Nearly twenty years ago, a series hit CBS with enough romance and love to keep it on air for three short seasons. It was a modern day telling of a classic story, Beauty and the Beast. This version is set in New York City in the 1980s, and involves a young attorney named Catherine Chandler and a mythic half-man/half-beast named Vincent. Catherine Chandler is played by actress Linda Hamilton, who is probably best known for her role as Sarah Connor in the Terminator movies.
Beauty and the Beast is a story where love rules all. Catherine is attacked one night, having been mistaken for another woman, and her face is viciously slashed. Found and rescued by Vincent, the two form a bond in the days that follow with her face covered in bandages. All she knows of Vincent is his voice as he talks to her and reads to her in her waking moments. Once the truth of his appearance is revealed, the two continue to strengthen their bond of friendship and love in the seasons that follow. In this third season, we see that bond bring the two of them together on one night in which a child is created.
While Catherine deals with the idea of her pregnancy, she is also working on a new case that involves the near death of her friend Joe Maxwell. This case puts her in danger, and she is taken captive. When Vincent tries to rescue her, the man holding her captive realizes he has something more important — the child inside her. He keeps her alive in the months that follow, killing her moments after the baby arrives in the world. For the remainder of the season, Vincent searches for his son with the help of a new woman in his life and those he knows from the world below. He succeeds, and he opens his heart to love again in the months that follow.
This series was one of my favorites when it aired twenty years ago. I remember watching it weekly, and I was sad to see it end. This third season lost a lot of the magic that the first two seasons had, though. The story without Catherine involved lost its power, which is probably why the series ended so quickly once her character was no longer a part of it.
This DVD set contains the entire season of eleven episodes with no additional material or extras. For a fan of the series, this final season would be ideal to add to their collection, especially if they already have the first two seasons.
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