The Beauty Review: Ryan Murphy’s Deranged X-Files Remix Knows that It’s Camp

The new FX series The Beauty opens in Paris, as a model played by Bella Hadid strides down a fashion show runway to the tune of Prodigy’s “Firestarter.” Then, she starts to overheat, going on a rampage that involves grabbing bottles of water out of people’s hands, stealing a motorcycle, drinking out of a toilet, and eventually meeting a gruesome, explosive end. It’s a sequence that feels like the perfect distillation of the Ryan Murphy-produced series as a whole: loud, unsubtle, and absolutely giddy over its own grossness.

The Beauty arrives at a time when the whole concept of achievable beauty has changed in today’s culture, thanks to the prevalence of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic; perhaps the humble viewer at home might already be dreaming of what it would be like to instantly become thinner, younger-looking, and more beautiful with the help of a drug. However, the show itself serves as a pretty strong PSA against the idea, while hitting the right notes of camp to make it clear what’s a joke and what isn’t.

The core premise revolves around a world where a relatively secret new drug (called, shockingly enough, The Beauty) offers a literal cure for physical ugliness. Per the show’s tagline, “one shot makes you hot.” Said drug also functions like a virus — one that can be transmitted to other people via bodily fluids — and can have unfortunate side effects (see above).

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If The Beauty has protagonists, they’re FBI agents Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall), who are first introduced as lovers about to reach the breaking point of any friends-with-benefits arrangement — Madsen’s caught feelings, and Bennett isn’t comfortable with that. Their relationship drama then takes a back seat to The Case of the Exploding Model, which leads them on an international quest to figure out why, exactly, beautiful people are going kablooey.

Their investigation would serve as the spine of a more grounded show, inspiring comparisons to The X-Files. The Beauty is not a grounded show. Instead, Madsen and Bennett are often shunted to the sidelines for episodes that spotlight the drug’s early days of implementation, or deliver some key backstory for a character. There’s literally no way of predicting what might happen next on The Beauty, leading to a sometimes appealing kind of chaos as it stretches to accommodate its eclectic cast.

This includes Ashton Kutcher as “The Corporation” — a beneficiary of The Beauty who is shameless in his hedonism and ruthlessness. Kutcher without question is having a blast here, literally dancing his way through some scenes with a nasty glee that’s well-matched by Isabella Rossellini. She’s here to snarl at Kutcher, deliver bitchy lines of dialogue, and wear fabulous over-the-top fashions, and because she’s Isabella Rossellini she does those things flawlessly. (Her presence is also a nice meta touch, since she starred in the similarly themed Death Becomes Her just a few decades ago.)

The Beauty (FX)

Anthony Ramos also leans hard into the camp factor as The Assassin, charged with cleaning up any loose ends that might endanger the existence of The Beauty — it’s a performance best described as “unleashed,” especially when he’s grooving out to his favorite artist of all time, Christopher Cross. (Amongst many expected turns featured in this series is an abiding affection for yacht rock.)

By contrast, Peters and Hall don’t get to have nearly as much fun, but do their best to bring some relatable emotions to their scenes together. The cast also features numerous familiar faces from Murphy’s vast troupe of semi-regular players, including brief but welcome appearances by John Carroll Lynch, Jon Jon Briones, Laura Dreyfuss, Ben Platt, and Billy Eichner. There aren’t any real weak spots in this ensemble — just folks who understand the assignment to varying degrees.

It’s worth noting that like so many Murphy shows, aesthetically The Beauty is packed with gorgeous visuals: Production took place across Europe, with a heavy emphasis on exterior locations capturing the centuries-old splendor of Venice, Paris, and Rome. There are luxurious hotel suites, expensive fashions, and a very nice yacht. All in sharp contrast to the graphic moments of body horror — limbs flailing in agony, covered in viscous grotesquerie.

There hasn’t been a new episode of American Horror Story since 2024, but The Beauty feels like it’s scratching that itch for the Emmy-winning producer. While this is Murphy’s third series to premiere over the last four months, following All’s Fair and Monster: The Ed Gein Story, it’s probably the best of them: There’s still a sense that we’re watching the first drafts of these scripts be filmed, but the realm of body horror accommodates this kind of messiness a lot more cleanly than attempts at legal drama or prestige true-life tale.

Like physical attractiveness itself, The Beauty stays pretty surface level in terms of its themes — those affected by the drug often too thrilled by the results, even with the threat of death looming. Full credit to Murphy and the show’s writers for embracing the rough reality of today; that despite the hard work of body positivity activists over the years, this is still a culture obsessed with the appearance of youth and sex appeal. It’s an approach that doesn’t lead to any deep insights, yet the show’s campiness does have a certain compelling quality to it. The Beauty is nuts. But it’s not trying to be anything else.

The first three episodes of The Beauty premiere January 21st at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on FX and 9:00 p.m. ET on Hulu. New episodes debut on Wednesdays. Check out the trailer below.