UPDATE: CW has picked up Beauty & the Beast for three more scripts.
I took a gander at The CW’s newly re-imagined version of Beauty and the Beast starring Kristin Kreuk (Smallville) and Jay Ryan (Terra Nova) in the title roles and I’ve got to say, I rather enjoyed it.
The show has gotten mixed reviews, but I’m a sucker for romance, supernatural or otherwise. Ryan smolders on screen as Vincent Keller, and the sparks fly with co-star Kreuk as Detective Catherine “Cat” Chandler.
Having never really gotten into the previous Beauty and the Beast incarnation starring Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton, I really had nothing to compare this show with (aside from the fairy tale and Disney’s version of it).
In this version of the age-old tale, Keller is a beast by human intervention. Once a human guinea pig in a military super-soldier experiment, Keller is targeted for death by the military after the experiment goes awry. See, when he is enraged, he’s unable to control his super-human strength and heightened senses.
Under the guise of his supposed death, Keller returns home but must remain underground and in the shadows as he is still a hunted man. He does so with the help of his childhood friend, Forbes (Austin Basis).
The story begins in 2003, when Cat is just a lowly student studying for her LSATs and working in a bar. She is witness to her mother’s grisly murder, and just as she’s about to meet the same fate as her mom, someone — or something — races in to save her. Over the years, no one believes that her savior is some human monster; everyone chalks it up to her hysteria and a forest animal. Fast forward to present day where we find Cat a detective with the NYPD where she once again encounters her rescuer to find out it is Vincent.
So, I can suspend disbelief that this gorgeously hot guy is a “beast,” and while they try to “ugly” him up with a scar and some prosthetics when he goes beastly, he’s still just eye candy to me. I can also suspend disbelief that he has lived in seclusion (somewhat) in an abandoned loft with his buddy (who has an Iron Man-Stark Industries-type setup in his living room). I can suspend disbelief that he roams the streets at night, saving innocent people from various crimes.
What I can’t believe is that Cat makes detective with the NYPD in less than ten years? From once being a student studying for her LSATs to deciding to join the NYPD to being a beat cop to becoming a detective? I guess it can happen, but it seems highly unlikely. Funny that I couldn’t get past that bit of the storyline, yet the other things I could.
Putting that aside, however, the show held my interest enough to make me want to see what happens next week … and that’s a good thing.
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