I enjoyed this series immensely! Vincent quotes such great authors & his voice is so soothing. This series delves into the ability: Empathy. Not just "I feel empathy for you", but like the superhero power of being empathic. Being able to feel the emotions of another beyond the norm. This wasn't a very well known ability at the time this series was made, so they do mention it a LOT in the first season in order to really drive the point home. It was a bit annoying after awhile, but I understood that for the times it was necessary. It's definitely a romance story. Some episodes are slow & I wish they would have sped things up a bit. But if you get through the slow parts, it gets so amazing! And the speed does pick up as the series goes on. At the time this series was made, there wasn't a whole lot of sex on television, so keep this in mind & don't be disappointed if they don't show what you want. I was quite satisfied with how they handled everything, but some people were disappointed. And I won't give anything away, but I'm so glad that they didn't just usher in a new character to replace characters who had to leave the show & call it good. It drives me crazy when a series is like "Oh but it's okay that we took one of your favorite characters away, cause we gave you one that has all the same skills & will have the same relationship with the rest of the characters as your favorite character did". Blech. Luckily they avoided that & made it much more realistic. You can't just replace someone. You can introduce someone new with new skills & a new role, but replacing someone is just tacky. SO HAPPY that this show understood that & transcended this common TV series trope. Side characters are well rounded & awesome. You find yourself falling in love with them as much as the main characters. The quotes are AMAZING. If I ever have the time I'll add to the quote list on here. :) There are some scenes, especially later on, that are just so powerful! It really draws you in! And man when Vincent lets loose, he's ferocious! They show his darker side so much better later in the series & really delve into just how dangerous he can get. And I had heard that it didn't wrap up at all at the end. This is NOT true. It wraps up quite nicely, so you don't have to worry about a cliffhanger. :)This series is on DVD if you decide you want to buy it, just google search it. I watched it on Netflix (which it may or may not still be up there depending on when you read this review), so that may be an option for you as well.I give this show a 10 out of 10! Full stars! Hope you enjoy it as well! ~Namarie

I was most certainly not the in the demographic this show was aimed at and I am less so now. Yet, I watched it in first run and I am now watching it on DVD. I was captivated the first time and I am again.I am now a 58 year old married male. Maybe it was understandable to have loved the series at the end of the eighties, but now? In the eighties I was newly married and so it was excusable for me to be entranced by a fantasy romance. However, after 24 years of marriage the romance of a new marriage is long over and the work of a marriage ongoing. So, it would seem unlikely that I could be drawn in by television romance once again. No other show has done that over the years.For me that is the magic of this series. I really don't need to analyze plot lines, sets, lighting or direction. It is simply a beautiful story. Both then and now and it still can touch my heart.

I for one was not overly impressed with this show. My beef goes beyond the sappy melodrama and dodgy effects. I take issue with the underlying messages that the show displayed. Beastiality. Are the producers of 'Beauty and the Beast' suggesting that high powered career women strike up relationships with vagabond beast men? If this series were remade, I for one would protest strongly. We have more than enough troubles in the world today; do we really need to enter the realm of children being born with paws and a tail? Do you want to walk your grandchildren on a leash? I think not. Also, has anyone else noticed that Vincent's face resembles a grumble? I'm just saying.

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.