Clarice review!

At long last!

Here we go!

Previously with Hannibal-verse-

Hannibal re-watch.

Previously with this show-

-Announcement.

-Rebecca Breeds casting.

-Series plot details.

-Poster, trailers, and more casting and plot.

Well....I'm of a couple minds on the show, so let's break it down into pros and cons....

Pros.

A decent little police procedural.

I'd take it over SVU, that's for sure.

SVU is decent, but it gets pretty fucking repetitive.

"Clarice" had an arc that made it more like a 13 hour movie.

Critics say "it's like any other cop show, just with Lambs characters" but "every other cop show" since Lambs is inspired by Lambs, so it's really a cultural feedback loop.

It had potential, and could have gotten better with more seasons.

The story arc of the killer being a CEO instead of a blue-collar serial killer was timely, and a nice twist from the usual crime story.

The arc with Ardelia fighting racism in the department was good stuff, and deserved more seasons to breathe.

The Jen Richards arc was great.

Wish we could have seen more of her character.

Didn't blow me away, or hit it out of the park, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

I could have stood to see more.

Cons.

First and foremost, it's fucking cancelled.

Fuck you, MGM, for taking your ball and going home, so it can't even come back on cable or streaming.

Fuck you, CBS, for taking 5 fucking months to play 13 fucking episodes.

Kee-rist!!

The nation got vaccinated in the time it took!!

The whole legal rights issue shit where they couldn't mention Hannibal, or Graham, or Crawford, or Chilton did hamper it quite a bit.

They worked around it cleverly, but they shouldn't have had to.

Not as good as "Hannibal" (the series) but "Hannibal" is a genuine masterpiece, so equaling or topping that wasn't gonna happen.

Some people needed to tamp down their expectations.

Ehhh, coulda done with less wallowing in the iconography like the death's head moth, and Buffalo Bill, and precious, and "put the lotion in the basket!" but....maybe they thought mainstream audiences needed their hands held to lure them over to it.

Future seasons could have made it so it stood on its own continuity instead of riding Lambs's coattails.

Sorta-cliffhanger ending.

Which is always inevitable with a sudden cancellation.

Final thoughts.

Yeah, I'll be adding the blu-rays of this (one and only) season to my Hannibal-verse collection.

I mean, I've got "Red Dragon" and "Hannibal Rising" and this is easily better than those.

The only bright side I can find in this mess of CBS and MGM blowing it, is maybe now Bryan Fuller can have an easier time getting "Hannibal" revived for a season 4, or a movie, to do his adaptation of Lambs.

And maybe Rebecca Breeds can be Clarice in that.

Y'know, like a meta-crossover thing.

Like J. Jonah Jameson in "Spider-Man: Far From Home"

Same actor, same character, different universe in the multiverse.

There was a whole rabbit hole I almost wanted to go down of women being the biggest audience for true crime documentaries, and serial killer dramas, and Clarice as a character being the seeds for a lot of, if not all of that, but....that needs to be a big essay in its own post someday.

Suffice to say, I'm glad this show got to see the light of day (even if for one measly season) to close up that particular culture loop.

"Clarice" will be missed, but will live on in my video file cabinet if not on the air.

But, who knows what the future holds?