SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
BBC America, 8:00 p.m. ET
Next month, CBS premieres Clarice, a new TV spinoff series based on Thomas Harris’ 1988 novel The Silence of the Lambs, so this seems a good time to revisit Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-winning 1991 film treatment. Clarice won’t be the first to draw inspiration from Harris’ serial-killer imaginings. Before Harris’ Lambs novel, in fact, the murderous Hannibal Lecter also was central to Harris’ 1981 novel Red Dragon – and the two novels have spawned, in addition to Demme’s fabulous film starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster, one other TV series (NBC’s Hannibal, from 2013-15), and such movies as 1986’s Manhunter, 2001’s Hannibal, 2002’s Red Dragon, and 2007’s Hannibal Rising. Taken together, that’s a lot of fava beans.