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What Make The Critics Of A&E’s Swayze Vehicle THE BEAST??
I am – Hercules!!
A drama about an veteran undercover FBI agent breaking in a rookie, “The Beast” comes from screenwriter William Rotko (the Chris Cooper-Ryan Phillippe thriller “Breach”) and stars Patrick Swayze (“Dirty Dancing,” “Ghost”), Travis Fimmel (the 2003 WB series “Tarzan”), Larry Gilliard Jr. (“The Wire”) and Lindsay Pulsipher (“Touched By An Angel”).
Entertainment Weekly gives it an “C” and says:
… We could be spending our time reading better hardboiled yarns from fresh tough-guy novelists like Charles S. Houston or Duane Swierczynski. In fact, I'd rather watch an hour of Swayze reading one of their tales aloud than sit through an episode of The Beast. …
USA Today give it a star and a half (out of four) and says:
… Clearly, the show is aiming for urban grit. But that's hard to achieve when you're constantly distracting us with a ludicrous plot. …
The New York Times says:
… impressive for its resistance to cliché and remarkable for the mere fact of its execution. … It is a problem for “The Beast” that we are just as prone to trust Barker’s decency as his partner is. The moral and psychological ambiguity doesn’t appear to be there: however Barker might have sideswiped orthodoxy in the past, we get the sense that he was probably justified in breaking the rules he did. …
The Los Angeles Times says:
… If there is a cop-drama cliché writers Vincent Angell and William L. Rotko overlooked while creating the first two episodes of A&E's “The Beast,” we can be fairly certain they will nail it in Episode 3. …
The Chicago Tribune says:
… an entirely average action-adventure hour, one that recalls the macho cop shows of the ’70s and ’80s. …
The Washington Post says:
… premieres tonight on A&E, but it neither art nor entertainment be. The show deserves a rating of DB -- Don't Bother -- unless you happen to be a particularly loyal fan of Patrick Swayze … the script seems like it is based on a misspent life of watching crime movies, rather than actual experience. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
… seems like a pretty plain cop drama with added "Road House"-style grit until the end of the first hour, when a new wrinkle adds more intrigue. …
The Kansas City Star says:
… The network brass probably figure, if the viewers don’t care whether Criss Angel is a charlatan, why should they care if “The Beast” bears any semblance to reality? …
The Boston Herald says:
… about as believable a crime drama as “The Ghost Whisperer.” … Every show requires a suspension of disbelief to operate, but this “Beast” is one burden. …
The Boston Globe says:
… written as the stereotypical rogue cop who crosses the line into illegality, but Swayze's presence is complex enough to add mystery and weight that aren't in the script. He's a lot more compelling than he should be, given the show's profusion of stock, crime-time lines about making choices and getting the job done. Really, take Swayze and his gravitas out of the picture, and "The Beast" is a mediocre series that would probably lurk on the cable TV lineup without much notice. …
Variety says:
… a relatively toothless affair, drawing on a conventional cranky veteran/fresh-faced rookie dynamic …
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… there is nothing terribly special about the execution of the drama or its premise in the opening pair of episodes. What's unmistakable is the killer work of the star. May the man somehow beat the odds and fight defiantly on.
10 p.m. Thursday. A&E.
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"I love love love DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG as much or more than just about anything I’ve seen this year." -- Harry Knowles
This business will get out of control!! It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it!!
247-Title 3-For-2 Blu-ray Sale!!
This business will get out of control!! It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it!!
247-Title 3-For-2 Blu-ray Sale!!
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i was indifferent towards this show when i saw the promos, but anything featuring any former cast member of wire i gotta check out at least once. know i'm ghost like swayze.
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on ABC a few years ago. It also starred that woman from LOST who plays Juliet.
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Dalton deserves better. In fact, why not make 'Road House: The Series' instead, with Swayze training a young bouncer a la Sam Elliot?
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Jan 15, 2009 7:57:06 AM CST
Swayze admits he's probably going to die within a few years
by shut the fuck up donny
and not a single reviewer can give his show a "pity review"? Jeezus, it must really be terrible.
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I probably wasn't going to watch this either way, but I think we were all still rooting for this to at least be well received. Regardless, the guy's got 10-pound brass balls for continuing to work, but geez. Huge bummer.
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I love how one review praises its "resistance to cliche" and the very next review claims that it is nothing but cliche.
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Swayze is a treasure and people watch a lot of bad tv already (despite being a Lost fan, BSG, Dexter, etc, I now watch Cold Case religiously and even watch a couple of shows I won't admit to.) There isn't much originality but sometimes you watch a show for the fun of it, and people love Swayze and his current health situation will increase the interest. The Beast will be a hit so long as he is in it.
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She would do Patrick Swayze, and I would prefer to not think about that!
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Every second of every episode that I watch, my autopiloting brain will repeat the same phrase over and over and over again:
dude's got cancer dude's got cancer dude's got cancer
not in a mean or cruel way, but actually in a compassionate way. As someone with immediate family members surviving cancer, its not something easily discarded or forgotten, and for the long term future, everytime I see a picture of Patrick Swayze, my mind will repeat that phrase again: dude's got cancer.
and that kind of cold water splash to the face makes immersion into the plot and presence of a fluid mystery show rather difficult to achieve. -
Jan 15, 2009 11:36:45 AM CST
I'm tired of seeing those BEAST trailers at the movie theater!
by bob cryptonight
Maybe now they will be pulled. The show seems to be ADVERTISED as a cliche, so maybe that's what they are going for...?
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"The network brass probably figure, if the viewers don’t care whether Criss Angel is a charlatan, why should they care if “The Beast” bears any semblance to reality? "that's fucking brilliant...
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I remember when "Lazarus Man" was on TV. Every time I saw Robert Urich all I could think of was him having cancer.
The show, if I recall, had pretty good reviews, but didn't last past twenty episodes. -
as fisherman chasing after a giant killer squid off the Pacific coast.
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Starring Jason Patrick and George Dzundza as Soviet soldiers fighting in Afghanistan. -
a very weak pilot. The young kid Ellis isn't a very compelling character, while Charles Barker is. The whole "is he dirty" subplot kinda reeks of "The Shield"-lite. But i'm still gonna give it a chance to impress me. Pilot was just too all over the place and with no real hook. Patrick Swayze is still cool, though.
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