TVThirty years ago, Hannibal Lecter was allowed to welcome FBI cadet Clarice Starling to the screen with much grittiness inside. We don’t need to tell you that ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ has since become a horror classic. Nor that it is a serious one red flag is when you are suddenly presented with fava beans and chianti on a date with a stranger. But do you need this new Streamz Series why is it streaming? Evelien Delgouffe is looking for it in our Viewing guide out for you.
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While no opportunity was missed in three decades to resuscitate the success of ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’ – there was ‘Hannibal’, the film where Julianne Moore took over from Jodie Foster and more recently ‘Hannibal’ the TV series – CBS is now taking a stab at reviving Thomas Harris’ book with a spin-off of ‘Clarice’. In it, “Pretty Little Liars” actress Rebecca Breeds plays the role of the fictional FBI agent Clarice Starling one year after the capture of female villain Buffalo Bill.
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Watch the trailer for ‘Clarice’ here
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Now hunted wild by the tabloid press, Clarice is persona non grata within the FBI. Her special method with which she managed to capture Bill has not done her reputation any good and that has earned her nicknames as ‘Frankenstein’s bride’. The series begins with a psychiatrist who lists Clarice as a lost cause and wants to put her on hold when an old acquaintance suddenly demands her to catch the next serial killer in line. Senator Ruth Martin, the mother of the last Buffalo Bill victim to survive thanks to Clarice’s intervention, is now a US Attorney General and wants to use Clarice’s media popularity in some way to score politically herself. But two murdered women in a river don’t make a serial killer, so who follows her gut feeling? That’s right, Clarice! No matter how many times her know-it-all male FBI colleagues tell her she’s emotionally unstable and better not blow too high of the tower. It doesn’t help the memory of a character who we thought went down in the history books as a heroine.
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But to put it in the words of Clarice 2.0 about a fishy business: “It always gets worse”. The story and the dialogues are of a disappointing superficiality and predictability that it makes us thin. No matter how many moths are artistically filmed flying against a lamp, references to hand lotion we have to sit out and flashbacks to Buffalo Bill and the waterhole we see, one person will always shine in absence: Hannibal Lecter. Due to rights issues, that name may not even be mentioned in this series. But what is Clarice without a muzzled sparring partner? Belle without Beast. But also just another woman who is muzzled by her environment, as this series shows.
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Streams or ships?
Skip. Fans of CBS series such as ‘CSI’ and ‘NCIS’ may have developed a higher tolerance for the stereotypical crime genre and may be excited that each episode comes with a new ‘case of the week’.
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Our judgment?
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‘Clarice’ can now be viewed on Streamz.
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Time left? Read all our others here streamingtips.
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