Manson, Lecter make a monster mashup on NBC

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, who will reunite next year for Fox's revival of “The X-Files,” come together on Thursdays this summer on NBC with two shows about infamous criminals.

Duchovny stars as Det. Sam Hodiak in “Aquarius,” a new show from “In Plain Sight's” John McNamara that opens with the 16-year-old daughter (Emma Dumont) of a big-shot lawyer (Brian F. O'Bryne) being introduced to a hunky hippie named Charlie Manson (Gethin Anthony, aka Renly Baratheon from “Game of Thrones”).

The fictionalized search for a girl under the control of one of history's greatest monsters serves as the backdrop for what appears to be a fairly routine police procedural. Wikipedia can tell anyone what happened to Charles Manson, so the challenge for “Aquarius” is in finding relevant, dramatic ways to use its 1967 Los Angeles setting.

Unfortunately, in the two-hour premiere that airs Thursday, most of the women on the show are marginalized or exploited in some way without any commentary on the sexism of the time. And Hodiak finds a new definition of “race-baiting” when he arrests black activist Bunchy Carter (another real-life figure) as bait to coerce a confession out of a white murder suspect.

But that setting is intoxicating. The opening scene of the pilot takes us over L.A.'s dreamlike vistas to a nighttime party in the Hollywood Hills. Beloved pop songs that must have cost a fortune to license play over nearly every scene. The cars, the clothes and the hairstyles all make “Aquarius” a sight to behold.

The best scenes pair long-haired undercover narc Brian Shafe (Grey Damon of “Friday Night Lights”) with the military-trained Hodiak, whom Duchovny plays with a tough, wizened detachment that Fox Mulder would find off-putting. Duchovny, who also serves as executive producer, seems content to play straight man to Damon and, for that matter, the entire show; he is the calm eye of the storm.

Can “Aquarius” live up to its considerable promise? You can find out at 8 p.m. Thursdays, or — in an unprecedented move for a network show — you can watch all 13 episodes beginning Friday, May 29, at NBC.com.

At 9 p.m. Thursday, June 4, Anderson returns as Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier in the third season of “Hannibal,” Bryan Fuller's deeply disturbing, hauntingly beautiful reimagination of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter novels. The first three episodes combine and recast elements from the books “Red Dragon,” “Hannibal” and “Hannibal Rising” without feeling like heretical fan-fiction.

Never a ratings success, “Hannibal” offers no concessions to newcomers in its premiere. The hour opens with Hannibal the Cannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) in Paris, hunting for a new meal. Then, after the opening credits, we're back in the Season 2 timeline with a black-and-white segment presented in widescreen. Then suddenly we're in Florence, Italy, and Du Maurier, formerly Lecter's psychiatrist, is posing as his wife.

But “Hannibal” finds its rhythm in the second hour when we learn the fates of investigator Will Graham (Hugh Dancy, an incredible performance) and his cohorts who were left for dead in Season 2's shocking finale.

“Hannibal” is not for the squeamish — it often outdoes FX's “American Horror Story” in the gross-out department — nor the impatient. But this operatic character study continues to be the most audacious thing on network television.

• Sean Stangland is a Daily Herald copy editor. You can follow him on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.