Beauty and the Beast: The Complete First Season

Fantasy TV fans, who have been waiting a long time for this 20-year-old series to arrive on DVD, are likely to be disappointed with the un-restored video (which is grainy and scratchy in spots), mono audio, and complete absence of extras on this 22-episode 1987-88 first-season set—but it's still a worthy indulgence. Man-beast Vincent (Ron Perlman, strikingly expressive even under the heavy makeup that transforms his face into something lionesque) lives beneath the streets of 1980s New York City in a baroque underworld marked by candlelight, poetry, and romanticism of all stripes. Catherine (Linda Hamilton), a busy feminist district attorney who values career above all else, meets Vincent when he rescues her after a vicious street crime. Catherine and Vincent's seemingly irreconcilable worlds clash in these episodes pitting old manners and mores against contemporary ones, while also charting the evolution of the relationship between these unlikely spiritual lovers. Perhaps the most fantastical element of Beauty and the Beast is not the physical monstrousness of its hero, but rather that he's a man who talks so much about his emotions (and that's why we gals love this show so dearly!). Recommended. (M. Johanson)