Hannibal & Sadism

Hi everyone

I'll preface this by saying that I, like most of you, absolutely love the show. This subreddit is amazing and you people notice and understand things just about as insightfully as Hannibal and Will.

I have a question regarding the characterization of Hannibal in the show. As has been discussed in this sub quite a bit, a recurring theme for Hannibal is playing God, and his sadism, e.g. his love for psychologically tormenting his victims. However, although frequently referred to in the show (e.g. tv spoileretc.), we haven’t seen any real examples of his sadism when it comes to physical torture.

The omission has of course been a deliberate choice by the showrunners, but I can’t figure out why, when the show certainly doesn’t shy away from gore in general. My best guess is that seeing him actually perform horrific (physical) torture would push him out of the grey area of “antagonist, yet so awesome we like him and mysterious enough that we can’t be certain of his motivation” and squarely into cookie cutter pure-evil villain territory, in the eyes of the viewers. It might also to get it past NBC and the ratings and so on.

Any ideas? I’d love some input on this.

Apologies for the wall of text.

PS: Anyone watch the latest season of Archer? There seemed to be a definite homage to Hannibal in terms of a certain murder tableau mimicking the Last Supper. Awesomely done as well.

Edit: a word