Dead show walking?

Mads Mikkelsen plays the not-so-good Dr. Hannibal Lecter in NBC's "Hannibal."

Sometimes, you know when you're watching a great, but soon-to-be cancelled TV show. Right now, NBC's "Hannibal" (Thursdays at 9 p.m. CST) is the latest dead series walking.

Too intense, too darkly violent for network TV, not cerebral enough for cable, it is a strange middle of the road. But the surreal scenes of stylized blood sprays, rotting corpses, and impaled bodies will no doubt confuse the CSI crowd and scare off the Law and Order lovers.

It's a shame. Because after a rocky, but promising, pilot and a more fleshed out (pun alert #1) follow up, the series seems to be sinking its teeth (pun alert #2) into its source material with episode three.

To those unfamiliar with the premise, "Hannibal" focuses on the early relationship between characters of Thomas Harris' "Red Dragon" novel, FBI Special Agent Will Graham and psychologist by day, serial killer cannibal by night, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Will has the taxing ability to empathize and envision murders and Lecter is helping him deal with these ghosts in his head.

Already brought to the big screen in 1986's "Manhunter" and again in 2002 with "Red Dragon," it could be easy for the writers and producers to ape what came before. Instead, network execs bravely gave the go ahead to allow the show's creators to completely reintroduce the characters, especially Lecter.

Hugh Dancy plays Will as more William Petersen in "Manhunter" than Edward Norton in "Red Dragon." Will is fully aware of the psychological baggage that comes with his unique and advantageous gift, and Dancy wears his fragile mental state on his sleeve. Not necessarily a heroic protagonist, but definitely a sympathetic one, we the audience suffer along with Will as mentally reconstructs horrific scenes only to endure maddening night terrors and surreal day dreams.

Mads Mikkelsen is outstanding as the not so good doctor. He wisely chose to not recreate Sir Anthony Hopkins' iconic interpretation of an eerie, genius maniac obsessed with politeness. Here, we see a cold, calculating, pensive murderer. Instead of Hopkins' caged beast standing at attention on the other side of a glass cell, Mikkelsen's Lecter is a free roaming viper ready to strike. The tension between the Lecter the characters see and the one the audience knows him to be is very unsettling. 

This is all heightened to great effect by combining the audience's understanding and the score's grating strings that swell in reference to Lecter's nefarious after curricular activities — breaking the fourth wall in a more subconscious manner than a wink and nod into the camera (the show's music isn't really so much a score as a clanging, discordant, unsettling atmosphere that lies somewhere between new age and The Joker's theme from "The Dark Knight").

The chemistry between Dancy and Mikkelsen is growing with the characters, having gone from an agency mandated inconvenience to an uneasy alliance that we know will veer towards friendship and end up at codependence before a messy end. Lecter is manipulating Will with their therapy sessions while Will uses Lecter's insight in cases and inches closer and closer to discovering who Lecter really is. It's the perfect cat and mouse game — we're just not yet sure who's the cat and who's the mouse.

Thrown into this modern Greek tragedy are Lawrence Fishburne's Jack Crawford and Psychologist Dr. Alana Bloom, played by Caroline Dhavernas.

Crawford is the worst-written character — a cutout of the stereotypical law enforcement official who only cares about results while trying to serve as an authority/father figure to Will. However, Fishburne's performance brings the character above mediocrity, giving Crawford a certain gravitas that the script lacks. You feel that as much as Crawford wants to catch the bad guy, he isn't willing to lose Will in the process.

Bloom evaluates Will's mental state for the FBI. Bloom is the perfect set up for a love interest — likable, sweet, still damaged in a yet unspecified way. But more importantly, she is the show's conscience. The only true, caring character who is not affected by their debilitating psychoses, madness, or crusade for justice.

Along with these great performances is some of the better television cinematography and set design you'll find today. The dreamlike techniques behind Will's crime recreations and nightmares along with the treatment of blood as paint across a canvas show a vision that is lacking in most crime dramas. The hunting shack crime scene's claustrophobic collection of antlers less resembles a set than a postmodern sculpture gallery showing. Interestingly, Lecter's murders are also presented in an artistic (you know, as artful and elegant as murder can be) manner while the show's other killers are more brutish and downright ugly in their killings.

Still, despite having everything going in the right direction and heaps of promise in terms of storyline ahead, you can't help but feel the masses will be turned off by this intelligent look into the worst part of humanity.