Note: With Hannibal returning for Season 3 on Thursday, June 4th, we're re-featuring our look back at all of the fascinating carnage the series has given us in its first two seasons.

through Hannibal: Season 2 follow...

I freely admit to being one of those people who thought that making a TV show based on Hannibal Lecter was a bad idea. Even more so given that it was to air on NBC. I mean, what good would it be to do a Hannibal series if you didn't couldn't coat it in the TV-MA content that a cable channel, or a premium cable channel, could allow?

Hannibal Creator Previews Season 3's Big Changes

"Let's get weird."

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Organ Donor

"I think my water broke..."

Cello Goodbye

Deli Thin

Beverly didn't just leave the FBI, she split. HEEYYOOOOO!

Towering Skinferno

Piled high on rye.

Two seasons later and here I am eating my words. With fava beans and a [edit: sentence deleted under "Hack Movie Reference Law #26].No, you can't hear cuss words on Hannibal. Nor can you see butts, nips, peeps, shlurps, or jib jabs. But the show still somehow manages to stand tall as a stunning testimony to what you can do on network TV (given the timeslot and a certain level of haggling). See, the trick is to hide all your gore and carnage within a pristine baroque palate of gorgeousness. And then make people want to vomit.I'm serious about the puke part. Even the twisted task of writing this feature caused certain feelings to, um, bubble back up. Because some of this is wicked rancid. Blech. And the kicker here is that all this potent disturbia is mixed in with amazing, poetic imagery and delectable looking gourmet meals. Sure, most of the meals are made out of human parts, but - dammit! - they still look heavenly.Want to know how disgusting this show can be? One episode featured a murdered judge hanging from the ceiling with his brain cut out. And it's not on the list. Another moment featured a guy being forced to eat his own leg. Not here. This show is so nasty it'll make you want to slap your butcher. Which isn't really a saying. Or a euphemism. Just a expression of shock and and anger toward someone whose job it is to slice up dead, processed animals.Here are eight and a half extremely disturbing Hannibal moments...These aren't going to be in any sort of chronological order, so let's start out with a basic one. A somewhat simpler moment of sinister sadism. Heck, this one wasn't even perpetrated by Hannibal. Plus, the victim lived. Which actually raises a valid point here. Given some of the things that happen to unfortunate targets on the show, you're totally better off dying.Because I know I wouldn't want to be left alive holding all of my vital inner organs together in a heap on my excavated stomach. Which is exactly what happened to Dr. Chilton when insane Dr. Abel Gideon got his skilled surgeon's hands on him. He created a gift basket of gallbladders. A Hickory Farms kit of kidneys.One standout moment from Season 1 happened when a fellow serial killer, Tobias - who shared Hannibal's disdain for inept musicians - wandered into to Dr. Lecter's orbit and got taken out. It was a furious battle between two killers with a passion for elaborate tableaus. Though Tobias' staged sets were a bit "on the nose" given that he ran a stringed instrument shop. Hence...Cello Man!!!And Will, being Will, naturally imagine-i-fied that he was the guy playing the human cello. Graciously providing us with Reason #200 for not going to the symphony. Because not only would we spend the whole time intermittently jerking our head up while fighting sleepy lids, there's a good chance we'd offend some snobbish murderer in the crowd and then get turned into a some sort of half-man/half-bassoon monstrosity.To this day though, I still torn about which was creepier: Charlie McCello or the image of Hobbs in the seats giving Will a slow clap.As much as it hurt to lose Beverly in Season 2, at least we know that when Hannibal kills off a main character, he goes all out. Attention was given. Presentation was considered above all else. Which, I suppose, is Hannibal's version of respect. As in, you're going to die, but people will be talking about your crime scene for a few decades. At least.Agent Katz' death also provided us with our first behind-the-scenes look (of sorts) at how Hannibal actually went about completing such a grizzly, labor-intensive task. Her body was drained. Frozen. Sliced up with an industrial saw. Did it help take the sting out of her demise? Not at all. Though those who enjoy the DIY Network probably took a few notes.Oh, nothing. Just a forty-foot tall totem poll made up of freshly exhumed corpses. The work of a decades-thriving serial killer - providing the authorities with a grand testament to his own life's work. Actually, the sad part is that it sort of makes all my own personal accomplishments seem absolutely meaningless. Because it's a freakin' giant pillar of rotting bodies.This was one of those images that simultaneously made you appreciate its staggering beauty while you reached your hand out slowly to the side for a potted plant to throw up in. That's it. That's the show.

Murals, mushrooms, and more on Page 2...