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With all the reports that Patrick Swayze was terminally
ill it was refreshing to see A&E give the actor a chance
to continue his livelihood and be distracted from his struggle
with cancer. Swayze plays Charles Barker an FBI undercover
operative training a rookie partner Ellis Dove (Travis Fimmel
barely effective in his role) at the game of life and death
pretend. Barker or “The Beast” as he is nicknamed completely
immerses himself in the undercover role he takes on recognizing
that those they are dealing with whether they be drug lords
or assassins are playing for keep. Dove has to “play” his
role as partner and consider helping his colleagues at the
FBI investigate Barker himself who is suspected of working
on his own outside the agency involving illegal activity.
Is this investigation retribution for Barker’s attempts
to find out the names of agents who have their own secret
society pursuing justice outside the bounds of the law or
is Barker just paranoid and seeing a conspiracy where there
isn’t any? Dove must determine all of the above before he
can move forward. ***
While “The Beast” was uneven in its writing quality
during its single season (it was supposedly cancelled due
to ratings issues but one has to wonder if Swayze’s worsening
health did indeed play a role in the decision)but that’s
nothing new with any TV show. For example, the first season
of “The X-Files” was wildly uneven with some truly outstanding
episodes next to some of the worst god awful writing one
could imagine. The same could also be said for Fox’s otherwise
fine horror/sci-fi show “Fringe” created by J.J. Abrams
(we’ll be reviewing that next week) or even “Seinfeld” to
hop genres. Few shows fine their legs during their first
season as the producers/writers/directors and cast are busy
defining the show, setting up story arcs and determining
the best way to go with the series that will keep fans interested,
critics happy and the creative team intact. It’s a challenge
to give birth to ANY TV show today knowing that it could
be cancelled after one episode. In movie terms that’s akin
to a movie being green lit and the first fifteen minutes
produced, distributed and screened for the public. If the
15 minutes of film is well received then the studio determining
if they are going to go forward after that or deciding to
release the rest of the movie to theaters. That’s just insane
and it takes into account the OCD tendencies of Hollywood—a
town that will pack something up that might be successful
before it can prove itself to be a success (if you’re in
doubt take a look at exhibit A-“Family Guy” or exhibit B-
the TV show “Serenity” which generated a moderately successful
feature film AFTER the series was cancelled and a big selling
DVD/Blu-ray set of the TV show AND the movie). ***
On the plus side of the series the show features a
strong veteran group of directors including Charles Haid
(Best remembered as an actor on “Hill Street Blues” but
an accomplished TV director as well), John Badham (who may
be in the twilight of his career as a director remember
he did “Saturday Night Fever”, “Dracula”, “Blue Thunder”,
“War Games” but he still tackles each project with energy
and relish, Jeremiah S. Chechik (“National Lampoon’s Christmas
Vacation” among other projects) so while the writing might
be a bit rushed and not quite as accomplished as I’d like
the directors always do their best to give the show a feature
film feel to it. ***
Then, of course, you have to question a town that won’t
hire people because they are ill (Lawrence Olivier for “Marathon
Man” where the producers had to take on the insurance premiums
of the film because of his bout with cancer). While I don’t
have any doubt about A&E’s good will regarding the show
you have to know their decision to move forward was prompted
because of all the free publicity of Swayze’s treatment
for cancer in the news media. You also have to realize that
Swayze’s increasingly worse health played a role in its
cancellation as well. ***
Regardless, “The Beast” was cancelled before it was
truly given a chance to succeed or fail on its own terms.
So while I’ll criticize the uneven quality of the series,
I’ll also recognize it had potential and that even the pretty
looking Fimmel might have blossomed into a better actor
given time. ---
Image & Sound:
“The Beast” looks surprisingly good with nice colors
that compliment the gritty look of the series. Detail is
quite good throughout although the black levels are a bit
inconsistent. In a nutshell the show looks as close as the
resolution of DVD will allow to the source. --- Audio sounds
extremely good with nice use of 5.1 in putting you in the
middle of the action but with an attention to detail in
the area of nicely rendered atmosphere, sound effects and
dialogue that other shows should pay attention to as well.
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