CW's Beauty and the Beast
I admit, my first reaction to hearing that they were remaking my beloved 1987 "Beauty and the Beast" was sort of "NooooOOOOOOOOoooooOOOoooOOooo!!!" *throws self dramatically to the floor* I mean, come on, how could you possibly reboot Catherine and Vincent's epic love story? How could you even hope to find somebody who could match Ron Perlman's amazing portrayal?
And seriously, if you've never heard him do his "Vincent" voice, you are MISSING SOMETHING.
(He reads Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 at just before the 1 minute mark. ;) )
*SWOON*
Holy moly, this show is one of the MAJOR FANDOM EVENTS in my life. I loved it liek woah and I was rather flabbergasted at the idea that anybody would think it needed to be remade. Why wouldn't you just watch the original series? All 3 seasons are out on DVD after all. (Okay, so like a lot fans, I sort of pretend that the series stopped somewhere before season 2 ended, when Things Turned Bad And Then Season 3 Happened, ZOMG. :S ;) )
Then it dawned on me: Dude, it's been 25 years since it was on! (And that realization was immediately followed by: Dude, I'm freakin' OLD! @_@ It's a good thing that I'm ageless, huh? ;) )
So yeah, there's been "enough time" then that I can see a remake happening. That doesn't mean I was thrilled just yet because... dude, I'm old enough to have a beloved show get remade! @_@ :P ;)
I haven't heard too much more about the remake, though, until just last night when I found the extended trailer. I admit, I watched it with equal parts hope that it would be good, fear that it would be something that gave my beloved '87!B&B a sort of black eye, and interest in how they were going to approach the entire subject. Would they go with full makeup for the actor playing Vincent? Were they going to use the same basic model, with The World Above and The World Below? What changes would they make? What, if anything, would stay the same or close to it?
Detective Catherine Chandler is a smart, no-nonsense homicide detective. When she was a teenager, Catherine witnessed the murder of her mother at the hands of two gunmen. Catherine would have been killed too, but someone - or something - saved her. No one has ever believed her, but she knows it wasn't an animal that attacked the assassins…it was human. Years have passed, and Catherine is a strong, confident, capable police officer, working alongside her equally talented partner, Tess. While investigating a murder, Catherine discovers a clue that leads her to a handsome doctor named Vincent Keller, who was reportedly killed by enemy fire while serving in Afghanistan in 2002. Catherine learns that Vincent is actually still alive and that it was he who saved her many years before. For mysterious reasons that have forced him to live outside of traditional society, Vincent has been in hiding for the past 10 years to guard his secret - when he is enraged, he becomes a terrifying beast, unable to control his super-strength and heightened senses. Catherine agrees to protect his identity in return for any insight he may have into her mother's murder. Thus begins a complex relationship between Catherine and Vincent, who are powerfully drawn to each other yet understand that their connection is extremely dangerous for both of them.
The series stars Kristin Kreuk ("Smallville," "Chuck") as Catherine, Jay Ryan ("Terra Nova") as Vincent, Max Brown ("The Tudors," "MI-5") as Evan, Nina Lisandrello ("Nurse Jackie") as Tess, Nicole Gale Anderson ("Make It or Break It") as Heather, Austin Basis ("Life Unexpected") as J.T., and Brian White ("The Shield," "The Cabin in the Woods") as Joe.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is from CBS Television Studios with executive producers Jennifer Levin ("Without A Trace," "Felicity"), Sherri Cooper ("Brothers and Sisters"), Bill Haber ("Rizzoli & Isles," "Thurgood"), Paul J. Witt ("A Better Life") & Tony Thomas ("A Better Life"), Ron Koslow ("Moonlight") and Gary Fleder ("Life Unexpected").
Source
My first impressions:
I love that they're making Catherine a cop instead of a DA! Don't get me wrong, I love '87!Catherine and she had her own sort of strength and courage, but it wasn't a physical sort of strength, if that makes sense? When push came to shove, if it was something physical that needed to be done, then Vincent was the one who had to show up to save her bacon. (And yes, he busted through a couple of walls in such in a manner that was probably really cheesy but was awesome and romantic to my younger fangirly self. ;) )
So I think this change is one that keeps this Catherine in the spirit of her predecessor but gives the character a nice, more modern spin. ♥!
I was a little more iffy on Vincent. At first, I thought he was going to be a werewolf, which was in the spirit of the '87!Vincent, I suppose, but that just didn't feel quite right to me. :S Then as we got more of a look at him, I realized they weren't going the "lion/wolf/whatever" angle and when they got to the explanation about him having his DNA altered, it sort of began to click for me. Yeah, I could see this working.
