Hannibal hasn’t even completed its second season, but with good ratings and a strong critical response, NBC has shown the good taste (pun intended) to pick it up for a third. The show has produced enough twists and turns and a few WTF moments to keep any audience satisfied.

Hugh Dancy plays FBI profiler Will Graham, who is entrapped in the serial killer’s games. This is good drama and the byplay between Graham and Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) is worth the time and effort.

Hugh Dancy reflects on his character and the challenges of doing Hannibal.

The Flickcast: Can you talk about getting into the head space of Will because he’s a terribly troubled character?

HUGH DANCY: Yes. He’s not the happiest character I’ve ever played. Well, there’s obviously – other than Bryan’s [Fuller/Executive Producer] scripts, there’s Thomas Harris’s book, Red Dragon, that I went to before we started filming the first season, and that’s been the template ever since.

It was just, as a description of a character from the inside of his head, the most rich material that you can hope for as an actor.

Breakfast with Hannibal. That’s not what the NBC press reps were calling it, but the journalists present for the early morning Q&A panel on the show had a field day speculating on the possible culinary choices. Unfortunately the breakfast menu was the normal hotel convention food, but thankfully the panel made up for it.

Hannibal, now in its second season, is based on the Thomas Harris novel, Red Dragon, which investigates the early journey of forensic psychiatrist/serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) and FBI agent Will Graham (Hugh Dancy).

Hannibal is probably one of the most well know psycho villains in the world. We all know what’s going to happen…eventually, but the road trip to reach that final act is fascinating, startling and sometimes very disturbing. It probably also says a lot about us, the audience, as well. We are the ultimate voyeurs.

Mads Mikkelsen is an excellent choice for this early version of the pervasive serial killer. After the panel he thoughtfully answered more questions from the press.

The Flickcast: Do you think Hannibal hits all of the points of being a psychopath, or what is he?

That’s not even me being sarcastic, as I have been known to be. Who were the people, aside from the ones who made money directly from it, hoping for the return of Heroes? I could maybe understand Jeph Loeb looking for a comeback, but he’s busy with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. right now, so I can’t pin this one on him.

When talking about Heroes with the many geek friends and acquaintances I have, the common thread is that it started strong and by the second season had fallen apart. After that, popularity, ratings and the fandom waned.

In the end during what we thought was the series finale, everything got wrapped up in a trite and contrived little package that most of us hoped would stay sealed away with our HD-DVD box sets of season 1. The plot holes, hanging threads and characters that devolved could all be laid to rest and we’d all be better for it.

Mina is finally home and has received an invitation to Grayson’s demonstration of the resonator.  Lucy is avoiding the sun, telling her mother she isn’t feeling well and insisting on not seeing any doctors.

Mina goes to see Harker to give him back his mother’s cross necklace, but Harker does not want it back.  Harker tells Mina how Grayson ruined his life and career, and that he has done some vile things.  Mina cannot swear that she doesn’t love Grayson.

The best seer available arrives in town to help search out Dracula and all of his nests of vampires.  He brings a major Christian relic, the blood of Christ.  This will help him snuff out the locations of all of the vampires in town.  The seer finds a nest right away, and hunters are dispatched and kill two vampires.

After two days in hiding, Harker finally returns to work, confessing to Grayson that he murdered Lord Davenport.  Grayson doesn’t let on that he already knew, and urges Harker to carry on as usual as best he can.  Harker walks away smirking, letting us know that a plan has been set off.

J.J. Abrams was supposed to talk to the press to promote his new NBC series Believe, but we couldn’t resist asking him questions about some of his other projects…such as Star Wars VII. Getting any good responses out of him isn’t easy as we all remember with the secrecy regarding the last Star Trek move. Mr. Abrams is a master of obfuscation, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t try.

QUESTION: Where are you on the Star Wars script? Is it done?

J.J. ABRAMS: Yeah. We’re working really hard. We’ve got our script and we’re in deep prep. We’re full steam ahead. We’re working real hard on it and it’s quite a thrill.

Q: What are some of the craziest rumors you’ve heard?

ABRAMS: God, there have been so many of them. Honestly, I don’t know. It’s amazing to see how many there are. It’s really remarkable. But it’s sweet because it shows that there’s an interest in this movie that we all obviously know is there. It is an incredible thing to see how many crazy things get thrown out that people then often write commentaries about how happy they are or how disappointed they are about something that’s completely false. But it’s a lot of noise, frankly.