Review of Hanna

Hanna (2019–2021)
8/10
Hanna and her sisters.
21 December 2022
I've reviewed each season of "Hanna", which can be found against the final episode of each run - but I thought I'd put something here too, so sum up my overall thoughts.

I haven't seen the film version of "Hanna", so came to the Amazon Prime series with a relatively clean slate. (I did watch the remake of "The Killing" so it was nice to see Enos and Kinnaman together again). Though I was concerned about what I thought the premise was, being extended into a show, I found an enjoyable series, with excellent music choices and good performances.

Erik Heller (Joel Kinnaman) rescues a baby and her mother from a covert military facility in Eastern Europe. Pursued by soldiers, they crash their car and the mother is killed, however, Erik and the baby escape into the woods. 15 years later, Erik has brought Hanna (Esme Creed-Miles) up in the wilderness, infusing survivalist skills with her already unnaturally heightened senses. However, she's frustrated at the limits of her life and a chance encounter leads the agency, led by Marissa (Mireille Enos), to resume their hunt.

There was lots I found I liked about this series. Coming off the back of watching "Treadstone" I worried that again the plot would prove overcomplicated, dealing as it does with a couple of different time periods and a country hopping story, but none of this was the case. I understood everyone's drives all the way through and though there is a little cross and double cross, all the motivations were explained to us ahead of time. Performances are strong, with Kinnaman and Enos standing out, along, of course with Esme Creed-Miles as the titular character. She plays Hanna wonderfully, like a fish out of water at times, but always on the cusp of snapping back into survivalist mode and killing everyone in the room. I really liked the stuff involving the family, and the excursion to Kent but oddly, my favourite part about the show was the music, lots of Karen O, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but the newly created score music was nice too.

I enjoyed the first season of "Hanna" more than I thought I might, with its strong performances and coherent plotting. The second season expands the universe a little, but without sacrificing any of it's core strengths. It's took me a while to get around to season three of "Hanna", around a year in fact since this final season arrived on Amazon Prime. It's through no fault of the show though, as I've enjoyed the previous two runs. This too, was a worthy season and rounds out a series that was much better than I thought it might be.

It surprisingly rare to see a series as consistent as "Hanna" with a true beginning, middle and end.
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