The Beast: Season One - DVD Review

When star Patrick Swayze was diagnosed with cancer, it would have been easy for the makers of The Beast to cancel the show – since only the pilot had been. I was happy that A&E stood behind their ailing star and the show. Eventually, his heath problems would lead to the end of the show.

Charles Barker (Patrick Swayze) is an FBI agent who is an expert at going undercover. He takes fledgling agent Ellis Dove (Travis Fimmel) under his wing to teach him the techniques he uses.

Dove’s education is not a conventional one. Both are supervised by Harry Conrad (Kevin J. O’Conner). Internal affairs is not so sure that the techniques that Barker uses are legal and agent Beaumont (Larry Gilliard) attempts to recruit Dove to spy on his mentor. Meanwhile Dove has started a relationship with Rose Lawrence (Lindsay Pulsipher), his law student neighbor, but he keeps his career a secret from her. It wasn’t too long after Patrick Swayze was announced as starring in the show that it was revealed that he had pancreatic cancer. Swayze vowed to fight on against the disease and continued to work on the show while receiving treatments. Even against overwhelming odds he continued to shoot the program and the network continued to stand behind him and the show. Sadly, his health continued to dip and the show will not be returning for a second season due his deteriorating condition.

We all live in hope that he'll beat the odds, but I do hope I’m wrong in saying that this will be Swayze’s swan song. He seems to know that this might be close to his last bit of celluloid as he invests quite a lot in the role. I would have to applaud his commitment to the role as it’s reported that he only missed one day of work due to illness. You know that he had to be in a bad condition knowing the ravages of his diseases. As much as Swayze commits and performs in the role, unfortunately his co-star Travis Fimmel doesn’t have the drive that Swayze commands. The thing about cop dramas is that you have to invest in the character and Swayze is a house on fire in The Beast. I guess if you may possibly be going out you want to go out with a bang. The Beast is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include thirteen featurettes totaling 26 minutes spread out over the three discs. The Beast could possibly be the last effort from the ailing Swayze, but it is a good cop drama. Sadly ill health forced its cancellation, but we can look over the first (and only) season of the show to see Swayze’s powerful performance.