‘The Beauty’ series review: Evan Peters, Ashton Kutcher and friends have fun with ugly truths

My absolute favourite thing in Ryan Murphy’s latest body horror extravaganza, The Beauty, is Franny’s (Isabella Rossellini) insults for her unscrupulous billionaire husband, Byron Forst (Ashton Kutcher), who for some reason is referred to as the Corporation. Gems such as “You are the same dumpster with a fresh coat of paint,” or “Your lack of real talent was always your biggest insecurity,” are priceless and beg to be taken note of.

The Beauty, based on the 2011 comic book series of the same name by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley, is disgusting, gory and full-on camp. Supermodels go berserk and explode in spectacular style into their gooey, gloopy parts.

They boil from the inside out as described by the helpful forensic pathologist. Two FBI agents, Cooper (Evan Peters) and Jordan (Rebecca Hall), who are in a casual relationship, are assigned to the case. After checking the model’s death at the Balenciaga fashion show in Paris, the two head for Rome, where another model has exploded in a shower of body parts.

They realise that the models all came on the scene two years ago before which they had no social media presence. As the two are investigating, an assistant editor for Vogue combusts in New York and they are recalled.

A lonely man called Jeremy (Jaquel Spivey) believes he has to be better looking to win friends and influence people. In a chat room, he learns of a doctor and a radical treatment that turns him into a very good looking person (Jeremy Pope) though the transformation process involves broken bones and a high fever.

A still from the show
| Photo Credit:
FX Network

Meanwhile Forst (Vincent D’Onofrio before the transformation!) dispatches the Assassin (Anthony Ramos) to kill the person who stole the Beauty prototype from him before he could go public and make further billions.

Learning that the drug can be transmitted through sex, creating a “street version” of the drug in the words of the developer of the Beauty, Lee (Rob Yang), Forst tasks the Assassin with killing everyone the original thief had contact with.

Williams (John Carroll Lynch), Cooper and Jordan’s supervisor, also has a sad story and there is the mandatory arctic lady of science, this time a roboticist Diana (Ari Graynor).

Over 11 episodes, we learn about the drug’s harmful side effects (duh) and Forst’s evil plans even as we watch a series of squelchy transformations. Any attempt to go philosophical (“an injectible Instagram filter”, “the attention economy” and “beauty is the oldest, purest form of currency”) only makes you giggle.

While not particularly clever or original (The Substance, anyone?), with exceedingly two dimensional characters, the show cannot stand up to even the most basic questions. The finale is full-on cheating. Now we will never know who came out of the cocoon if the show is cancelled. Murphy should have completed the show while leaving a small door open for future seasons, not stopped it mid-way.

There is a gloss to The Beauty echoing its themes and the cast has all sorts of fun with the material, including Kutcher dancing to Tame Impala’s ‘Dracula’. The clothes, especially Franny’s hats, are lovely. The Death Becomes Her (1992)callback, with Franny echoing Rossellini’s iconic bejewelled avatar, is delicious.

A still from the show
| Photo Credit:
FX Network

After the manipulative Monsters, one should not be blamed for approaching Murphy’s offerings with a degree of trepidation. The Beauty, however, is actually quite fun in a gruesome head-in-wood chipper kind of way — only it is definitely not a TV dinner kind of show.

The Beauty currently streams on Jio Hotstar

Published – March 06, 2026 09:24 am IST