Silence of the Lambs was probably the best one, then Red Dragon, then Manhunter, are good too, but the other two you can skip I would say. I should watch the series as it does sound interesting.
Silence of the Lambs is a near perfect thriller, although I might have found Buffalo Bill to be much of a mustache twirling villain, when they could have made him more of an empathetic villain, like they did with The Tooth Fairy, but maybe not?
Nah, having no empathy is the whole point of Bill.
Tooth Fairy was bullied, tortured and generally damaged by his Grandmother. He was the embodiment of a system of abuse.
Bill though,
thought he wanted to be female... he even tried to get the procedure but was turned away from all the hospitals because of his violent and psychopathic tendencies... so, he went about it in his own way: Bill kidnaps large women and starves his victims, then he skins them so he can "become" a woman.
But, why should an antagonist need a reason?
The thing with Buffalo Bill, is that he sees no wrong in what he does.
He
takes what he wants in any way he sees fit... even if it means the torture and mutilation of a human being.
He's totally twisted rather than someone who "has reasons"... and that's what makes him such a powerful antagonist.
Also, credit needs to be given to Ted Levine for playing the role. Not many actors could or even would play a character like Buffalo Bill, let alone play it as well as he did.