rewatching nbc hannibal with my mum, and then hearing her opinion of it once we finished it made me realise how much you have to interpret this series as i think it was intended: as an archetypal Shakespearian problem play.
it combines the discussion of drama and very grave topics with bursts of humour and recurring intellectual bits, essentially fitting into a similar tragicomedy genre as several of Shakespeare's plays
and this dichotomy of theme is set up from the very first episode!! like the whiplash scene cut between the discussions of the murder committed by hobbs' copycat and hannibal having a ball cooking her lungs to swelling classical music establishes this blending of genre from the beginning of the series.
hannibal's one liners (sometimes even LOOKING DOWN THE BARREL OF THE CAMERA *cough*s3 when he killed that guy with an ice pick*cough*) also add to this uneasy sense of comedy, one that one is only able to interpret and appreciate once having accepted that the atrocities being committed are just a staple of this storyline and universe that, although are used to convey meaning in different ways, are not indicative of the tone of the series as a whole.
like in measure for measure, for example, the basic facts of the story are that claudio is going to be executed, unless his sister gives up her morality. this threat of death hangs over the whole play, and most of the themes discussed in it are dark and complex ruminations on justice, power, and authority- this would lead the reader to expect a tragedy or some sort of drama. however, this is interlaced with occasional bouts of bawdy humour to lighten the mood, not dissimilar to hannibal's rather self-incriminating cannibal jokes in the midst of investigating murders that HE COMMITTED.
i just find it really interesting how differently one sees the show if not being able to get past the barrier of its dark and dreary themes.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