Hannibal: 5 episodes to watch (or rewatch) before season 3

After two seasons of NBC’s Hannibal, you’ve probably had friends try to convince you to watch, read critics sing its praises, or seen a near-infinite number of GIFs from the show on Tumblr.

All that may finally be enough to convince you that it’s time to watch Bryan Fuller’s beloved adaptation—but with season 3 getting off to a great start this Thursday, you’re looking for a crash course in all things Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham.

So if you can’t find the time to watch the first two seasons in full, EW’s here to help with the five episodes you can’t miss from the last two years. (That said, here’s one major caveat: If you have the time, you should absolutely watch both seasons, currently currently streaming on Amazon Instant Video. You can brush up on the basics and understand the gist of the show so far by watching just these vital episodes, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not watching two incredible seasons of television in full.)

With that in mind, here are the five episodes of Hannibal you have to see before the season 3 premiere.

​Hannibal‘s third season premieres this Thursday on NBC. For more, read EW’s review of the premiere and hear from Bryan Fuller about one of his most important rules for the show.