21 Shows To Watch While You’re Recovering From A Food Coma

Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Image via NBC)

1. Hannibal

Seriously, The Path, Mr. Robot, and Jessica Jones weren’t dark enough for you? You want something even more strange? Are you sure?

Okay, friend. If you’re ready, then start watching Hannibal. This NBC show aired for three seasons, but it’s chock full of darkly beautiful imagery that will both terrify and astonish you. Just make sure you’ve got the stomach for some serious gore and intense storytelling.

Hannibal follows FBI criminal profiler Will Graham (played by Hugh Dancy, who also stars in The Path). Will’s job is taking a considerable psychological toll on him. FBI Director Jack Crawford sends a crumbling will to see a psychiatrist – the well-regarded psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter (played to perfection by Mads Mikkelsen).

A great deal of tension in the first season is derived from what we, the audience, know versus what the characters know. We all live in a world where Silence of the Lambs won an Oscar, so Hannibal Lecter is already a terrifying figure. Everyone on the show, however, must play catch up and escape the clutches of both Dr. Lecter and the other serial killers that inhabit their world.

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This show is definitely very dark, but it’s constructed in such a rich, lush manner that the horror often becomes beautiful. So, if your Thanksgiving group is up for, well, quite a bit of horror, then they might just want to watch Hannibal.

Where to watch: Amazon