“Beauty is pain” isn’t just a throwaway line anymore — it’s the entire thesis of The Beauty, Ryan Murphy’s latest genre-bending experiment. Adapted from the cult comic by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley, the FX and Hulu series takes society’s obsession with perfection and stretches it until it bleeds — literally.
Created by Ryan Murphy and Matt Hodgson, The Beauty is part body horror, part corporate satire, and part social warning. It’s thrilling, exhausting, sometimes brilliant, sometimes baffling — and very Murphy.
Storyline: When Perfection Becomes a Disease
The series opens with a jolt. At a Paris fashion show, supermodel Ruby — played by Bella Hadid — stumbles onto the runway, drenched in sweat, unfocused, and moments away from catastrophe. What follows is a shocking, blood-soaked outburst that sets the tone for everything that comes next.
Ruby’s breakdown isn’t isolated. Similar violent incidents involving supermodels start surfacing worldwide, forcing FBI agents Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall) to investigate.
Their trail leads to a horrifying discovery: a sexually transmitted virus, originally marketed as an injectable beauty drug, that transforms people into their most “perfect” physical selves — from the inside out. Think body horror meets biotech capitalism, with a splash of vanity-fueled doom.
The Villain at the Center of It All
At the heart of the chaos is The Corporation, played with unsettling smugness by Ashton Kutcher. He’s a tech-billionaire archetype — part Elon Musk satire, part biotech tyrant — obsessed with monetizing the virus at any cost.
To keep things under control, he deploys The Assassin (Anthony Ramos), a hired gun tasked with silencing anyone who gets too close to the truth. Kutcher’s casting works disturbingly well; his performance mirrors real-world billionaire hubris with eerie accuracy.
Meanwhile, the show cuts to Indianapolis, where Jeremy (Jeremy Pope) spirals deeper into incel culture before stumbling upon what he believes is salvation — a subplot with ideas bigger than its execution.
What Worked
This is Murphy at his most unapologetic:
- Relentless body horror: Botched facelifts, grotesque “beauty births,” violent transformations — the visuals are intentionally stomach-churning.
- A strong central metaphor: Beauty as currency, perfection as disease, capitalism as rot.
- Fast, binge-friendly pacing: Episodes run between 24 and 50 minutes, making the chaos strangely addictive.
- Top-tier performances from Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall, who ground the madness with emotional credibility.
The transformation scenes, in particular, are agonizing to watch — prolonged, painful, and disturbingly intimate. Weak-stomached viewers should proceed with caution.
What Didn’t Work
Around Episode 8, titled “Beautiful Brothers,” the show begins to buckle under its own ambition.
The narrative splinters into too many directions at once, introducing side plots that feel more like future-season material than necessities. One especially controversial moment — involving a character transforming into a Black man explained away with a “5% Nigerian” line — marks a sharp tonal nosedive.
Despite its diverse cast, The Beauty largely sidesteps meaningful commentary on racialized beauty standards, opting instead for throwaway explanations where deeper exploration was needed. For a show so eager to dissect pretty privilege, this feels like a missed opportunity.
And once the camp tips into outright absurdity, the satire starts eating itself.
Final Verdict
The Beauty is messy, excessive, and occasionally infuriating — but it’s also bold, entertaining, and oddly compelling. It doesn’t always know when to stop talking, but when it hits, it cuts deep.
Ryan Murphy delivers a grotesque mirror to modern obsession: GLP-1 culture, social media addiction, influencer aesthetics, sexual ignorance, and the monetization of bodies. The show doesn’t land every punch, but it swings hard — and often lands enough to keep you watching.
Prepare for blood, chaos, and discomfort. You may want off the ride by the end — but you won’t regret getting on.
⭐ Rating: 3.5/5
The first three episodes of The Beauty are now streaming on Hulu and FX, with new episodes dropping weekly on Wednesdays.
