When a new Ryan Murphy show comes out, it’s often the only thing people can talk about, for better or worse.
In recent years we’ve had Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story on Netflix, then Kim Kardashian’s girl boss lawyer clique on All’s Fair, and now The Beauty is the latest on the list.
Gone are Murphy’s American anthology days, when he gave us The People v OJ Simpson and The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Here are the sloppy, shoddily-written shows that, somehow, we can’t stop watching.
The new Disney Plus venture – the first three episodes of which are now waiting to be watched – has been compared to The Substance for its premise and also touts a similar level of body horror to that Demi Moore vehicle.
We’re talking smouldering piles of ribcages and molten flesh. Or skin torn asunder to reveal bloody bones beneath. Or spine-cracking bodily contortions as people transform into new versions of themselves.
The show revolves around a sexually transmitted virus that makes people hot, but also makes them dead after about two years of said hotness, in which their irresistibility means they have probably spread the thing far and wide.
It’s their literal hotness that gets them in the end. Their internal body temperature ratchets up so high they explode. Bella Hadid and Amelia Gray Hamlin are among the stunt-cast victims who meet this fate.
The starry cast doesn’t end there, with Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall as will-they-won’t-they FBI detectives on the case. Why it’s the FBI when the deaths are dotted across Europe is never made clear.
There’s also Ashton Kutcher as a malevolent pharma billionaire who’s marketing the hot jab and is married to Isabella Rossellini. The age gap is explained away by the fact that Kutcher’s boss has been dipping his company pen in the product.
If this sounds like a hot mess, then I’ve done my job. But as with most Murphy fare, we can’t help but rubbernecking to see what he’s done this time.
Metro’s thoughts on The Beauty
Senior TV Reporter Rebecca Cook’s one-star review urges you proceed at your own peril…
With the advent of supernova drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro, plus the ongoing conversation around cosmetic injectables and Kris Jenner’s facelift, this could have been the perfect moment for a show about the ‘one shot that makes you hot’.
But the result here is shameless claptrap.
The Beauty may have been in the can when the All’s Fair front hit, in which case, perhaps nothing could be learnt to make this much better. Or, putting my tin foil hat on, it’s been created this way on purpose, as a way to hype up the show’s word of mouth with it’s-so-bad-you-have-to-see momentum.
Ryan Murphy, you can do better. And we deserve it.
Viewers have had the same thought and already started sharing their varied write-ups. Some enjoyed the body gore and the fact that this certainly isn’t a drama that takes itself too seriously.
But another viewer wrote on IMDb, where the show is currently rated 5.8 out of 10: ‘I made up a new acronym. WOAT = worst of all time. That describes this best.
‘I know the economy is bad, lots of folks unemployed, but these actors are better than taking THIS HORRIBLE JOB!!!,’ urged @redinnevada.
Meanwhile, Kathryn described it as ‘painful to watch’ and was stunned that such a starry cast had signed on.
Are you going to give The Beauty a go?
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Yes, I need to see how bad it is
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No, I hate gore
The first three episodes of The Beauty are available to stream on Disney Plus.
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