The Beauty Is Gory, 'Utterly Wacky'

Ryan Murphy's The Beauty debuts on FX and Hulu Wednesday night and critics say it's a fun and very gory blend of some of his other series. Daniel Fienberg at the Hollywood Reporter calls the sci-fi body horror series a "frequently gross, occasionally provocative blend of Nip/Tuck and various American Horror Story iterations." Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall star as FBI agents investigating a mysterious treatment that is causing extremely beautiful people around the world to go berserk and spontaneously combust. Four takes on the show:

• Belen Edwards at Mashable describes the show as "Ryan Murphy at his Ryan Murphy-est, which is to say that it's maximalist, deranged chaos." Edwards notes that while the concept is strongly reminiscent of 2024's The Substance, the show is based on a graphic novel from 2015.

• Fienberg at the Hollywood Reporter calls it one of Murphy's "most thought-full (if not thoughtful) shows in years." "It's highly debatable how many of those thoughts are fresh or original or fully examined, but it's a busy show that will keep many viewers occupied trying to make sense of its breadcrumb trail of familiar ideas and familiar twists and turns," he writes. "My sense is that the trail leads to nothing revelatory, but at least you're treated to plenty of exploding bodies, piles of steaming flesh, and a writhing A-list cast along the way." Fienberg notes that the show definitely doesn't complete its story in the 11-episode first season.
• Kelly Lawler at USA Today calls the series insubstantial, with "muddied messaging and a preoccupation with the beauty standards it is seemingly critiquing." "What can be said of Beauty is that it is, well, beautiful," she writes. "Murphy directs multiple episodes and lends his lyrical, campy style to the scenes," Lawler writes. "Those who love the graphic horror aesthetics of Murphy's American Horror Story will find Beauty well stocked in disgust, gore, and guts."
• John Anderson at the Wall Street Journal describes the series as daring and "utterly wacky." "Ashton Kutcher's performance as the soulless mogul Byron Forst is an obvious send-up of Elon Musk. There are unkind references to Mark Zuckerberg," he writes. "And there is the wholesale trashing of the editorial staffers of the real-life Condé Nast, here a gaggle of privileged narcissists who are accidentally infected, quarantined, and treated like human garbage. None of this is unamusing. It does seem audacious."