Today's Bad Idea: a 'Hannibal' TV show

Posted Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 2:42 PM Central
Last updated Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 2:43 PM Central

by John Couture

Back on October 14, 2010, I claimed that a rumored sequel to Top Gun was the "worst idea ever." I may have to amend that statement after today's news.

Normally, we don't report much about the ins and outs in TV land. Sure, we enjoy TV as much as the next person, but we know what our bread and butter is and we tend to stick with what we're good at. But sometimes, we just have to speak out and let our feelings be known.

This is one of those times.

TV Line is reporting that NBC has greenlit a series called 'Hannibal' that, you guessed it, will center around the psychiatrist turned cannibalistic serial killer. Oh, but it gets better. The show will apparently sever all ties to the film franchise and present a contemporary take on the character and his dealings with FBI agent Will Graham.

You may recall that Graham and Lecter parry back and forth in the first Lecter novel/movie Red Dragon and while the book was excellent, the film failed to capture the lightning in the bottle that Anthony Hopkins caught in his first portrayal of the character in The Silence of the Lambs.

But even somehow if a new actor were able to follow in Hopkins' footsteps and do a decent job of bring Lecter to life, who wants to see that? With so many criminal procedures on TV today, the concept of using profiles to nab bad guys is hardly still in its renaissance. In fact, Criminal Minds is basically the TV version of The Silence of the Lambs already.

No, NBC is grasping at straws as they struggle to stay relevant and this is just another example of a show that is set up to fail. Now, if they were to somehow cast it brilliantly and then have full license to manipulate the established mythology then maybe it could work, but sadly I think it's just time to put this cannibal to bed.

That got me thinking though. Could I come up with an even worse list of five movie characters that would totally suck on TV. I like challenges, so I came up with the following list. Let me know how I did and tell me who you think would be worse on TV.

1. The Dude from The Big Lebowski - Just imagine a watered down buddy bowling comedy. Or don't, because it would break your heart.
2. Red and Andy from The Shawshank Redemption - Bill Cosby and Nick Nolte pick up the characters as they live the good life on the beach. Who says "Happily Ever After" has to last forever?
3. Alan from The Hangover - The lone wolf rides again as he finally breaks free from the chains of living with his parents and moves in with an aging porn star played by Eddie Deezen. Oh and Zach Galifianakis will never do it, so the new Alan is played by Aziz Ansari.
4. Tony Montana from Scarface - Tony and "his little friend" wake up from a coma to find himself no longer in the early 1980s, but present day South Beach. It takes a while for Tony to fit in. Oh, and Pauly Shore is the face of Tony Montana.
5. Juno from Juno - Naturally Juno and Paulie have fallen on hard times. Juno can't seemingly get pregnant again even though she and Paulie are ready to have kids, so Juno prostitutes herself out at the local convenience store to make ends meet home skillet.