Those who weren't watching the Vice Presidential Debate last night may have tuned into the CW to check out the series premiere of Beauty and the Beast, a drama based on Ron Koslow's 1987 Linda Hamilton-starring drama by the same name. The full premiere episode has arrived online, for those who didn't get to see it or want to watch it again.
Beauty and the Beast stars Kristin Kreuk as Cat Chandler, a homicide detective who was nearly killed as a teenager, but saved by a mystery-hero whose face she never sees. In the present day, she's working as a detective when a case causes her path to cross with Vincent Keller (Jay Ryan), a doctor who's supposed to be dead but is now living in seclusion and has a scar on his face. And so begins the story. There's obviously more to it than that, including a procedural-like format as Cat conducts a murder investigation.
Click the image below to watch the pilot.
My two biggest issues with the pilot are:
1) The Beast isn't much of a beast on the outside. Isn't the point of the story supposed to be that Beauty falls for him despite his looks? This guy could still pass for an Abercrombie & Fitch model. Maybe the "beast" thing is supposed to be more figurative, but still, eliminating the beastly factor from his looks almost entirely seems to miss a major point from the original story, especially when you consider the appearance of the original Beast (played by Ron Perlman) in Koslow's version. His 80s rockstar hairstyle and doggish-face made him a full on beast on the outside. But, I guess on a network like the CW, where all the leads are model-hot, a face scar and some glowing eyes would qualify Vincent Keller as beastly on the adjusted scale. Still, with the advancements in special effects and make-up these days, it feels like a missed opportunity. They could have beasted him up a bit more and still maintained some of the core hotness.
2) Did anyone else feel cheated by both of the Beast's fight sequences? There were two major Beast fights in the episode and Catherine was too out of it during both of them to really see what was going on. That was fine for the first fight, as it demonstrated that she couldn't get a good look at who or what helped her when she and her mother were attacked. But the second time around, during the subway scene, we get to see Kreuk throw down, which was fun, but when it came time for the Beast to fight, instead of blurred fighting, we got a bunch of shadows. Seriously? Blocking our view from the fight once in an episode works, but do it twice and it just seems like the show can't or won't do a proper fight scene - at least when it comes to the Beast. If we're supposed to believe Vince is a beast on the inside, if not so much on the outside, we need to see his moves. Wasted opportunity - especially for a pilot, which should be a demonstration of the show's potential, not a tease that never delivers.
The second point is fixable, as there will likely be plenty more opportunities for the Beast to throw-down, but I guess those who continue watching the series will just have to live with the eye-candy that is Vince. I'm sure many won't complain all that much.
I wasn't the only one who had issues with the pilot. Read Jessica's 5 Biggest Problems with the Beauty and the Beast premiere here.
What did you think? Love it? Hate it? Will you watch more?
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Beauty and the Beast airs Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET on the CW.
