I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

Better Late Then Never

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I remember the series well, though it is many years since I saw it. The acting is good and the romance was catching. The playing was very well done, mix of above and under ground. I wish there would be a rerun on TV today, but so far I have seen none running on any of the 200+ channels available here.As kid the title always mystified me "Beauty and the Beast". I questioned myself each time, who is the Beauty and who is the Beast. Remember beauty and beastly features is in the eye of the beholder. Strength, fairness and sense of doing what is right is also beautiful features.

Truly a great romance, these two people from very different worlds are soul mates. Catherine lost her mother at a young age & her wealthy father gave her every advantage, yet something's missing in her life. Vincent was found as a 'unique' infant & taken into the tunnels, a hidden underground community where they live & work together as a family. They accept & love Vincent as he is. When Catherine is mistaken for someone else, thugs cut her face, beat her & leave her for dead in Central Park. Vincent finds her & takes care of her Below where they form a psychic bond. After Catherine's surgery to remove her scars she leaves her father's corporate law firm for the District Attorney's office. She also takes self-defense classes so she'll never be so vulnerable again. Vincent senses whenever she's needs him through their bond & rescues her from danger. Their love grows, but sadly due to unforeseen cast re-arranging the writers gave what most fans considered a very unsatisfactory ending of third season. Speaking for myself, I would love to see a television movie with a younger cast in the same roles portray a different ending as many fans have written for themselves to resolve their feelings of discontent. ---(Not a Spoiler) Personally, I would never want Vincent to turn into a human prince. I would rather see more insight into his origins. That could be another movie unto itself.

Beauty and the Beast is a heart-scalding love story, and Ron Perlman portrays a man hopelessly in love with a veracity that goes straight to women's hearts. When he yearns and aches, we feel it. But this is also a myth about the uses of violence and the subordination of violence to civilisation. The authors of the series do not shrink from these profound issues. Many fans hate the third series and resent the introduction of the new heroine, Diana, in place of Cathy Chandler, but for me the third series succeeds with regard to the most important issue: the issue of violence. Cocteau's 'La Belle et La Bête' was the inspiration for the series. That film brings out the full mythic power of the story. When Cocteau's Beast becomes human he has the features of the irresponsible young man who loves the heroine. That is to say, the lover and the beast are the same person - man is a beast until tamed by the love of woman. Our species' self-domestication is the story of civilisation.The symbolism of Vincent's antique clothing is important. It's commented on sometimes - the Irish author has those wonderful lines, that Vincent could have ridden with Cuchulain or sailed with Theseus, and the painter asks what century he has stepped out of. The answer is: out of a brutal, heroic age. The Warrior belongs to a time when each embattled little community had to be armed to the teeth to protect itself against every other little community. Jacob Wells has some understanding that he has recreated this primitive situation in the tunnel world, and has placed this burden on Vincent - it comes out clearly when one of the tunnel dwellers simply wants Vincent to go and murder the family of violent intruders who move into the tunnels.The heroine of the first two series, Cathy Chandler, needs Vincent as a protector - as she admits to Jacob Wells, she brought out the worst in him as well as the best, by getting into situations where he had to resort to violence to protect her. The symbolism of Lancelot is very relevant: Lancelot is a knight not a king. Cathy and Vincent discuss Lancelot at one point and Vincent says that he is flawed (without mentioning that the flaw is his seduction of the queen). The chess figure that Vincent gives to the boy intruder is the queen's knight, as is the chess piece modelled on Vincent that one of the tunnel dwellers carves. Vincent also uses chess pieces to illustrate the point that his rival Elliot is the king of the world above, placing the king beside the queen.With Cathy not around in the third series to tame the Beast - and perhaps unable to do it, as she actually needs his violent protection - the idea of giving him a baby is perfect. Just a pity that the writers couldn't have made the consummation more convincing and/or satisfying - either the couple gave themselves to each other, or he lost control and ripped her clothes off in the cave. The way it is done makes it seem that she ravished him. But let that pass.The relationship with Diana, the new love interest in the third series, is well thought out. In order for Vincent to be released from the responsibility of dealing out violent summary justice, the rule of law has to take over from him, and Diana does this when she kills the villain Gabriel (somewhat extra-judicially, but the symbolism is right). Just to make it absolutely explicit, the extra out-of-sequence episode 'The Reckoning' returns to the vigilante theme that was explored early in the first series. Diana actively intervenes to remove that responsibility from Vincent and place it where it belongs in a state of civilisation - with those licensed by society as a whole to perform violence.The role that Vincent played with Cathy is reversed with Diana - she tends Vincent when he is near death, she has an uncanny insight into his feelings, she finds and rescues him when he is in peril. Vincent will always have the potential to be a one-man army, but by the end he has conquered the beast inside himself. He is now truly human, a different person from the Beast that loved and was loved by Cathy. Jacob begins to bow out and Vincent emerges as king of the underworld. The king deserves a queen. Diana is an ice queen, a woman who has seen and understood terrible things. She needs Vincent - and perhaps even more, the baby - to open her heart to warmth and love again. And it's satisfying, finally, to see Vincent actively courting a woman, as he does with Cathy only in the first episode, letting that rock star magnetism radiate.

OK, I've been reading several of the reviews/comments here, and as I'm an adult now (mostly), I forgot for a moment that I was 12 when this series first aired. I certainly never thought of this as an adult or child's program. I simply found the premise of this show fascinating, and I loved the chemistry between Vincent and Catherine (until it got bizarre in the last season when Linda Hamilton left). I also quite simply, fell in love with Vincent, and later came to learn who Ron Perlman was, and have tried to watch him in anything I can get my hands on that isn't too bizarre (a very strange French movie comes to mind on the bizarre scale). Point being, this show reached a far range of viewers of all ages. Why? I wish I knew. I think that tom_amity has some incredible theories and insights, and I was impressed that as a guy (no offense) he, I feel has some very good points.I also feel that this show was taken in completely the wrong direction in it's last season. Between the forced consummated relationship of Catherine and Vincent, resulting in Catherine's death, and Vincent becoming a father, and the suddenly incredibly violent path that the show took, well, I have to say that I was incredibly confused as to what had transpired between the season finale of season two, and the season opener of season three, and had a very hard time following what was supposed to be going on. I think that it was a mistake to have tried to alter the show so tremendously.Someone here mentioned that there was no show like this ever again. I happen to think that person was wrong. Another show I watched faithfully after this one, that also seemed to end badly (and also on CBS... pattern anyone?) was Forever Knight. That show to me had very similar elements going on, what with the main character being a kind of freak, and his at-a-distance lover (the gal that worked in the morgue) and how it was obvious that they were attracted to each other, but could not be together. That show too eventually had problems and got a little stranger toward the end.I would love to know why it's so difficult for networks to accept that which is different but has such great potential? Both of these shows were incredible, and both wound up having a short life, and both wound up going in strange directions before finally burning out.