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Beauty And The Beast 1.09 "Bridesmaid Up!" TV REVIEW
THE ONE WHERE It’s finally time for Catherine’s Dad’s wedding and everybody wants to know who her date will be. Vincent is feeling better after his blackouts are cured and there’s a murder.
VERDICT The wedding we’ve been hearing about all season long is finally here. Everyone is trying to find Catherine a date to go to the wedding with. That’s one week . One week where no one tried to match-make for Catherine, and now normal service is resumed. Well, worse than normal. The boyfriend plot here is the main storyline. Catherine makes up a boyfriend. Vincent thinks he might be able to escort her. Creepy ME guys is going to the wedding with Catherine’s sister. Vincent suggests JT take Catherine to the wedding. The case of the week even involves a dating site which Catherine considers using.
* Bangs head against desk * It’s soap-opera-rama time again.
In the rest of the episode some of the continuing strands get a little more attention; Creepy ME guy is now hunting for the guy who was seen in his lab – as well as more information on the vigilante – and police partner is helping him. This is the most interesting thing going on in the show at the moment.
At one point we expected both JT and Creepy ME guy to both be at the same wedding; JT being the guy Creepy ME is looking for. We thought we saw what they were doing here; setting up some sort of wedding based confrontation. But no; they wrong-footed us for the first time. It was a pleasant surprise to have Vincent show up at the wedding and almost get to act normally with Catherine. When these guys don’t talk they actually look like a great couple. Scratch that; the scene with the two of them outside at the wedding is actually quite sweet. Most of the time the chemistry between these two is almost nonexistent; here we had a glimpse of it.
The revelation of Vincent’s changing DNA and the fact that he’s becoming more beastly is just the kick in the teeth these guys don’t need. We get that shows like to keep their leads apart; the will-they?/won’t-they? dynamic is a tried and trusted way of generating drama. But in this show it’s just irritating because the things blocking Catherine and Vincent always seem forced. Having Catherine’s sister be the one who spills this particular bit of information was a little lame. Are we supposed to believe that Creepy ME Guy considers work-related chat about DNA sequences to be thrilling wedding date conversations? That gets the girls going does it? And having the subject just come up in conversation between the sisters just added to the incredulity.
The crime case is a convoluted mess. Vincent comes to Catherine with a possible case; he smells blood on someone and someone else connected to the guy turns up dead. And here’s a match-making service angle. See what they did there? Catherine needs a date... Match-making... No, we didn’t laugh either.
Turns out the guy Vincent smelt is match-maker lady’s husband and she killed a client to prevent said client exposing some property guy as a crook, or something... Oh and something about nail polish on shoes... We’ve said many times that the crime plots are so trite and second-hand that we find it hard to care most weeks.
In fact we’d pretty much forgotten about the whole crime case by the time the wedding came around. So the ambush came as quite a surprise.
We did wonder exactly where the hell Vincent came from. The crash seemed to happen on a deserted road, surrounded by fields, in the middle of nowhere, so having him just run on was naff. Of course he comes to her rescue but sometimes the way he just appears is a little hard to swallow.
On the other hand, having Creepy ME guy show up in time to see Vincent rescue Catherine was actually a good move. He’s the main suspicious guy and he’s not daft. He’s going to make the connection between Vincent and Catherine at some point. Maybe this is it.
Overall, this wasn’t as bad an episode as we’re probably making out. Yes, there was way to much. “Who are you dating?” stuff, but there was so much that it started to feel like a farce and actually became vaguely entertaining as a result. The ongoing plots had enough movement to keep us interested and the shock ending actually was a shock. We’re rather reluctant to admit that we’re actually pretty curious as to where this could go when it comes back after the Christmas break.
STALKER BEHAVIOUR OF THE WEEK No real stalker behaviour this week; that’s two weeks in a row! Although we did think Creepy ME guy agreeing to be Catherine’s sister’s date for the wedding was a bit creepy. But then he is Creepy ME guy, isn’t he...?
MOST FLATTERING POLICE SKETCH ARTIST Creepy ME Guy gets a sketch done of JT and the artist makes JT look far more good looking than he is in real life. They’ll never catch him with that.
MURDER DEATH KILL A man is murdered by the wife of a dodgy property dealer to protect their seemingly perfect life. The wife later runs Catherine off the road in revenge.
BEST LINE
Joe: "Chandler, you may have an anonymous tip on this Meyer guy but if I were you I’d concentrate on finding your date."
Catherine: "He is talking about the case right?"
Vargas: "Yes!"
OR MAYBE
Sabrina Meyer: "Are you promiscuous?"
Catherine: "I don’t have time to be promiscuous."
Sabrina Meyer: "Hahaha, you’re funny. Don’t be too funny. Men don’t like that."
Steven Ellis @Steven Ellis
Beauty And The Beast has been picked up by Watch in the UK for broadcast early next year
