180 Degrees of Separation: Beauty and the Beast

As I was watching Soul Train last weekend, with a special tribute to the late Donna Summer (RIP), I realized that dance moves, music, fashion, and entertainment are all coming full circle. High waisted skirts, platforms, sequins, you name it, are coming back. If artists aren't completely remixing old school songs, then they have heavy samples playing in the background. And one thing I never thought I'd see again...

Shoulder pads!

That was a fashion 'faux poo poo' in my book. Women looking like linebackers with Olive Oyl legs. And now you see asymmetrical or cone shaped shoulder pads on the red carpet. *Shivers* At a certain point, fashion, music, and entertainment take a 360` turn. Film and television remakes are running rampant with reboots like Spiderman taking place within a five year span. Spiderman was a 2002-2007 film franchise based on the comic book from the 1960s. The film is being rebooted for a release this year. In TV land, one of my, and a very passionate cult fan following, favorite shows is Beauty and the Beast starring Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton playing Vincent and Catherine. The show aired on CBS from 1987-1990. The show recreated the love of two of the most known characters with drama, suspense, and action. The makeup of the kind-hearted Vincent, who portrayed Beast, was phenomenal and blew many fans away week after week.

This brings me to my main point. The CW has decided to reboot this cult classic with Kristin Kreuk playing Catherine and Jay Ryan as Bruce Bann--Vincent. That was all fine and dandy until I saw the trailer and Vincent now looks like a GQ model with a simple scar on his cheek. Ummm. Not so beastly. Apparently this Vincent is a doctor who's chosen to stay in hiding because he Hulk's out every now and then to protect Catherine, but this doesn't capture the true essence of the divide between Vincent and Catherine and why they can't be together in the same world due to the ignorance of society unable to accept Vincent's physical appearance being so different. I don't know what route they're going in for the reboot because, from the poster, the 2012 Vincent looks like he could blend in just fine. I could see having his face half blocked out by a shadow with the same beastly eyes seen in the trailer, but apparently they just wanted to upset me. I understand that Koslow is aiming for a modernized version, but if the premise is lost from the show that it is following in the footsteps of, it may give many fans a disheartening feeling upon attempting to return to the franchise. Alas, we shall see how this show pans out, but I'm already giving it a very questionable side eye. Judge for yourself. 

Photo courtesy of IMDB.com