How complicated is brain surgery actually?

Neurosurgeons are typically portrayed in one of two ways in popular culture. One is as a brilliant, if arrogant, boffin. These doctors are intellectuals (it is brain surgery, after all) who have very little social life. Think of Dr Jack Shephard, the protagonist of “Lost”, a television series, or Doctor Strange, a Marvel character. The other common depiction is as a mad scientist. At best, these characters perform unethical surgeries and, at worst, become cannibalistic serial killers, such as Hannibal Lecter.