What would Silence of the Lambs be with out Hannibal Lecter? The coldblooded cannibal genius performed by Anthony Hopkins is among the most iconic villains in movie historical past — however, resulting from nagging rights points, his identify can’t even be uttered in CBS’ new drama Clarice, which follows FBI agent Clarice Starling a 12 months after the occasions of Lambs.
The absence of Lecter and his indelible dynamic with Clarice leaves an enormous void that Clarice (premiering Thursday, Feb. 11 at 10/9c; I’ve seen the primary three episodes) struggles to fill. The result’s a disappointingly run-of-the-mill procedural — one other darkish, grim Prison Minds clone with a shiny model identify slapped on the entrance of it.
Within the wake of catching serial killer Buffalo Invoice, Clarice (performed by The Originals alum Rebecca Breeds) is a tabloid sensation, however is content material to remain out of the highlight crunching numbers behind a desk and dwelling on ramen noodles and Twizzlers. (She’s additionally misplaced contact with Catherine, the sufferer she rescued from Buffalo Invoice.) However she’s referred to as to D.C. by the brand new Lawyer Common — who’s additionally Catherine’s mom — and recruited to hitch a newly fashioned activity drive to catch serial killers. Clarice can’t appear to shake her lingering PTSD from the Buffalo Invoice ordeal, although, alongside together with her personal demons from childhood.
The premiere kicks off a serialized story thread that finds Clarice untangling a conspiracy to silence whistleblowers, however that simply serves as a skinny excuse to maintain Clarice on the job. In any other case, the circumstances of the week are bland and infrequently solved by Clarice magically getting criminals to blurt out confessions. (The Clarice of Lambs was a plucky everywoman, however right here, she’s a crime-solving savant.) Co-creators Jenny Lumet and Alex Kurtzman each work on Star Trek: Discovery and Picard, so that they’re used to revamping big-name manufacturers. However the ghost of Hannibal Lecter looms giant right here: With out the nice physician to spar with, Clarice isn’t all that fascinating.
Breeds has a frightening activity changing Jodie Foster’s Oscar-winning efficiency as Clarice, and he or she does an admirable job. (She nails the West Virginia accent, for one factor.) Nevertheless it’s onerous to not really feel like we’re being served a prettied-up, Hollywood model of Clarice, and it rings false that, given the robust bond she and Lecter had in Lambs, she’d barely point out him right here. In the meantime, the supporting solid is brief on memorable characters. Kal Penn solely will get to bark out exposition as agent Shaan Tripathi, and Devyn Tyler is usually diminished to taking part in the “Black Pal” as Clarice’s sounding board Ardelia. Worst of all, Michael Cudlitz — a superb actor with a prolonged TV résumé — performs Clarice’s superior Paul Krendler, who speaks completely in hard-boiled cop clichés and exists solely to be fully flawed at each flip. He’s not a personality; he’s an impediment, dictated by the plot.
The exploration of Catherine (Marnee Carpenter) and her residual trauma from her kidnapping does have potential: She nonetheless has Valuable the canine, and retains herself skinny as a result of Buffalo Invoice favored bigger girls. However the present’s psychology is shallow, and too usually confuses darkness for depth. It boils down advanced points like PTSD and childhood trauma and makes use of them simply so as to add creepy coloration. Clarice’s battle to be taken critically as a lady in a male-dominated discipline, such a key element of Silence of the Lambs, is relegated to a couple throwaway strains right here.
However Clarice isn’t additionally chasing Silence of the Lambs: It additionally pales compared to NBC’s magnificently unusual Hannibal, which deconstructed and elevated the Thomas Harris novels with a vicious, flamboyant aptitude. (Years later, it’s nonetheless astonishing that it managed to air for 3 seasons on a broadcast community.) It might have been too daring and bloody for some to abdomen (and that’s their loss), however Hannibal proved that, to efficiently adapt a well known property, one can’t afford to be timid. That’s finally Clarice‘s downfall: Like one in all Lecter’s victims, it appears drained of all vitality.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: It might have the Silence of the Lambs model identify behind it, however CBS’ Clarice is a disappointingly bland and grim procedural.