonna head into an EXCEEDINGLY effective killer's home and have a wild wild west mano a mano shootout with a man who's maybe 10-15 years younger than him and in outstanding shape in an environment that the owner is more familiar with than he is.

I'm NOT a cop and...well, I'd be outside waiting for backup, honestly, but if I had to go in to catch him before he escapes, damned sure would have had an open line to someone..like ANYONE. Even better if I arranged for that party to record everything.

Well, really, smart play would have been going there with an army of cops, but barring that, why go alone without ANYONE? Before he walks into Lecter's front door, I would have dialed 911 just to report "sounds of a scream" or something so that help would be on the way. Or even just dialed one of the other special agents to avenge me later, but this "entering the lair of a suspected PROLIFIC serial killer alone with no backup" seems to be a pattern here.

6) the final series episode, which I just watched, the entire prison break was...dumb. I guess one could say that they had light security to spring the trap for Dolarhyde, but then you'd have to believe that the FBI willingly served up 6-8 dead cops and guards to catch a guy who killed...8 people or so? Not police math IMHO.

Now before the Hannibal fans downvote me into negative integers (expected), I don't hate on the show. It was fascinating for the most part and really well done (although I'm glad they didn't get into the Silence of the Lambs era because I didn't want them to retcon a film I love). The series finale ended strong (although I guess...not due to the final Bedilia scene...?), but there were some "aw, c'mon!" moments it engendered while watching.

Really would love a new season or movie that gets into AFTER "Hannibal" (the movie) when Will finds out Starling and Lecter are hunting together...and goes after them, but Jack (canonically in the novels) is dead (or...he FAKED his death to focus on the hunt for Lecter and Starling...) and he's on his own except for maybe Alana and the Verger money to help.

Would be wild, but I'd watch THAT.

EDIT: I totally get what everyone's saying regarding Will and Hannibal's relationship being the core of the show, but shows like this rely on more than a bit of suspension of disbelief. I can get past the procedural drama being short shrifted, but the "lack of common sense" stuff ("you're in agony...maybe get a second opinion on the brain scan?") occasionally threw me out of the whole show.

Great series ending, though!