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Clarice

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews

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56

USER SCORE

Generally unfavorable reviews based on 17 Ratings

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3.2

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3.2	Your Score
3.2	User Score Generally unfavorable reviews based on 17 Ratings

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Clarice

Series Details & Credits

CBS | Release Date: February 11, 2021

Summary: Six months after the events of "The Silence of the Lambs," FBI Agent Clarice Starling (Rebecca Breeds) begins a new case in the series co-created by Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet.

Genre(s): Drama

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Recent Episodes

tbd
S1:E13. Family is Freedom
Air Date: June 24, 2021
tbd
S1:E12. Father Time
Air Date: June 17, 2021
tbd
S1:E11. Achilles Heal
Air Date: June 10, 2021

See all Seasons and Episodes

Metascore

56

Positive:

11

Mixed:

17

Negative:

5

Critic Reviews

83

Colorado Springs Gazette

Terry Terrones

Feb 8, 2021

Season 1 Review: A stellar cast and detailed storytelling make “Clarice” addictively enjoyable. Read full review

80

TV Guide

Kelly Connolly

Feb 1, 2021

Season 1 Review: There are enough ways this show could have gone wrong that it's worth celebrating how easy it makes it look to get the most important thing right. Clarice does Clarice proud. Read full review

70

Reason.com

Glenn Garvin

Feb 16, 2021

Season 1 Review: Aiding Clarice considerably is the performance of Australian actress Rebecca Breeds (Pretty Little Liars) as Starling. Breeds wisely patterns her diffident, even shy, Clarice after that of Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs, cloaking her intellectual capacity in bashful humility toward authority that sometimes cracks open to reveal repressed rage. Read full review

50

Collider Jeff Sneider

Feb 1, 2021

Season 1 Review: It's a promising-enough pilot, but unfortunately, Episode 2 all but abandons that story in favor of a new assignment that finds the VICAP team deployed to Tennessee, where the FBI is laying siege against a fringe militia group known as The Statesmen. Episode 2 is where the series really stumbles, as everything gets wrapped up in a neat bow replete with sappy music. Read full review

50

USA Today

Kelly Lawler

Feb 11, 2021

Season 1 Review: There might be decent cop show beneath the layers of aggressive stylization. Writers are more willing to address racism than many similar network cop shows. ... But constantly linking it to the Hannibal story is a reach, undermining what makes the series unique. But through the mess of moths and unbearable moodiness, it's hard to see anything else. Read full review

40

Time

Judy Berman

Feb 11, 2021

Season 1 Review: Frustratingly superficial psychological thriller. Read full review

20

Decider

Meghan O'Keefe

Feb 11, 2021

Season 1 Review: Clarice, the character, has been turned into a quivering mess, and Clarice, the show, makes the fatal mistake of thinking that Clarice’s trauma is the most interesting thing about her. ... The real problem with CBS’s version of Clarice stems from the writing. ... While Episodes 2 and 3 show promising signs of Clarice using her investigative skills, that’s all undermined by scenes where supporting characters can get her to unravel with a few mundane questions. Read full review

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3.2

User Reviews

9

LISOCHIKOTOSA

Feb 15, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A solid pilot episode,it shows a very strong, though traumatized lead character who has a very resilient appeal. This is coupled with all the typical depictions of an FBI with egotistic, arrogant and misogynistic men. A good watch , excited to see whats next… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

8

Tss5078

Jan 31, 2022

Clarice is or rather was a mind-bending thriller that told the tale of Special Agent Clarice Starling's life in between the events of Silence of The Lambs and Hannibal. It was only on the air for a short time, because you didn't watch it! Why didn't people watch it, three reasons. One, itClarice is or rather was a mind-bending thriller that told the tale of Special Agent Clarice Starling's life in between the events of Silence of The Lambs and Hannibal. It was only on the air for a short time, because you didn't watch it! Why didn't people watch it, three reasons. One, it doesn't feature Hannibal Lechter in any way (input collective groan here). Two, it was continuous, rather than episonic, meaning the season followed a single story, rather than having Clarice do battle with a different psychopath every week. and Three, the producers of the film did a series about Hannibal Lechter a few years back, that was weird, confusing, and basically awful, but they weren't the ones behind Clarice. Clarice was the brain child of Star Trek producer, Alex Kurtzman, and for all intense and purposes, it was Silence of The Lambs. Everything from the location headers to the music and lighting were exactly the same. The story literally takes place weeks after the incident with Buffalo Bill, and had it been successful, would have finished with the events leading up to Hannibal. The story begins with Clarice (Rebecca Breeds) being assigned to join a new task force, created by now Attorney General, Ruth Martin. Many believe that the young agent isn't ready to be part of such a high profile task force, and she's only there because she saved the A.G.'s daughter. Their first case is to investigate the discovery of three woman found brutally murdered and dumped in a local river. The lead agent of the task force, Paul Krendler (Michael Cudlitz) sees the case as straight forward, there is another psychopath on the loose, but Clarice disagrees and goes off on her own to investigate. This show has serious Silence of The Lambs vibes. The producers have gone to great lengths to make everything specific to the time period and film, even Rebecca Breeds, the actress who plays Clarice, looks like Jodie Foster and has a similar accent. As for the story, it obviously had to be toned down somewhat for network television, but it is every bit as chilling, mind-bending, and creepy as the film was. At first, I had my doubts, because after all wasn't this series completely about Hannibal? One would think so, until seeing this show. Similar to the Netflix series, Mindhunter, the focus of Clarice is on the profilers and the people who hunt serial killers, the only difference being, that they are actively hunting killers. I loved this series, from character development to a story that turned out to be much more complex that it originally looked. In my opinion Clarice was a better sequel to Silence of The Lambs than Hannibal was. Odd when you consider the fact that Hannibal Lechter plays no part in it. Rebecca Breeds leaves her soap opera life behind and has a career defining role. It's too bad she was only a kid when Hannibal was made, because I'd take her over Julianne Moore in a heartbeat. The story was great, the cast was excellent, I really would have loved to see where the series went, and learned more about how Clarice went from being the wide eye naive agent to the jaded woman she became in the sequel, but as is often the case with network television, I guess I'll never know.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