It does change a fundamental part of '87!Vincent, who was born looking the way he does and so has always been an outsider and has never known a "normal" life Above but instead always lived Down Below, in the elaborate, forgotten world of tunnels beneath the city. Having a Vincent who started off "normal" then lost his humanity is a definite new twist but I can see it working and it also allows them not to have to have Jay Ryan in full-on prosthetics 100% of the time like Ron Perlman was. I think it was a good trade off for modernizing the tale, especially when I remembered that it was eventually revealed that '87!Vincent was the result of an scientific experiment, not some mythical creature. That sort of gives the two Vincents a connection that I liked to help bridge the gap between them. ;)
I also liked the bit of the subway scene that we saw because '87!Vincent had a way of getting quickly around the city by, yes, riding on top of a subway car. ;) My younger inner fangirl would like to tell you that that was awesome and romantic, though. ;) Okay, and kinda cheesy, too, even at the time. ;) But hey, have you heard Ron Perlman's "Vincent" voice? 'Cause that could make me overlook a 10 ton block of cheddar, I've gotta say... ;)
This version of Vincent reminds me in no small way of Bruce Banner in the way that he loses control and becomes "a beast." Considering that I love Bruce Banner and the Hulk and all things Avengers and such, this is not a problem for me. ;) But it is going to be a sort of inevitable comparison, for better or worse. ;)
I can't tell yet if this version of Vincent and Catherine are going to have the sort of empathic bond that their '87 counterparts did, in which he always knew what she was feeling and thus, if she was scared, he could find her and bust through a wall like a frickin' BOSS to save her after riding on top of the subway. ;) I can see them either adapting that idea or not. Hopefully it will work either way! ;)
I also liked that, at the end of the promo, Catherine stated in no uncertain terms that, just as he's been protecting her, she's equally going to be protecting him. I hope that we'll get to see them be equally fierce in how they take care of each other and that they're given a good, rich, and compelling relationship.
I'm looking forward to seeing them in action this fall! Here's hoping that the show will give me an awesome, new Vincent and Catherine to take a place alongside the original ones in my (slightly older but still enthusiastic ;) ) fangirl heart! \o/ ♥♥♥!!!
"Beauty and the Beast" premieres Oct 11, 2012 on the CW at 9/8c.
And seriously, if you've never heard him do his "Vincent" voice, you are MISSING SOMETHING.
(He reads Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 at just before the 1 minute mark. ;) )
Click to view*SWOON*
Holy moly, this show is one of the MAJOR FANDOM EVENTS in my life. I loved it liek woah and I was rather flabbergasted at the idea that anybody would think it needed to be remade. Why wouldn't you just watch the original series? All 3 seasons are out on DVD after all. (Okay, so like a lot fans, I sort of pretend that the series stopped somewhere before season 2 ended, when Things Turned Bad And Then Season 3 Happened, ZOMG. :S ;) )
Then it dawned on me: Dude, it's been 25 years since it was on! (And that realization was immediately followed by: Dude, I'm freakin' OLD! @_@ It's a good thing that I'm ageless, huh? ;) )
So yeah, there's been "enough time" then that I can see a remake happening. That doesn't mean I was thrilled just yet because... dude, I'm old enough to have a beloved show get remade! @_@ :P ;)
I haven't heard too much more about the remake, though, until just last night when I found the extended trailer. I admit, I watched it with equal parts hope that it would be good, fear that it would be something that gave my beloved '87!B&B a sort of black eye, and interest in how they were going to approach the entire subject. Would they go with full makeup for the actor playing Vincent? Were they going to use the same basic model, with The World Above and The World Below? What changes would they make? What, if anything, would stay the same or close to it?
Detective Catherine Chandler is a smart, no-nonsense homicide detective. When she was a teenager, Catherine witnessed the murder of her mother at the hands of two gunmen. Catherine would have been killed too, but someone - or something - saved her. No one has ever believed her, but she knows it wasn't an animal that attacked the assassins…it was human. Years have passed, and Catherine is a strong, confident, capable police officer, working alongside her equally talented partner, Tess. While investigating a murder, Catherine discovers a clue that leads her to a handsome doctor named Vincent Keller, who was reportedly killed by enemy fire while serving in Afghanistan in 2002. Catherine learns that Vincent is actually still alive and that it was he who saved her many years before. For mysterious reasons that have forced him to live outside of traditional society, Vincent has been in hiding for the past 10 years to guard his secret - when he is enraged, he becomes a terrifying beast, unable to control his super-strength and heightened senses. Catherine agrees to protect his identity in return for any insight he may have into her mother's murder. Thus begins a complex relationship between Catherine and Vincent, who are powerfully drawn to each other yet understand that their connection is extremely dangerous for both of them.
