This is a comparison between the censored TV Version (first broadcastet on NBC, 05-16-2014) and the uncensored Producer's Cut (included on the US Blu-Ray released by Lionsgate)


- 3 altered scenes
- No difference in time

Whenever the TV Version heads for a commercial break, the US Blu-Ray shows a black screen for 2-3 seconds. The resulting difference in time was not regarded for this report, however, it explains why you will see slightly different points in time at the time designations.



It is still pretty amazing, what kind of effects the creators of the series Hannibal are able to include in their TV broadcast while still getting a TV-14 rating. Still, the second season's Blu-Ray release offers so-called "Producer's Cuts" for 7 episodes. This time, they did not make a big deal out of it, neither on the cover, nor in their press release. We only came across it because a user which was a part of the Blu-Ray's production made a posting on the Blu-ray.com-forums (as we already reported).
In that regard it is not at all clear in which way the episodes will be released in other countries. After all, the Producer's Cuts for season one were only released in the USA (and probably Canada). In the UK one could only buy the regular TV Versions on both DVD and Blu-ray.

If we take a look at the actual alterations, it is probably not too surprising, that the studio did not insist on a bigger advertisement for the Producer's Cuts. There are only very few and rather marginal scenes that were censored, which means that - in contrast to the first season - it would not be too big of a loss if one would only be able to get the TV Versions. Still, we will keep our readers up to date whenever we know anything new about other releases.

The here compared episode 2x12 "Tome-wan" begins with one of Will's visions in which he kills Hannibal. His slit throat has been slightly censored for TV. Therefore, this is probably one of the most usable Producer's Cut for the average viewer because it is more conspicuous than covering breasts by some kind of black shroud. By the way, Hannibal drugs Mason Verger in the very same episode and makes him cut his own face and feed parts of himself to the his dog. This rather crude (but it mostly takes place in the dark) sequence hasn't been altered at all.



Time designations are listed as follows:
US TV Version / Blu-ray

Alternate
03:23 / 03:24

Will has a vision in which he slits Hannibal's throat.
Being rather unspectacular, the frontal shot is 0.2 seconds longer in the TV Version. As compensation, the following shot starts correspondingly earlier in the Producer's Cut.

no difference

TV Version	Producer's Cut

Alternate
03:24 / 03:25

The blood rain shot is longer in the Producer's Cut (0.8 sec) resp. this very shot was too much for TV. As compensation, the following shot of Will starts a bit earlier in the TV Version.

Producer's Cut 0.3 sec longer

TV Version	Producer's Cut

Alternate
03:26-03:30 / 03:27-03:31

The TV Version contains a long shot of Hannibal's blood-smeared coat. The Producer's Cut on the other hand contains a shot of Hannibal's open wound, followed by a shorter shot of the coat.

TV Version 0.3 sec longer

TV Version	Producer's Cut