The story of Clarice is an intriguing case of how the rights to a franchise can sometimes prove to be an obstacle for an adaptation and as a result, this connects to the work in an interesting and often confusing way. Although the series Clarice that aired on CBS and was created by Alex Kurtzman came about because of the popularity of The Silence of the Lambs, it was, however, restricted from utilizing the character of Dr. Hannibal Lecter because of the rights. This forced the series itself to take the character of Rebecca Breeds who plays Clarice Starling a year after the film’s story and runs around the investigation of several murders and sexual crimes committed in Washington D.C.
But the lack of these characters and several others that existed within the Hannibal universe turned this into a very procedural thriller that in effect bore a lot of resemblance to the stories in Enos – Criminal Investigations rather than to the beautiful about psychological instabilities and gripping feeling of Hannibal. The series was not able to recreate the discordant atmosphere and tragic sensations that The Silence of the Lambs had, and hence the impression of it, was more of a routine drama film about crimes. Even with the pretensions of disclosing Clarice’s problems and what she had to endure because of violence in the past, still, nothing could be said about the sequels of the latter movies’ series.
Clarice only aired for a single season and it didn’t have any particular highlights on its demise. The show stands as a clear example of how convoluted various rights which form a franchise can absolutely ruin even the most interesting of projects and transform what was to be a thrilling insight into a much adored character and explain it away as yet another run of the mill police drama.