The series stars Kristin Kreuk ("Smallville," "Chuck") as Catherine, Jay Ryan ("Terra Nova") as Vincent, Max Brown ("The Tudors," "MI-5") as Evan, Nina Lisandrello ("Nurse Jackie") as Tess, Nicole Gale Anderson ("Make It or Break It") as Heather, Austin Basis ("Life Unexpected") as J.T., and Brian White ("The Shield," "The Cabin in the Woods") as Joe.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is from CBS Television Studios with executive producers Jennifer Levin ("Without A Trace," "Felicity"), Sherri Cooper ("Brothers and Sisters"), Bill Haber ("Rizzoli & Isles," "Thurgood"), Paul J. Witt ("A Better Life") & Tony Thomas ("A Better Life"), Ron Koslow ("Moonlight") and Gary Fleder ("Life Unexpected").
Source
My first impressions:
I love that they're making Catherine a cop instead of a DA! Don't get me wrong, I love '87!Catherine and she had her own sort of strength and courage, but it wasn't a physical sort of strength, if that makes sense? When push came to shove, if it was something physical that needed to be done, then Vincent was the one who had to show up to save her bacon. (And yes, he busted through a couple of walls in such in a manner that was probably really cheesy but was awesome and romantic to my younger fangirly self. ;) )
So I think this change is one that keeps this Catherine in the spirit of her predecessor but gives the character a nice, more modern spin. ♥!
I was a little more iffy on Vincent. At first, I thought he was going to be a werewolf, which was in the spirit of the '87!Vincent, I suppose, but that just didn't feel quite right to me. :S Then as we got more of a look at him, I realized they weren't going the "lion/wolf/whatever" angle and when they got to the explanation about him having his DNA altered, it sort of began to click for me. Yeah, I could see this working.
It does change a fundamental part of '87!Vincent, who was born looking the way he does and so has always been an outsider and has never known a "normal" life Above but instead always lived Down Below, in the elaborate, forgotten world of tunnels beneath the city. Having a Vincent who started off "normal" then lost his humanity is a definite new twist but I can see it working and it also allows them not to have to have Jay Ryan in full-on prosthetics 100% of the time like Ron Perlman was. I think it was a good trade off for modernizing the tale, especially when I remembered that it was eventually revealed that '87!Vincent was the result of an scientific experiment, not some mythical creature. That sort of gives the two Vincents a connection that I liked to help bridge the gap between them. ;)
I also liked the bit of the subway scene that we saw because '87!Vincent had a way of getting quickly around the city by, yes, riding on top of a subway car. ;) My younger inner fangirl would like to tell you that that was awesome and romantic, though. ;) Okay, and kinda cheesy, too, even at the time. ;) But hey, have you heard Ron Perlman's "Vincent" voice? 'Cause that could make me overlook a 10 ton block of cheddar, I've gotta say... ;)
This version of Vincent reminds me in no small way of Bruce Banner in the way that he loses control and becomes "a beast." Considering that I love Bruce Banner and the Hulk and all things Avengers and such, this is not a problem for me. ;) But it is going to be a sort of inevitable comparison, for better or worse. ;)
I can't tell yet if this version of Vincent and Catherine are going to have the sort of empathic bond that their '87 counterparts did, in which he always knew what she was feeling and thus, if she was scared, he could find her and bust through a wall like a frickin' BOSS to save her after riding on top of the subway. ;) I can see them either adapting that idea or not. Hopefully it will work either way! ;)
I also liked that, at the end of the promo, Catherine stated in no uncertain terms that, just as he's been protecting her, she's equally going to be protecting him. I hope that we'll get to see them be equally fierce in how they take care of each other and that they're given a good, rich, and compelling relationship.
I'm looking forward to seeing them in action this fall! Here's hoping that the show will give me an awesome, new Vincent and Catherine to take a place alongside the original ones in my (slightly older but still enthusiastic ;) ) fangirl heart! \o/ ♥♥♥!!!
"Beauty and the Beast" premieres Oct 11, 2012 on the CW at 9/8c.