Hmm, sounds interesting, and your recommendation bumps it up considerably higher on my watchlist. For whatever reason, I've been on an old show kick lately - I rewatched
The Wire and then seeing the entire
Oz cast made me want to rewatch
Oz - but I've been wanting to see at least shows new to me if not brand new shows, so I have
Mad Men ready to go (tried it once over a decade ago and want to try again) and now
Severance is on the list, too. No idea when I'll get to it, but when I do, I'll tag you for sure.
This was Fuller's plan from the jump: He wanted the backstory "prologue" type stuff to lead into the book adaptations. But, genius that he is, he was still threading through book material even in the first two seasons, from the Clarice arc with that missing FBI agent to the animal guy Will had to take out who was a clear Red Dragon analogue. Eventually, though, Fuller was going to get to the books, and when he did, it was going to become a true adaptation. Still, though, he introduced his own twists and played with the characters and events, as well as the timeline combining prologue books with the "proper" Hannibal books---like the Will/Francis museum throwdown, which wasn't in the book but which was one of the coolest parts of the series, not to mention the sequence when Hannibal sics Francis on Will's family, which is a non-issue in both the book
Red Dragon and the film
Manhunter but which was done very differently in
Hannibal.
Even as Fuller started to work through a specific book for a specific season, there was still plenty of originality to go around.
To clarify, you're asking me if it's worth it to watch the GOAT dramatic series?
For further clarification, are you saying that there were two episodes in Season 3 that you disliked or are you saying that you tried to watch Season 3, couldn't even make it through the first two episodes, and still haven't even seen Season 3?
Regardless of how you answer the above, though, my answer is still the same: Watch Season 3 immediately so that you can see the entirety of the GOAT dramatic series