Clarice

Breeds labors mightily in the role, but she is not quite convincing as a single-minded, self-abnegating workaholic who lives on ramen and orange soda. ... Much more compelling are the show’s supporting cast. ... The series is an appropriate sequel to The Silence Of The Lambs — and certainly a better one than the 2001 feature film Hannibal, which was less interested in those ideas. But in order to reach the artistic heights the Hannibal TV series did, Clarice will have to step out from Silence Of The Lambs’s shadow and stop trying so hard to ape Demme’s style.

Clarice is a slightly above-average CBS crime procedural, distinctive less for anything it does than for its associations with better, more famous material. The fact that the show works at all — and on some occasions, thanks mainly to Breeds, truly succeeds — is on one hand a relief, given how easy it would be to screw up this material.

Perhaps this third episode bodes well for continued improvement, but in the early going, “Clarice” is meh-see TV. It’s fine but surely there are better TV dramas to pair with fava beans and a nice Chianti.

Starts promisingly enough but quickly fizzles over subsequent episodes. After a credible set-up drawing upon its origins, the show looks like a standard CBS crime procedural, and risks becoming a pretty flavorless dish.

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.

“Clarice” is not aiming for the moon; it is aiming for — and achieves — CBS cop show. It’s a franchise in search of a purpose.

Through three episodes sent to critics, it's unclear whether this attempt to tell the story as a broadcast procedural with a full, serialized mystery arc will ever amount to anything more than a prehensile tail clinging to a beloved property. ... What keeps Clarice only slightly disappointing instead of infuriating is that Kurtzman, Lumet and Breed really do have a solid grasp on Clarice Starling as a character and even some thoughtful ideas about how the events of Silence of the Lambs impacted her.

The absence of Lecter and his indelible dynamic with Clarice leaves a huge void that Clarice struggles to fill. The result is a disappointingly run-of-the-mill procedural — another dark, grim Criminal Minds clone with a shiny brand name slapped on the front of it.

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.

There is an interesting drama to be written about the future adventures of Agent Starling. Clarice (Alibi), unfortunately, isn’t it, but rather a by-numbers procedural.

It tells instead of shows, maybe because its visuals are consumed with the stylistic tics of network procedurals: a saturated color palette, recurring images slowed down to a nightmarish crawl, exterior shots so gloomy, they’re almost Stygian. This is storytelling that feels the need to constantly regain its audience’s attention after each commercial break. More troubling, though, is the show’s tenuous conception of its central character.

The three episodes provided for review mainly reveal a losing struggle against the past – not merely the character's but that of the franchise. ... [Breed's] efforts keep us from writing off "Clarice" entirely.

Frustratingly superficial psychological thriller.

For a show that is trying to be ambitious, it falls prey to far too many clichés, and an unrealistic glorification of Clarice.

From its supporting cast—with each character a particular type, per CBS’ “CSI” and “Criminal Minds” custom—to a main mystery that has all the blandness of a very special “Law and Order,” “Clarice” (which premieres on CBS on February 11) feels like a confluence of missed opportunities.