Beauty and the Beast - The Final Season
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Linda HamiltonBrand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 543 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-02-05
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of Beauty and the Beast - The Final Season
Movie Review: A fairytale must remain a fairytale (SPOILERS)
Summary: 3 Stars
Note: This review contains spoilers. Anyone who was a fan of this series will want to have this season in their collection. After all, a collection isn't a collection unless it's complete. Having said that however, the choices made by the writers and producers of "Beauty and the Beast" were poor. This story--at its core--is a fairytale. Fairytales must have happy endings, or they're not fairytales. It wasn't worth twelve rather unsatisfying episodes to compromise the integrity of the fairytale genre. It would have been much more rewarding--and honest--to have ended the series with Catherine realizing that she had done all she had set out to do in the world above--and joyfully accepting that her future would properly be spent with Vincent, and their son, in the world below. Having Vincent lose his empathic connection with Catherine was a big mistake, since that bond is the entire premise on which their relationship was based. Killing off Catherine was, of course, the ultimate error--because it simply is not the way a "true" fairytale should end. Season III, in and of itself, isn't wholly "bad" television, but it is mediocre. It actually contains some fine moments, particularly for some of the secondary and recurring guest characters (such as Joe Maxwell and Elliot Burch, respectively). In addition, unlike some other reviewers, I found the character of Diana quite interesting, primarily because what she and Vincent develop is a friendship. It could not possibly be more. However, the evil characters in this season were silly and boring--and too much time was spent on them. The season would have redeemed itself far better if they had spent more time on a more romantic storyline, since the whole series was intended to be a romance. For example, they could have focused on Joe's coming to terms with the love he felt for (but never expressed to) Catherine--AND they could have developed a meeting/friendship between Joe and Vincent. (After all, the love Joe felt for Catherine was far less selfish than what Elliot felt for her.) Or, they might have pursued a romantic interest developing between Joe and Diana--perhaps even with Vincent's help. Joe Maxwell, in particular, was a wonderful character who was left wholly unresolved in the series, and that is unfortunate. Although I still believe the third season never should have happened--there are ways in which it could have been better.
Summary of Beauty and the Beast - The Final Season
Once upon a time is now and forever: Beauty and the Beast: The Third Season of the Emmy Award-winning, fan favorite show is more captivating than ever in this 3-disc collectible set. This unique fantasy-crime drama series features the adventures and romance between Vincent, a mythic, noble man-beast and Catherine, a savvy assistant DA in New York. These two share a strong, mystical bond that enables Vincent while in his underground lair to sense whenever Catherine is in danger in the World Above. In the powerful final season, Catherine, pregnant with Vincent?s child, becomes a victim to a murderous drug-lord who steals her baby from her after she gives birth. Drawing strength from the everlasting love and unbreakable bond he and Catherine share, Vincent relentlessly pursues her killer, determined to bring him to justice and to rescue their child. Synopsis for Seasons 1 & 2: The Beauty and the Beast TV show was a fantasy series about a man-beast (Vincent) and his love for a beautiful assistant district attorney (Catherine Chandler). Vincent lived in an underground world beneath New York City where his gruesome looks were less important to his peers than were his caring and benevolent personality. Together, Vincent and Catherine had many adventures both above and below ground level and their love for each other continued to grow.Beauty and the Beast's controversial final year plays like a one-arc epilogue. The impression comes from a change in direction and a smaller slate of episodes (12 instead of 22). While the second ended with the suggestion that Catherine (Linda Hamilton) had met her maker, two-part premiere "Though Lovers Be Lost" confirms that she's healthy--and pregnant--but Vincent (Ron Perlman) can no longer sense when she's in danger. Then Catherine takes on a case that jeopardizes her life, and Vincent arrives too late to save the day. Fans felt betrayed by the development, since the two were presented as soul mates rather than tragic lovers (Hamilton left the show because she and husband James Cameron were expecting a baby). With Paracelsus vanquished the previous year, Gabriel (A History of Violence's Steven McHattie) steps in as resident bad guy. Before he orders Catherine killed, Gabriel absconds with her son. Thereafter, the opening changes to reflect a focus on Vincent. While he teams up with Catherine's former flame, Elliot Burch (Edward Albert), to catch her killer, district attorney Joe Campbell (Jay Acovone) and detective Diana Bennett (new cast member Jo Anderson, portraying a harder-edged character) work towards the same goal. Their obstacles include Gabriel's henchman Snow (Millennium's Lance Henriksen as an icy blond) and two drug kingpins (played by Ugly Betty's Tony Plana and Medium's Miguel Sandoval).
Despite its tarnished reputation--and higher body count--Beauty and the Beast's third season averts disaster for the most part. If Vincent and Diana share a lower-wattage chemistry, they still work well together, and the rest of the cast offers good value, particularly Perlman and Roy Dotrice, who would re-team in 2008 for another adventure about a misunderstood man-beast, Guillermo Del Toro's Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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