The arrival of the crime drama The Beast on DVD is bittersweet for several reasons: its release unfortunately coincides with the passing of its star, actor Patrick Swayze, who logged his last (and some of his best) hours on screen in the show, and his death brought an end to a promising series that might've endured even without him. Swayze, who was diagnosed with the pancreatic cancer that claimed his life in 2009 shortly before beginning work on The Beast, is top-billed as a seasoned FBI agent whose superiors look past his unorthodox methods due to his success rate at breaking cases. Travis Fimmel, last seen in the short-lived Tarzan series, is Swayze's new partner, a former sharpshooter whom the agency hopes to groom in the veteran agent's image. The episodes that comprise The Beast's first season are split between Swayze educating his younger partner in the finer points of two-fisted crime-solving, and Fimmel's discovery that Swayze is the subject of internal investigation for his actions. The core story has been done before, and done better (the theatrical feature Training Day, for one), but Swayze brings a palpable grit to his performance (one can recast his career along the lines of a Dick Powell, who also transitioned gracefully from song and dance to action-drama), and while the 13 episodes included on this three-disc set are a fine tribute to the breadth of his abilities, one can't watch The Beast without thinking that the actor's untimely death robbed viewers of what might have been a truly intriguing shift towards harder fare than the titles commonly associated with Swayze. Each of the 13 episodes is accompanied by a brief, by-the-books featurette that addresses aspects of the show's production; one wishes that more material could have been produced while Swayze was alive to provide for a fitting tribute. --Paul Gaita




Stills from The Beast: Season One (Click for larger image)