7

Planetvibz

May 14, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I can understand viewer disappointment in Clarice failing to reach the high directorial bar set by Michael Mann (Manhunter) and Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) in their respective outings with Thomas Harris material. These entries have come to be universally recognised as respective masterpieces in the genre so perhaps the comparison is slightly unfair (and the 2.6 User Score is a bit ridiculous IMHO). Within the censorship constraints of a network series, Clarice is perfectly bingeable entertainment with crisp (occasionally humorous) dialogue, likeable characters and a good sense of time and place (early 1990's).

It is, as others have commented, let down by overly long and wrought flashbacks experienced by the titular character. As artful as these scenes are, a 'less is more' editorial discipline would have better assisted the story. Curiously (and I suspect unintentionally), these scenes also tend to play into the misogynistic narrative that female emotional responses to adversity, compromise performance. In the Demme film, the sense of desolation, cold damp stone, winter dirt, physical and mental decay and perversion, was palpable and perfectly accompanied by a sparse and haunting soundtrack. In Clarice, there is a similar attempt to capture this atmosphere but it quickly becomes mismatched as the story arc moves from its gritty opening into the territory of a high level political conspiracy trope.
Despite the above, I think there is enormous scope for a second season which, with some taut gritty plotting and editing, can become a true network gem.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

2

globalnomad

Jun 19, 2021

Here we go again with the formulaic, legacy-broadcast mediocrity à la Criminal Minds and CSI: A circle of smart people gather round and each one in turn says something astute and helpful, resulting in epiphanies. Only a small notch above Criminal Minds, the show is stuck way down in the wellHere we go again with the formulaic, legacy-broadcast mediocrity à la Criminal Minds and CSI: A circle of smart people gather round and each one in turn says something astute and helpful, resulting in epiphanies. Only a small notch above Criminal Minds, the show is stuck way down in the well and will never reach anything like the level of Silence of the Lambs.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

2

Redleg1971

Feb 22, 2021

I watched the first episode and part of the second of this new CBS series, which is based on the movie and book The Silence of the Lambs. I have to say, it kinda sucked! The actress who plays Clarice Starling uses a ridiculous southern accent that is distracting, and grates on my ears.I watched the first episode and part of the second of this new CBS series, which is based on the movie and book The Silence of the Lambs. I have to say, it kinda sucked! The actress who plays Clarice Starling uses a ridiculous southern accent that is distracting, and grates on my ears. Because this series is on a network, it limits what could have been done with the characters and the dialogue, and relies heavily on over the top melodrama to provide artificial suspense, which is also extremely annoying and detracts from the story. Forget the unrealistic things that happen surrounding Clarice (she fights a hired killer twice her size, headbutts him, and beats him), this show just simply is not very good, and did not grab me. I couldn't even finish the second episode. It's a shadow of its former self. I should have known this would be the case as soon as I saw Kurtzman was involved. Hard pass.… Expand

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

1

Licherus

Jun 29, 2021

This show has nothing to do with the original character! Boring and stupid story, and of course the agenda in your face. Still waiting for Hannibal season 4

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

0

Scarymichaels

Feb 20, 2021

Old- fashioned and boring. The story loses the dramatic threads very quickly and the actress looks so fake...

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

SEE ALL 12 REVIEWS

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Seasons & Episodes

56

Series Overview
Season 1

56
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: February 11, 2021
- tbd
  S1:E13. Family is Freedom
  Air Date: June 24, 2021
- tbd
  S1:E12. Father Time
  Air Date: June 17, 2021
- tbd
  S1:E11. Achilles Heal
  Air Date: June 10, 2021
- tbd
  S1:E10. Motherless Child
  Air Date: June 3, 2021
- tbd
  S1:E9. Silence is Purgatory
  Air Date: May 13, 2021
- tbd
  S1:E8. Add-a-Bead
  Air Date: May 6, 2021
- tbd
  S1:E4. Silence is Purgatory
  Air Date: May 13, 2021
- tbd
  S1:E3. Silence is Purgatory
  Air Date: May 13, 2021