Lecter wriggled inside of Clarice's psyche and at this point in the story has escaped and is seeking out his next accompaniment to favas beans and a nice chianti, Clarice is haunted more by the image of Bill and the clouds of death's-head hawkmoths infesting her brain. Welcome the world of rights issues: MGM, which produces "Clarice," only has the rights to characters and storylines created for "The Silence of the Lambs." The De Laurentiis Company, which produced Bryan Fuller's "Hannibal" series, owns the rights to the character of Hannibal Lecter. ![]() Lecter's name uttered in "Clarice," nor will you see him. The answer to both can be captured in a word that's also a passionately adored TV title: "Hannibal." This aspect of the drama could give it some meat, if the series can persuade viewers to get past what "Clarice" isn't, or what it's missing. Nevertheless series creator Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet try their damndest to flesh out what we know about Clarice by digging into the lasting effects of the trauma she must have sustained while contending with the rank misogyny within the Bureau that a woman like Agent Starling would have to overcome. Placing a new take on Clarice Starling (courtesy of Australian actor Rebecca Breeds) doesn't make the imagery or the violence it illustrates any fresher, or illuminate anything we don't already think we know about the young FBI agent herself. My brains registers these recurring images as, what, latex maybe?ĭon't mistake my meaning here – these are all disgusting sights, but we've seen them time and again on this network and elsewhere. but not before flashbacks showing Buffalo Bill sewing what is supposed to be the lotioned skin of his victims. We do know that close-ups on nibbled waterlogged corpses are no great shakes these days, and we encounter them in the premiere of "Clarice". Would the procedurals evocative of the CBS brand look as they do if Demme's film hadn't been such a runaway hit? We can't know the answer to that question. ![]() ![]() Some may remember that inaugural "CSI" star William Petersen played Thomas Harris' FBI profiler Will Graham in Michael Mann's 1986 "Red Dragon" adaptation "Manhunter." Once we add that to the equation the status of "Clarice" stands as something of an ouroboros both in popular culture and for CBS, cycling back to the start of it all. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" kicked its popularity into high gear, leading to the eventual arrival of "Criminal Minds" and its endless parade of women in cages, freezers, boxes, hidden sheds, what have you. Entire drama franchises around lurid murders and the dedicated, complex men and women who solve them inform the look and execution of TV procedural to this day. Three decades have passed since Jonathan Demme's multiple Oscar-winning film first hit theaters, and in the wake of its success the fear and fascination that movie's cannibalistic antagonist struck in people gave rise to an entire subgenre of pop culture freakery. Sifting Clarice Starling through the CBS crimetime filter means we should know what to expect from "Clarice," the network's new take on the FBI agent made famous by "The Silence of the Lambs."
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |