re: Hannibal

It's based on the characters in Red Dragon. Every episode has used bits of dialog and imagery from that book, though they've often been used out of context and sometimes involved different characters. I read somewhere they don't have the rights to SOTL, which would explain the familiar but different trainee they invented. I think it's great they did that. Also, Lecter is feeding a wider variety of people, and his pre-capture relationship with Crawford and Graham is another invention of the series. I think it's working great.