Street Date: September 30

Official Synopsis:
A time-tested fairy-tale received a modern-day update--and made an unlikely sex symbol of bearish actor Ron Perlman--in the late-1980s television drama Beauty And The Beast. Created by Ron Koslow (Birds Of Prey), the series centers on the love between New York district attorney Catherine Chandler (Linda Hamilton, The Terminator) and a deformed but chivalric man-beast named Vincent (Perlman, City Of Lost Children), who lives in the city's labyrinthine underground passageways along with an entire community of fellow outcasts. As Catherine's crime-fighting duties frequently place her in mortal danger, Vincent is there to save her from harm and share a star-crossed love that can never be consummated, providing the series with much of its achingly romantic appeal. Fueled by equal parts mystery, romance, and fantasy, Beauty And The Beast is resurrected in this collection that presents all three seasons of the series.
 
Our Take:
Watching Beauty and the Beast as an adult, I realize now that the show was a soap opera more than anything else. Of course, when it debuted on television back in the 80's, I thought it was just a cool genre show with a man-lion protecting a beautiful woman (that sounds so much less cool on paper than I thought it would.) Regardless of what it's classified as, I watched the show religiously back in the day. As a series with a huge cult following, Beauty and the Beast was very successful for a short while and then sort of faded into obscurity.

Naturally, I was extremely nervous about how it would play in the present. Properties from the 80's can age particularly badly, so I was hesitant to see my fond memories of one of my early geek-favorites get ruined. Amazingly, the early seasons of the show show somehow hold up. I won't say that it's every bit as great as I remember it, and of course, some of the special effects and costumes come up short, but the heart of the show was always the relationship between Vincent and Catherine. I'm happy to report that that relationship still rings true and the show is still very enjoyable. Yes, it has some cheesy moments, but if you were a fan of Beauty and the Beast when it was on the air, I see no reason why you wouldn't still enjoy it very much.

Season Two continued its nice balance between stand alone episodes that just deal with various criminals, miscreants, underdwellers and the like, and more mythology-based episodes dealing with the history of Below, Paracelsus, Father, and Vincent's past. That balance keeps the show interesting, and while some episodes are clearly much stronger than others, by and large the show remained quite good overall. Plus, you can never get tired of a man-beast riding on top of a subway.

I’m guessing that by the time the third season of Beauty and the Beast rolled around, the creative forces behind the show knew that it’s time was up. It’s a shame, too, as it was really good for the first two seasons, but it seems as if all the behind-the-scenes turmoil prevented the show from continuing. I’m not sure the reasons for it exactly (although I suspect Linda Hamilton wanted out), but the main character of Catherine Chandler was killed off early in season three, which fans were none too happy about. While the resulting episodes of the series introduced a new “beauty” (Jo Anderson’s Diana Bennett), there was never the chemistry that Ron Perlman and Hamilton had on screen. The show was on the bubble, ratings-wise, but killing Catherine was the final nail in the coffin as far as viewers were concerned.

That being said, Vincent’s quest for his and Catherine’s son and his search for vengeance against Gabriel, the man who killed Catherine (and played by the always-excellent Stephen McHattie), do make for some decent television watching. The episodes are actually not bad; if only Catherine wasn’t dead, I think fans could easily accept this as a good season of the show. Unfortunately, the ratings couldn’t bear it, and that was the end of the series.

Beauty and the Beast: The Complete Series collects all three seasons worth of DVDs into one very nicely packaged set. Inside the box are three separate book-styled DVD cases. The set includes all the original extra features (of which there are barely any) as well as a limp bonus disc that really isn’t worth the plastic it’s minted on. Sadly, this is a show that’s apparently destined never to have any good extra features. If you already own the individual seasons, this isn’t really worth the upgrade, sadly. Here’s what you get:

* Season Two Intros - Six episode introductions from series stars Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton. While each intro is only about three minutes long, that adds up to what is essentially an 18-minute interview with the stars of the show.

* Vincent’s Journey – An interactive trivia game. It’s pretty lame, the type of thing that makes you wonder why the studio bothered to spend the money.

* Love Letters – Segments from four episodes with a voice over of Vincent reading love letters to Catherine.

* Newly Reconstructed Love Letters – Newly compiled love letters read aloud to footage from various episodes. Ron Perlman or a sound-alike? I’m not sure.

Beauty and the Beast was a great show in its time. It’s aged considerably and the third season is missing much of the magic of the first two, but this is ultimately a nice collection for fans, even if the extra features are pretty weak. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go find a subway car to ride on top of.

Overall Picture:
Show: B
DVD set: B-

- Mike Spring

Editor