''Clarice'' is a 2021 American

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...

television series created by

Alex Kurtzman Alexander Hilary Kurtzman (born September 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his work on the ''Star Trek'' franchise since 2009, co-writing the scripts to ''Transformers'' (2007), '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'' and ...

and

Jenny Lumet Jenny Lumet (born February 2, 1967) is an American actress and screenwriter. She is the daughter of director Sidney Lumet and granddaughter of Lena Horne. Lumet is perhaps most known for writing the original screenplay of the 2008 Jonathan Demme ...

and produced by CBS Studios,

MGM Television MGM Television Worldwide Group and Digital (alternatively Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television Group and Digital, commonly known as MGM Television and then-known as MGM/UA Television; common metonym: Lion) is an American television production/dis ...

, and Secret Hideout. It is based on the best-selling novel '' The Silence of the Lambs'' by

Thomas Harris William Thomas Harris III (born 1940/1941) is an American writer, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter. The majority of his works have been adapted into films and television, the most notab ...

and set between the events of the 1991 film and '' Hannibal'' (2001). The series stars Rebecca Breeds as the titular character, along with Lucca De Oliveira, Devyn A. Tyler,

Kal Penn Kalpen Suresh Modi (born April 23, 1977), known professionally as Kal Penn, is an American actor, author, academic lecturer, and former White House staff member in the Barack Obama administration. As an actor, he is known for his role portrayin ...

Nick Sandow Nick Sandow (born August 3, 1966) is an American actor, writer, producer and director, best known for his role as Joe Caputo in ''Orange Is the New Black''. Early life Of Italian descent, Sandow grew up in the Italian neighborhood of Van Nest ...

Michael Cudlitz Michael Cudlitz (born December 29, 1964) is an American actor known for portraying John Cooper in the NBC/ TNT drama series '' Southland'' for which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2013 ...

, and Marnee Carpenter. The series premiered on February 11, 2021, on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. In May 2021, CBS entered negotiations to relocate the series to

Paramount+ Paramount+ is an American subscription video on-demand service owned by Paramount Global. The service's content is drawn primarily from the libraries of CBS Media Ventures (including CBS Studios), Paramount Media Networks (formerly Viacom Media ...

for its second season. By June, the relocation became "unlikely" to happen.

Cast

Main

* Rebecca Breeds as

Clarice Starling Clarice M. Starling is a fictional character and protagonist of the novels '' The Silence of the Lambs'' (1988) and ''Hannibal'' (1999) by Thomas Harris. In the 1991 film adaptation of ''The Silence of the Lambs'', she was played by Jodie Foster ...

as Paul Krendler * Lucca De Oliveira as Tomas Esquivel *

as Shaan Tripathi *

as Murray Clarke * Devyn A. Tyler as Ardelia Mapp * Marnee Carpenter as Catherine Martin

Recurring

* Shawn Doyle as Clarice's original therapist *

Jayne Atkinson Jayne Atkinson (born 18 February 1959) is a British-American actress. She is best known for the role of Karen Hayes on '' 24'', as well as her Tony Award–nominated roles in '' The Rainmaker'' and '' Enchanted April''. She has also appeared in ...

United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

Ruth Martin * K. C. Collins as Agent Garrett *

Tim Guinee Timothy S. Guinee (born November 18, 1962) is an American stage, television, and feature-film actor. Primarily known for his roles as Tomin in the television series ''Stargate SG-1'' (1997–2007) and railroad entrepreneur Collis Huntington AMC ...

as Novak *

Peter McRobbie Peter McRobbie (born 31 January 1943) is a Scottish-born American character actor, best known for his roles as John C. Twist in the 2005 romantic drama film '' Brokeback Mountain'', Mike Sheenan in the 2006 action film ''16 Blocks'', Pop Pop ...

as Nils Hagen * Douglas Smith as Tyson Conway * Simon Northwood as Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb

Episodes

Production

Development

In January 2020, CBS Studios hired

and

to create a sequel series to the 1991 film '' The Silence of the Lambs''. The series was among the 14 pilot episodes ordered by CBS in February and was fast-tracked to series the following March, as CBS was shut down and unable to film pilot episodes because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. CBS picked up the series on May 8 and announced in December a premiere of February 11, 2021, alongside a trailer release. Due to complicated rights issues of franchise characters between

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

and the Dino de Laurentiis Company, the series cannot feature or make reference to

Hannibal Lecter Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a Character (arts), fictional character created by the novelist Thomas Harris. Lecter is a serial killer who Human cannibalism, eats his victims. Before his capture, he was a respected Forensic psychiatry, forensic psychi ...

. Kurtzman explained, "I'm still trying to understand how the rights are divided. But it's been quite liberating because we have no interest in writing about Hannibal—not because we didn't love the films and the show, but because it was done so well by so many people that it didn't feel fresh for us." In May 2021, CBS entered negotiations to relocate the series to

for its second season. By June, the relocation became "unlikely" to happen, despite it never being officially cancelled.

Casting

Rebecca Breeds was cast as

in February 2020. Lucca De Oliveira and Devyn A. Tyler were cast in starring roles.

, and

joined the main cast. Marnee Carpenter was cast as a series regular while

, Shawn Doyle, and

were cast in recurring roles. Douglas Smith joined the cast in a recurring capacity.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

for the series began on September 21, 2020, in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. Filming of the first season concluded on March 23, 2021.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series has an approval rating of 37% based on reviews from 43 critics, with an average rating of 6.11/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Effectively grim, but narratively bland, ''Clarice'' is a disturbingly safe procedural that lets down both its talented cast and source material."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gave the series a weighted average score of 55 out of 100 based on 32 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Ratings

References

External links

* * {{Alex Kurtzman 2020s American crime drama television series 2020s American horror television series 2020s American mystery television series 2020s American police procedural television series 2021 American television series debuts 2021 American television series endings American sequel television series American prequel television series American television spin-offs Cannibalism in fiction CBS original programming English-language television shows Fiction about familicide Hannibal Lecter mass media Psychological horror Serial drama television series Interquel television series Television productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic Television series about fictional serial killers Television series about the Federal Bureau of Investigation Television series by CBS Studios Television series by MGM Television Television series created by Alex Kurtzman Television shows filmed in Toronto Television series set in 1993 Television shows about diseases and disorders Television shows based on American novels Television shows set in Washington, D.C. Works about psychoanalysis