I think most people who dislike the show watch it anyway because of the awesomeness that is James Spader. Even when he's mailing it in his presence is compelling. I'd listen to him read bedtime stories, he has such a wonderful voice. But yeah, the rest of it is silly beyond measure.

Goddammit, now I like Collier. But our heroes are going to ruin his plans & ship him off to captivity, or something equally awful.

Yeah, but they've kind of dropped his zombie superpowers, though, which I thought were really cool. Maybe they explained that away & I just missed it.

Thanks for pointing out the correct pronounciation of Wesen. That bugs me no end & has from the beginning. Argh. Especially since Monroe does a good job pronunciating the other German worte, which just makes it all the stranger.

Agree totally. And w/his performance here in Hannibal it seems like he may have taken lessons from Michael Shannon in how to bring the crazy.

I'm with you. Never understood the Peter hate. I can't get enough Chris Noth, especially when he's in protect-my-family mode.

Reminds me of Mondale's famous cutting of his own throat a couple years later — "Let’s tell the truth. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won’t tell you. I just did”.

Ha ha! Well done, sir or madam. Smoking weed w/o a license. There but for the grace of God…

Scapegoating was pretty much a Soviet human tradition.

Truck driver may cause problems later on, but it seems like Stan's office is preoccupied with internal issues, stymied by bureaucracy, & generally off the scent of Phillip & Lizzy. I can't see this season ending w/a win for the FBI.

You can't just dangle that in front of us & snatch it away. What are your crimes?

Careful, there, venturing into Nature v Nurture territory! Love that phrase, spontaneous sociopath. Personal experience tells me it's about 70%-30% in Nature's favor. I think the show agrees, with the kids unconsciously mirroring their parents' deceptions & deeds.

Oleg's too well-connected to want to defect. He presumably has all the benefits available to the top-ish brass in the USSR govt. He got a prime posting in the USA. He has no reason to be disillusioned & will probably just play the system til the inevitable end. Then he'll do an Abramovich or Berezovsky, buy up shares…

Unfortunately, Elias is currently running a hospital in Canada, on its Global TV network.

I think we're going to be left w/a cliffhanger, with maybe Finch in Greer's custody, & Root planning to rescue him, or something along those lines. I doubt we'll have any resolution of the Decima problem before x-mas. They're too big & powerful to be defeated in 2-3 episodes.

Was the "west Texas cheerleader" comment an oblique reference to Heroes? Seemed more than a coincidence, what with Pasdar's appearance.

I can certainly imagine Root & her band of nerds saving Harold, but Decima is such a monolithic adversary, I can't imagine this conflict being resolved this season. We may end w/Harold in Decima's custody, & forced to worry all summer about what they're doing to him, while Root & Shaw & Reese summer in the South…

To be fair, not that I want to, but the best parts of this show are its serialized aspects, which require going back & watching selected episodes from the beginning. The privacy issues can be understood immediately, but the character growth needs to be appreciated. If somehow CBS could conjure up a "binge watch PoI"…

Could just be the bartender heard the conversation & was fucking with Phillip.

We should keep in mind that Stan isn't just in a bit over his head. His head is permanently fucked from his undercover years & the estrangement from his family that resulted. Plus his former boss is his former boss because Stan shot Vladimir, & Stan could eventually pay a price for that as well.