FX’s The Beauty: “Infuriating” horror barely earns one star

When I first came across the trailer for Ryan Murphy’s new horror series, I thought it would be a campy, over-the-top tale with a strong The Substance vibe. At worst, I thought it would be a stylish bore, at best – a guilty pleasure in a delicious True Blood fashion. However, The Beauty exceeded my wildest expectations.

Murphy’s previous project, All’s Fair, was hailed as the worst TV series of 2025, but still, I wasn’t prepared for The Beauty to resemble the work of a second-year screenwriting student.

The story, based on the graphic novel of the same title by Haun and Jason A. Hurley, follows two FBI agents – and friends with benefits – Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall), as they investigate the shocking deaths of supermodels.

On their path, they encounter mysterious assassins, incels, models, a cynical tech bro, and… a bizarre, sexually transmitted virus.

Murphy forces his message down the viewer’s throat. In a truly infuriating manner

One of the basic rules of screenwriting is “Show, Don’t Tell”. It means that instead of having characters explicitly reveal their pasts, relationships, or motivations, the filmmakers should show it through acting, set design, or interactions with other characters.

While telling often feels fake and lazy, showing is more natural. And it requires more creativity.

It’s beyond my imagination that an acknowledged showrunner such as Ryan Murphy throws this rule out the window. Instead of gradually developing characters through various scenes, he forced the protagonists to recite information about themselves in drawn-out, unrealistic dialogues.

What’s worse, they don’t stop there – they also lecture each other on contemporary social issues, which makes the conversations resemble Wikipedia articles.

The concept of The Beauty is ambitious. Ryan Murphy attempts to show the modern obsession with physical attractiveness, fuelled by social media.

Inspired by the Ozempic hype, he tries to reveal the true colours of aesthetic medicine, pharmaceutical companies, and media corporations, while showing how destructive the beauty fixation can be to mental and physical health and to interpersonal relationships.

However, the problem is that Murphy forces his message down the viewer’s throat. In a truly infuriating manner, instead of metaphors and ambivalence, he opts for cheesy literalism, leaving the audience no room for reflection and interpretation.

This bizarre serum is basically a fairytale magic potion

What’s more, the series’ worldview is terribly simplistic. If you’re hoping for an exciting FBI investigation in Task fashion or a dense corporate thriller like Severance, The Beauty will disappoint you sorely.

The work of federal agents and the shenanigans of tech bros look like they were written by a teenager with no expertise in either. The series is full of wishful thinking and has serious plot holes, of which Murphy is often aware. However, he clearly has no idea how to patch up the story.

The icing on the cake is a product called The Beauty, launched by tech billionaire known as The Corporation (Ashton Kutcher). This bizarre serum is basically a fairytale magic potion – it can do whatever the writers need to push the action forward.

It makes users look younger and more attractive, miraculously recognising current beauty standards. It dissolves silicone implants and cures diseases, but somehow doesn’t remove scars – luckily for a protagonist who needs to be identified by a friend.

In the most ridiculous scenes, the serum is even able to change the character’s race and perform a successful gender transition.

too messy for a truly biting satire and not entertaining enough for a decent guilty pleasure

The sloppy writing and heavy-handed didacticism are even more unbearable when combined with the series’ over-the-top visual style.

Ryan Murphy tries with all his might to create eye candy, paying great attention to colours and lighting, dressing his characters in carefully designed garments and filming in dazzling interiors. On the other hand, he has a taste for body horror, resulting in recurring scenes of gruesome beauty transformations, full of splattering bodily fluids.

In a pronounced way, The Beauty draws from The Substance and Death Becomes Her – as a wink to Robert Zemeckis’ black comedy, the showrunner even cast Isabella Rossellini in a surprising role.

Sadly, the series lacks the brilliance of either film. Although The Beauty’s kitsch and absurdity are intentional to some extent, the series is too messy for a truly biting satire and not entertaining enough for a decent guilty pleasure.

Should you watch The Beauty?

If you are a fan of complex, ambivalent sci-fi series such as Severance or Pluribus, or clever satire of contemporary society such as Succession or White Lotus, give The Beauty a wide berth – it makes you tear your hair out after just a few episodes.

It’s style over substance, through and through.

Where to stream The Beauty

In the US, The Beauty premieres on Hulu and FX on Wednesday, 21 January. In the UK, the series will debut on Disney+ on Thursday, 22 January 2026.

The season consists of 11 episodes, which, after a three-episode premiere, will be aired weekly. To see the full watching guide, check out our episode release schedule.