"This is where the wealthy and the powerful rule. It is her world. A world apart from mine. Her name... is Catherine. From the moment I saw her, she captured my heart, with her beauty, her warmth, and her courage. I knew then, as I know now, she would change my life forever."

     "He comes from a secret place, far below the city streets, hiding his face from strangers, safe from hate and harm. He brought me there to save my life. And now, wherever I go, he is with me in spirit. For we have a bond stronger than friendship or love, and although we cannot be together, we will never, ever be apart."

Don't they just melt your heart, those opening passages of one of the most followed romantic action dramas in television history? The creation of Ron Koslow and with science fiction writer George R.R. Martin on board as story consultant, the story of Catherine Chandler -- a socialite corporate lawyer turned Assistant D.A. -- and Vincent -- a leonine man who doesn't know how he came to be -- captured hearts every week, as they took turns rescuing each other while their hearts continued to grow closer despite the knowledge that they could never be truly together.

Ron Perlman plays Vincent, who must forever live in a dreamlike world under New York. There are others there, others who have left the above-ground world behind for one reason or another, but none like Vincent, with the face of a beast and the soul of a poet. He is protected by the man he calls "Father," actually Jacob Wells (Roy Dotrice), a physician who was disgraced during the 1950s Communist witchhunts when he called for a halt to nuclear research.

Together. Vincent and Catherine dig into Father's mysterious past. (L-R: Ron Perlman, Linda Hamilton)

Vincent first encounters Catherine (Linda Hamilton) when she is attacked on the street and left for dead by men who mistook her for someone else. Taking her underground, Vincent brings her to Father, who bandages her scars and nurses her back to health. For days, Catherine's bandages blind her to Vincent's appearance, as they grow closer. When she sees him for the first time, she cannot help but fear him -- but she's more aghast at the scars left on her own face. Returning to the world above, she has surgery to repair most of the damage, but the attack has changed her view of the world. Abandoning her father's business in corporate law, she trains herself to be able to defend herself on the streets, and joins the District Attorney's office to hunt down those who prey on the innocent.

But she can never forget Vincent, nor can he forget her. For during their time together, he has formed an empathic bond with her. When she feels fear, when she feels anger... when she feels happiness, he feels it as well. Their hearts are entwined, and when she is in danger, Vincent rushes to her side.

All twenty-two episodes of this first season weave a rich and mythic tapestry, as these two starcrossed lovers learn about each other, their worlds and their pasts. The stories are captivating, but the quality of the picture is a bit grainy at times -- not that that detracts from the magic.

There are no special features on this set, which is a bit disappointing -- no commentary from the cast and creators, let alone interviews with Perlman or Hamilton.

Previews on this disc include Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Numb3rs, NCIS, Medium and The 4400.

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Beauty and the Beast is one of those series that snuck past me when it ran on television, and I'd always heard from others in the science fiction community about how gosh-darned good it was. So when the first season debuted on DVD, I gave it a go. I found it somewhat darkly filmed, but with some interesting premises -- the mystery of the beast man Vincent and how he came to be; the unique society of underground dwellers; and the psychic, empathic connection between Vincent and his love, Catherine.

It was enough to bring me back for this second season, where I found more mysteries -- but also some trends that were becoming cloying and annoying.

Let's start with the good news. This second season of Ron Koslow's groundbreaking television series actually comes with special features -- a step up from the first season DVD release. Six of the twenty-two episodes feature video introductions withBeauty and the Beast co-stars, Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton. The segments average about three minutes each, as the actors talk up the impending episode with some behind the scenes information and background on the story that brought us to that particular point. In the fine print, however, be warned that some of the episodes may be edited from their original broadcast. We don't know specifically which episodes, but the very fact that a warning exists means we can assume that at least one episode has been.

Human Monster. Tony Jay plays the diabolical Paracelsus

This season brought back a delightfully wicked archenemy in the form of Tony Jay as Paracelsus. Paracelsus has ties to Vincent's birth which are finally revealed in the season's cliffhanger ending. But more about that later. We first see Paracelsus this season in "Remember Love", a riff on "It's A Wonderful Life". When Catherine arranges an outing in the country for herself and Vincent so that he may finally see the sunlight, he agres to go. But he reconsiders at the last minute and rages against his circumstances which force him to remain underground. As he falls asleep, he is visited by an angel in Catherine's form who shows him what the world would be like without him in it -- with Father a wino, Catherine spiritless, and Paracelsus ruling the underworld using all Vincent's friends who have turned to crime.

Of course, that was all a dream. Paracelsus doesn't truly return to the series' continuity until the episode "Dead of Winter". Here, the underdwellers are preparing for their Winterfest ceremony, a traditional lighting of candles, in which the above-ground helpers are invited to participate. Paracelsus has been mastering his impersonation of voices, working in tandem with a scultpress who molds lifelike facemasks. Using one of these disguises, Paracelsus infiltrates the Winterfest ceremony to plant a bomb and destroy them all. Once they are warned to the villain's intentions, it's up to Vincent, Catherine and Pascal (Armin Shimerman) to uncover the imposter and expose his plot before he can carry it out.

"Dead of Winter" also illustrates one of the handful of things that irks me about the series. When the children of the underground are off to deliver the special candles to the helpers above ground, the candlemaker watches them run off with a fond, "It wasn't so long ago that I was delivering the candles instead of making them." Father nods sagely, and says, "I remember -- especially the year when you fell and twisted your knee." To this, Vincent interjects gently, "Sometimes we have to fall, Father... to learn how to get up." And that was par for the course -- if the scene wasn't directly related to the overall plot but was needed to chew up a few seconds here and there, it always became a philosophy lesson. This, coupled with the fact that everyone below wore medieval garb instead of contemporary castoff clothing just served to shoehorn more of a sense of romance than was necessary. After a while, even Catherine's dialogue back to Vincent seemed to come from some unpublished Shakespearian drama. But the language seemed to serve the underdwellars well enough -- they produced college students, musical prodigies, and ballerinas. Father's little underground community sometimes seemed to be the homeless equivalent of a liberal arts college.

Time Alone. Vincent (Ron Perlman) rebuffs Catherine (Linda Hamilton) as he fears the beast inside is taking him over.

Which is why I'm always drawn back to the episodes with Paracelsus. For some reason, it just seems more natural for the blackhearted villain to speak from Shakespeare. It's Paracelsus who's behind the trilogy of episodes that conclude this season, when a newspaper reporter captures a photograph of Vincent, just as Catherine's old flame Elliot Burch (Edward Albert) is back on the scene. Paracelsus is back up to his old impersonation act, and as Vincent learns more about his past (including what he believes to be the identity of his biological mother) he is gradually driven to become more bestial, to the point where we close the season in darkness with a growl from Vincent followed by Catherine's scream.

Beauty and the Beast is, in fact, what it's been advertised to be since the days of the Brothers Grimm: a fairytale romance full of pretty talk and poetry. And it's certainly watchable -- albeit this reviewer recommends watching it in small doses. Marathon viewings may result in elevated blood sugar levels.