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Beauty And The Beast 1.03 "All In" REVIEW
THE ONE WHERE Catherine says she won’t bother Vincent anymore. Again. But she does. Again. Oh, and some crime happens.
VERDICT This show hasn’t got a chance until it figures out what it’s doing with its two leads, and exactly what their relationship and interaction with each other is going to be. Last week Catherine came across as obsessive and uncaring of other people’s needs or safety. This week she comes across as obsessive and righteous to the detriment of her police partner and Vincent’s safety. This is supposed to be about Vincent and Catherine and so far there’s very little about Catherine that’s likeable. To be honest we have no idea why Vincent even gives her the time of day. The best and most honest reaction to Catherine’s constant turning up seems to be JT’s mix of open hostility and world-weary resignation towards her.
How many times are the show’s makers going to have Catherine go to Vincent for help and state that she knows she shouldn’t? At the start of the episode she’s got JT passing notes because it’s been established that it’s too dangerous for her to meet Vincent. And ten minutes into the episode she’s back to visiting every night and disregarding any danger. “Just this once,” she says... She must have her fingers crossed.
At one point Catherine tells Vincent she’s going after a bloke on her own and Vincent turns up to help her – like we all knew he would – and she manages to shout at him and make it all his fault. She’s just spent the rest of the episode press-ganging him into helping her and then she gets on her high horse and states that she doesn’t need him and that she’ll handle it from here on in without him.
Vincent claims he isn’t Batman and he doesn’t watch over the people of New York, yet that seems like exactly what he does as he’s been a witness or been on scene immediately following all three crimes in the series so far. And if he’s constantly spying on Catherine why is he hostile when she shows up? It’s all so ridiculously inconsistent.
By episode’s end the two have come to an arrangement again. Just like at the end of the last episode. Let’s see how long this arrangement lasts.
For the crime scene sequence the cameraman pulls a “keep the camera moving in a circle, rotating around the three actors involved” set-up, which was all fine and dynamic, but in the editing they seemed to have decided to also keep cutting to focus on whoever was speaking. This made the whole scene work at cross purposes and was in serious danger of causing massed up-chucks. Please stop trying to use fancy CSI moves to pretty up the scenes with this nausea-inducing camera/editing work.
The police investigation is full of holes and leaps and questionable events again. Too little time is spent on these crime investigation stories to make you care or engage with them. Once again this week the first person who Catherine interviews, excluding the obviously framed women, is the person who committed the crime, and once again we point at the screen and shouted, “They did it!”
And Catherine is suspended. Episode three and the lead is suspended because she’s a hard battling cop who won’t give up on an innocent victim. Please. Are there any cop show tropes this show isn’t going to drop on us? If they have to do this could try to use some more convincing ones?
One highlight of the episode was Vincent’s Hulk-out in the basement near the end. For the first time he actually seems like a monster and there was a genuine sense of threat and a feeling of the uncontrollable about him. When Catherine jumps in to calm him down it feels like the first sign of an emotional connection between the two characters. Beauty calms the Beast. This episode got a whole extra star just for this sequence. This should be the heart of the show. More of this please.
“Creepy bad guy organisation” Muirfield show up at the end and have found out that Vincent is alive. They also know that Catherine will lead them to him. Yup. Every ten minutes. They should have him by the first ad break next week.
So, all in all another below average effort, as we said at the top of this review; the makers really need to sort out a reason and a way for Vincent and Catherine to meet up without going through this “him stalking her and her going back on her word all the time” bollocks. It’s called Beauty And The Beast . It’s about the two of them, so figure it out. If anger triggers Vincent’s lumpy face how he hasn’t punched Catherine’s face off by now is beyond us.
CREEPIEST MALE Dead heat between the creepy night club owner and his “tight butt” comment and the two male police detectives with their sexist remarks.
DISAPPEARING BOUNCER When Catherine needs to sneak into a night club office there’s no one outside. When the manager heads for the same office moments later there’s a bouncer stood guard. Was he on a pee break?
STALKER BEHAVIOUR OF THE WEEK Vincent has been spying on Catherine since the end of last week’s episode. She’s concerned for a moment but quickly gets over it. He also keeps sneaking into her apartment to leave notes.
MURDER DEATH KILL A judge is hit by a car (they even back up and drive over him again to make sure) and a woman with hidden illegal immigrant status relatives is framed for the murder.
BEST LINE
Catherine: "Can you just give this to him."
JT: (reads note) "‘How are you?’ You risk this for a ‘How are you?’ Just sign all our death certificates... ‘How are you?’"
Steven Ellis @Steven Ellis
Beauty And The Beast has picked up by Watch in the UK for broadcast early next year
