There was a time when TV writer/producer Ryan Murphy’s name attached to a series meant it would be edgy but also thought-provoking, out-there but still considered quality TV.
Alas, those days are mostly gone.
Murphy’s shows now tend to be schlock fests — see Hulu’s “All’s Fair” — that viewers may watch in decent enough numbers, but these programs generally receive a critical drubbing.
Murphy’s latest, “The Beauty,” puts him squarely back in “Nip/Tuck” territory, Murphy’s 2003-10 FX series where plastic surgeons began each conversation with their patient by asking, “Tell me what you don’t like about yourself?”
American society has grown more image conscious in the years since with the rise of influencers, YouTube creators and “selfie culture.”
“The Beauty,” debuting with three episodes at 9 p.m. Jan. 21 on FX and Hulu (then one episode weekly at 9 p.m. Wednesday until the two-episode season finale at 9 p.m. March 4), begins as a supermodel (Bella Hadid) starts to overheat before she explodes in a bloody conflagration leading FBI agents Cooper Madsen (Even Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall) to Paris to investigate.
The origins of the sexually transmitted virus responsible don’t get fully explored until halfway through the 11-episode season but there are hints early on that a mustache-twirling, Elon Musk-like tech billionaire (Ashton Kutcher) and his one-eyed assassin henchman (Anthony Ramos) had some role in unleashing the drug (AKA The Beauty) that carries the virus that creates beautiful people via molting (before they eventually go kablooey, one of those small-print side effects).
The two FBI agents are sleeping together and telling one another it’s just “friends with benefits” but clearly, they care about one another.
Filmed in Paris, Venice, Rome and New York City, globetrotting “The Beauty” looks great – a meet cute between the FBI agents near the Trevi Fountain in Rome at night? Why not! — and the show wants to have something to say about Americans’ over-emphasis on aesthetics, but it’s so preoccupied with wild, grotesque set pieces that the commentary threatens to get lost under pounds of prosthetic makeup effects.
Created by Murphy and Matthew Hodgson (“9-1-1,” “Glee”), “The Beauty” tiptoes toward exploring some interesting ideas, especially with the introduction of a trans character midway through the season, but it never gets deep into them before changing directions. One minute we’re chasing down sources of the virus, the next the story’s switched to uses for synthetic humans.
In a cascading series of unmotivated twists, enemies team up, a villain has an unconvincing change of heart and the whole thing ends on a frustrating cliffhanger.
But give Murphy and company credit: “The Beauty” may be semi-hollow headed, but it’s never boring. Isabella Rossellini shows up as Kutcher’s hectoring wife with some outrageous purple prose dialogue. Ben Platt gets a Beauty-enhanced glow-up.
At least Murphy allowed critics to review this one in advance (he hasn’t done that with most of his other recent shows). Murphy didn’t show up at a virtual press conference to answer questions about the series earlier this month, but the show’s stars explained why they signed on.
“Ryan Murphy has a nose for the zeitgeist and what is current and what were all talking about,” Hall said. “He makes it subversive and provocative and even more worth discussing.”
Kutcher, whose ex-wife, Demi Moore, starred in a similarly themed movie (“The Substance”), pointed to the popularity of weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, which are sometimes used for health benefits, but he noted they’re often used for an improved aesthetic outcome.
“And then we have this increasing demand for cosmetic surgery, including tourism for cosmetic surgery and people augmenting themselves in order to achieve a look or a feel or a vibe that they think will give them some sort of advantage, or maybe it will just make them happy,” Kutcher said, noting the series takes all of these things, including gene editing, and puts them in a single drug. “What are you willing to sacrifice for that? What risks are you willing to take? And I think that that’s incredibly poignant.”
Jeremy Pope, who plays a character who takes The Beauty, said he appreciates entertainment that makes the audience consider what they would do in the same situation the characters find themselves in.
“The show starts off in a very vain, vanity, physical way,” he said. “But then we talk about a kid that maybe has a disease or something where they haven’t been able to live their full life, and as a parent or as a person who is observing that, what would you give to see someone step into their beauty and their light? That’s an interesting conversation to be having, because everyone’s saying there are a lot of things that are being projected onto us via social media, via the news. There’s always a medication that you can take that can change this or do that. It’s just an active conversation about where you sit on the side of beauty, your perspective of yourself, the inner work, the outer work. To me, that makes for interesting dialogue and conversation.”
Channel surfing
Puck News reported “Mayor of Kingstown” was canceled and its final season shortened (from 10 episodes to eight) against the wishes of co-creator Taylor Sheridan, unsurprising given Sheridan moved his TV deal from Paramount to Universal TV, effective a few years from now. … And now “Mayor of Kingstown” and Pittsburgh-set “Watson” are about to get a lot more eyeballs on them as Paramount will license reruns of both series to stream on Netflix sometime in 2026. … Netflix’s “Boots” was the highest-rated series on the streamer to get canceled between July and December, out-rating other series that will continue. … HBO debuts a new two-part documentary, “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man” (8 p.m. Jan. 22 and 23, HBO; both parts stream Jan. 22 on HBO Max), exploring the life and career of legendary writer/director/performer Brooks (“Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Spaceballs”).
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You can reach TV writer Rob Owen at rowen@triblive.com or 412-380-8559. Follow @RobOwenTV on Threads, X/Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky and Facebook. Ask TV questions by email or phone. Please include your first name and location.