Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall in 'The Beauty.' FX Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text Were you to tell me that The Beauty, a new FX dark comedy, were Ryan Murphy's last TV series - a chaotic and inconsistent summation of a chaotic and inconsistent body of work - I would believe you. It isn't. He's got a dozen shows - probably more - at various stages in the pipeline. The Beauty The Bottom Line Enjoy, but don't think too hard. Airdate: 9 p.m. Wednesday, January 21 (FX and Hulu)Cast: Evan Peters, Anthony Ramos, Jeremy Pope, Ashton Kutcher, Rebecca HallCreators: Ryan Murphy and Matthew Hodgson But The Beauty is affectionately cumulative, a frequently gross, occasionally provocative blend of Nip/Tuck and various American Horror Story iterations. Adapted by Murphy and longtime collaborator Matt Hodgson from the comic book by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley, the show is not merely derivative of Murphy's own oeuvre. It will remind viewers with short memories of The Substance, especially since The Beauty co-stars Ashton Kutcher, ex-husband of that movie's star, Demi Moore. It will remind slightly older viewers of Death Becomes Her, a movie that co-starred Isabella Rossellini, a recurring guest star in The Beauty. It will remind cinephiles of David Cronenberg's bleakly satirical forays into body horror, especially The Fly and Rabid, as well as genre classics like Eyes Without a Face. Related Stories TV How to Watch 'The Beauty' Online Without Cable With Sling TV TV Bella Hadid Says She'd "Love" to Continue Acting After Ryan Murphy's 'The Beauty': "This Is a Dream of Mine" The series, which definitely does not complete its story in the 11-episode first season, is 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. 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. The Beauty begins with one of the more thrilling sequences of Murphy's directing career. A model (Bella Hadid) walks off the stage at a Paris runway show, attacks a woman for her bottle of water and engages in an adrenalized motorcycle chase through the City of Lights, accompanied by Prodigy's "Firestarter," leading to a showdown with police in which the model ... explodes. This is as close as we're ever likely to get to seeing what a Ryan Murphy-directed James Bond or Mission: Impossible movie would look like, so enjoy it. The case attracts the attention of FBI agents Madsen (Evan Peters) and Bennett (Rebecca Hall), leading to the revelation that gorgeous people around the world are similarly spontaneously combusting. Madsen and Bennett, whose partnership also includes sleeping together, make their way to Rome and Venice as the stakes rise. They're getting closer and closer to a truth that could get them killed, or transformed forever. It all relates to a mystery drug known as The Beauty, which offers unimaginable physical attractiveness and ... a variety of side effects. The promise of youth and vitality brings with it the promise of additional wealth for an enigmatic billionaire (Kutcher), who's so committed to his product that he employs an enigmatic assassin (Anthony Ramos) to clean up loose ends. How much would you pay to look like an actor from a Ryan Murphy show? What would you do to look like an actor from a Ryan Murphy show? And what to make of the added wrinkle that, in addition to its pure laboratory version, The Beauty can be sexually transmitted? How much credit do we give creators for utilizing an AIDS metaphor in 2026, 40 years after The Fly and 33 years after Abel Ferrara's Body Snatchers? With these as the central questions, there are more actors who look like actors from a Ryan Murphy show in The Beauty than in any previous Ryan Murphy show, with the titular drug offering a beauty that's renewable and interchangeable, just like so many of the young stars in Ryan Murphy shows. Some writers with Murphy's body of work, then, would see a show like The Beauty as an opportunity for self-reflection and self-critique, but this has never been the thing that Ryan Murphy does best. Here, as in recent seasons of Netflix's Monster, it's actually the thing he does worst. The Beauty is about the societal conditions that would make the drug in question so irresistible, updating the plastic surgery satire of Nip/Tuck to raise its eyebrow in the direction of social media, relentless advertising and youthful culture of bullying and peer pressure. But might this also be an opportu