Offering a "Silence of the Lambs" spinoff that doesn't include Hannibal Lecter sounds as doomed as a Dracula tale without the Count himself.
But the producers behind "Clarice," premiering at 9 p.m. Thursday on CBS, intend to do just that. Not that they have a choice.
Due to divided licensing rights over the characters in Thomas Harris' novels, CBS can't even mention the Chianti-sipping cannibal. Instead, the drama will focus squarely on FBI Agent Clarice Starling, still reeling a year after consulting with, um, you know who.
The legal restrictions may end up as an advantage.
Lecter has already chewed up the scenery in an NBC drama and four feature films, including the 1991 masterpiece that cemented Anthony Hopkins' status as a movie star. But Starling has been missing in action since Julianne Moore played her in 2001's "Hannibal," even though the American Film Institute hailed the character as the greatest heroine in film history.
"Hannibal has been brought to life by extraordinarily talented artists, but Clarice has not been explored like that," said "Clarice" co-creator Jenny Lumet. "She has a depth and a mystery that we haven't examined yet. It's been a very male gaze. We haven't looked through her lenses. What's it like to be female and live in this world? What's it like to be sort of suddenly famous for saving a life and for defeating a monster?"
The series opens with Starling stonewalling a psychiatrist, even though visions of Buffalo Bill skinning his victims still haunt her. She prefers shuffling papers to hunting serial killers, refusing to answer messages from Catherine Martin, the woman she saved in the final moments of "Lambs."
But when she's called back into field duty, she's forced to deal with her demons, as well as Martin and her FBI nemesis, Paul Krendler.