Beauty and the Beast: The Complete Second Season (2007)

6 Discs DVD

Do you remember before Ron Perlman was known as Hellboy and before Linda Hamilton was known almost exclusively as the ass-kicking Sarah Connor from the first two Terminator flicks? Well, before all that for these two actors, there was this: Beauty and the Beast, the show that put both of them on the map, although moreso for Perlman, who won a Golden Globe for his work in this season and was nominated for an Emmy in the first two seasons. Well get ready to take a blast back to the syrupy past with this second season of Beauty and the Beast.

I remember the show from when I was a kid. Not watching it, really, but I remember catching glimpses of this weird-looking lion thing when my moms would watch it. I can tell now that I really didn't miss much. Perlman and Hamilton do both deserve acclaim for their performances as Vincent, the man-beast who lives in an oddly-lavish tunnel system and Catherine, a tough-ish assistant DA in New York City. I'm really surprised, however, that this was such a critically acclaimed series back in the day.

Creator/writer Ron Koslow seems to be more about the music and theatrics, more about creating a symphony rather than a television show. The beauty of this shows throughout, but the beast of it is that it can be some pretty boring stuff a lot of the time. The few sporadic bits of humor they try to sprinkle in here and there are laughless and the brunt of the writing seems to be devoted to cornball romantic sentiment, and not so much concerned with an actual story arc or plotline.

It seems that the wonderful performances from Hamilton and Perlman seem to just slightly balance out the story work here... but I'm talking about the slightest of balance.

Lame. All they have here are some Video Introductions by Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman before selected episodes. They only have these intros on five of the 22 episodes and while we get maybe a decent tidbit here and there, they're mostly worthless. Other features wouldn't hurt, either...

If you own a lot of Danielle Steel or romance novels, this should surely be for you. If you have a girlfriend who owns a lot of Danielle Steel or romance novels, this should surely be a good gift for you to get her. If you like Ron Perlman a LOT, this is for you. If you don't fall into any of these categories, this probably isn't your bag, baby.