Ryan Murphy’s new series, The Beauty, arrives with early whispers of resemblance to the award-winning film The Substance. Yet while that movie zeroed in on the beauty industry’s pressure on aging women, The Beauty casts a sprawling net—melding grisly sci-fi body horror, FBI procedural, and a critique of our obsession with perfection. Adapted from Jason A. Hurley and Jeremy Haun’s 2016 graphic novel, this show marks one of Murphy’s most ambitious genre hybrids in years, pairing shocking visuals and big-screen talent with a storyline that digs deeper than a simple rip-off.
Story
Episode one detonates onto the screen: top model (Bella Hadid) storms a rustic runway, hurls water bottles at VIPs, hijacks a motorcycle and sparks a pulsing city chase—culminating in an explosive standoff. From there, Agents Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall) take the reins. Their forbidden romance complicates a case involving a stolen “product” developed by a shadowy research outfit known only as the Corporation (Ashton Kutcher). Ostensibly designed to grant effortless beauty, the experimental drug carries a horrific side effect: infected individuals develop fevers, lash out violently and literally combust.
As the duo investigates runaway outbreaks—from a transformed young man desperate for acceptance to street-level dealers selling black-market doses—the series unfolds as a roster of bio-horror vignettes linked by one perverse question: How far will you go for beauty?
Performances
Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall share electric chemistry, grounding their agents’ moral dilemmas even as the plot careens into splatters of gore. Peters nimbly handles accent shifts and violent set pieces, while Hall brings nuance to a character caught between professional duty and burning desire.
Bella Hadid’s brief but unforgettable cameo sets the tone for the show’s shock-and-awe ambition, and Ashton Kutcher’s tepid but suitably ominous turn as the Corporation’s puppet-master hints at deeper corporate conspiracies.
Behind the Scenes
Murphy—channeling hallmarks of Nip/Tuck, American Horror Story, and Pose—pulls out all the stops: he co-writes most episodes, directs key installments, and oversees a soundtrack that’ll make you rethink Christopher Cross forever. Special effects teams craft genuinely unsettling body-horror transformations, and on-location shoots from France to Italy lend globe-trotting scale. The adaptation remains faithful to the graphic novel’s core question—What would you risk for perfect beauty?—while expanding it into a serialized thriller that never lets the suspense ebb.
Final Verdict
Though it occasionally feels overstuffed across its eleven-episode first season, The Beauty stands as one of Murphy’s most compelling offerings in years. It blends the visceral thrills of sci-fi horror with procedural intrigue and a timely critique of vanity, pharmaceuticals, and power. Fans of pulpy drama and body horror will be hooked—just don’t watch on an empty stomach.
The Beauty is streaming now on JioHotstar with new episodes releasing every Thursday at 11.30 A.M (IST).
