Television is weird. Sometimes a show gets critical acclaim and disappears after six episodes, and other times a series like Beauty and the Beast on CW comes along, gets absolutely trashed by reviewers, yet survives for four seasons because the fans simply refuse to let it die.
Honestly, if you looked at the early reviews from 2012, you would have thought the show was a disaster. Critics called it "vapid" or "shallow." They weren't exactly wrong about the pilot being a bit shaky, but they missed the point. People didn't tune in for a high-brow adaptation of the 1980s Ron Perlman classic. They tuned in for the chemistry between Kristin Kreuk and Jay Ryan. That "Beastie" fandom was—and still is—one of the most intense pockets of the internet.
The Rough Start and the Procedural Trap
When the show first aired, The CW was in a transitional phase. They were trying to move away from the Gossip Girl era into something grittier. Catherine Chandler, played by Kreuk, was a tough-as-nails homicide detective. Vincent Keller, played by Ryan, was a doctor who had been experimented on by a secret government organization called Muirfield.
In the beginning, the show tried to be a "case-of-the-week" procedural. It was a mistake.
Fans didn't care about the random murders Cat was solving in New York City. They wanted to know why Vincent turned into a creature that looked more like a guy with a bad scar than a literal beast. That was one of the biggest complaints early on—the "beast" wasn't beastly enough. Unlike the prosthetics-heavy 80s version, Jay Ryan’s Vincent just had a scar across his face until he "shifted," and even then, it was mostly just yellow eyes and a bit of a brow ridge. It felt safe. It felt like "CW pretty."
But then something shifted in the writing room during the back half of Season 1. They leaned into the mythology. They leaned into the "us against the world" romance. That’s when the show actually found its pulse.
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Why the Fans (Beasties) Won the War
You can't talk about Beauty and the Beast on CW without talking about the People's Choice Awards. This show was the king of fan-voted awards. It won Favorite New TV Drama, and Kristin Kreuk took home Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Actress multiple times.
How does a show with mediocre Nielsen ratings keep winning major awards?
Organization. The "Beasties" were early adopters of the "save our show" social media blitz. They understood that in the mid-2010s, networks were starting to value social engagement as much as live viewers. Every time the show was on the verge of cancellation—which was basically every year—the fans flooded the gates. They sent treats to the writers' rooms. They trended hashtags for hours.
The show wasn't just a romance; it was an underdog story both on and off the screen.
The Muirfield Mess and the Mythology Shift
By the time Season 2 rolled around, the show-runners changed. Sherri Cooper-Landsman and Jennifer Levin were out, and Brad Kern came in. The tone shifted dramatically. Vincent lost his memory. He became more of a "super soldier" and less of a pining romantic lead.
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Some fans hated it. Others loved the stakes.
The introduction of "beast hunters" and the deeper dive into Vincent's military past gave the show a sense of scale that the first season lacked. We found out that Vincent wasn't the only one. There were others. The show started grappling with the idea of whether Vincent was a man who became a beast or a beast who remembered being a man.
Key Characters That Made the Show Work:
- J.T. Forbes (Austin Basis): Every show needs a grounding force. J.T. was the quintessential loyal best friend, providing the science (and the heart) that kept Vincent hidden for years. His relationship with Tess provided a much-needed B-plot that felt grounded in reality.
- Tess Vargas (Nina Lisandrello): Cat's partner. She started as the skeptic and ended up as the person keeping the whole secret from falling apart at the precinct.
- Heather Chandler (Nicole Gale Anderson): Cat's sister, who often served as the "normal" person's perspective on how insane Cat's life had become.
The Realism vs. Fantasy Balance
One thing people get wrong about this version of the story is the "Beauty" part. Catherine Chandler wasn't a damsel. She was a detective who could hold her own in a fight. She was often the one saving Vincent, either emotionally or literally by pulling him back from the edge of his primal instincts.
The show worked best when it leaned into the moral ambiguity of Vincent's kills. He wasn't a superhero. He was a weapon that went off by accident. When the show focused on the trauma of his transformation—the lost years, the dead friends from his unit—it had genuine weight.
The Ending Most People Missed
The show's fourth and final season was shorter, only 13 episodes. It was a gift to the fans. The network knew the show wasn't a ratings juggernaut, but they gave it a proper send-off anyway.
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The series finale, "Au Revoir," didn't end with a tragic death or a "it was all a dream" twist. It ended with Cat and Vincent faking their deaths to finally live a life of peace in France. It was cheesy. It was melodramatic. It was exactly what the fans wanted.
How to Watch and What to Look For
If you’re going back to watch Beauty and the Beast on CW today, you have to look past some of the 2012-era CGI. It hasn't all aged well. The "beast" effects in the first season are particularly rough. However, if you look at the lighting and the cinematography in Season 3 and 4, the show actually developed a very sleek, noir-inspired look that sets it apart from other supernatural dramas of that time.
Currently, the show pops up on various streaming platforms like Paramount+ or CW Seed (depending on your region), and it’s a frequent flyer on "best of" lists for romantic sci-fi.
Steps for a better viewing experience:
- Push through the first five episodes. The show takes a minute to find its identity outside of being a standard police procedural.
- Watch the J.T. and Tess dynamic. Sometimes their subplots are more tightly written than the main "Muirfield" drama.
- Pay attention to the music. The CW always had a high budget for indie-pop and moody tracks that defined the "VinCat" aesthetic.
- Ignore the "beast" makeup. Think of it more as a psychological transformation than a physical one.
This series remains a fascinating case study in how fan devotion can override critical reception. It wasn't "prestige TV," but it was earnest TV. In a world of cynical reboots, there’s something genuinely refreshing about a show that just wants to be a high-stakes, supernatural romance about two people trying to stay human in an inhuman world.