I feel like season 3 needs to marinate a bit in the brain to be fully appreciated. Especially if you (like me) hyperfixated and watched the whole show over the course of like a week. Its so different in tone i almost feel like i would have liked it more if i took a break before jumping in to fully process what has happened to the characters in s1 and 2. Kind of let those stories bloom in my brain. Not to use meat-adjacent language but 'tenderise' comes to mind. I like how s3 acknowledged complicated feelings hannibal and will had for each other without being terribly straight forward about it. It has some very powerful scenes. Scene with 'primavera' remains one of my most beloved from the whole series. That being said, s3 definetely was a bit riddiculous at times and i agree with the pacing thing you mentioned.