Ryan Murphy’s new series "The Beauty" resembles "The Substance" The show that reveals the dark side of beauty

Don’t call it The Substance. In The Beauty, people don’t take a substance to become stunning, but rather transmit beauty as if it were a virus. It works on the same viral principle as HIV: if you have sex with someone or exchange bodily fluids, you are exposed to transformation. Desired by many, The Beauty constantly makes it clear that the world can be cruel to those who aren’t attractive. Sometimes, the process is also involuntary, caused by unconscious exposure, carrying extreme consequences along with it.

But don’t call it The Substance, as we said, because the eleven-episode show (released weekly on Disney+) is an adaptation of a 2015 graphic novel, well before Coralie Fargeat’s idea, although roughly contemporaneous with her 2014 short film Reality+, which in turn inspired the body horror featuring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.

What is "The Beauty" about?

Regardless of the story’s origin, the series confronts us with the fact that appearance has always been one of the cornerstones of human social life. Having the best genes opens every door, helps you achieve your goals, and ensures visibility in circles where otherwise you would quickly vanish. The show created by Ryan Murphy and Matt Hodgson, as well as the comic by Jeremy Haun and Jason Hurley, is a divertissement full of gory scenes and splatter moments, packed with action while sun-kissed creatures parade in the background. It is pure entertainment, where even Murphy’s sometimes posticious soul, directing some episodes, is part of the package one must accept when starting the series. Intriguing, with one of the most explosive opening scenes of the year, featuring Bella Hadid on a motorcycle, dressed in leather, in a wild and uncontrollable rage.

The reflection that The Beauty brings is multilayered. There’s the feeling of not being attractive enough, only to realize you were enough when it’s already too late. There’s the incel who, after taking The Beauty, convinces himself even more that it was his appearance that kept women away, and not his misogynistic, cruel, and dangerous character. And of course, there’s the concept of youth, connected to wellness and longevity; it’s not only a shot to become stunning (when beauty is not sexually transmitted), but also to live better, longer, and worry-free. Selling such a product is the goal of billionaire Ashton Kutcher, willing to do anything to be the sole owner of such a revolutionary discovery.

The dark side of beauty

A virus that, in nature, has begun to mutate and cause chaos where the entrepreneur needs stability and certainty to sell the most miraculous and expensive elixir any human would want to try. It tightly links the issues of appearance, showing off, and our obsession with perfection to the commercialization of a capitalist world, where one must pay to obtain what is considered the best. In fact, virus transmission seems to carry flaws compared to when it is administered in the lab. A pharmaceutical world that The Beauty applies to an impossible solution, a live Instagram filter—as Kutcher’s character calls it—leading to reflection on how health is, and risks becoming, increasingly reserved for the rich and super-rich, regardless of whether it makes you beautiful.

Many visual references inspire The Beauty. People become possessed during the transformation process, contorting and breaking like in a typical exorcism from a horror film, or, for a more sophisticated reference, one can think of the fascinating and painful dance scene in Suspiria by Luca Guadagnino, when Dakota Johnson, from a distance, seems to strike and twist a dance partner. Burned bodies that maintain extremely high temperatures after their tragic end trigger the story, that is, the beginning of a series of mysterious deaths investigated by agents Madeson (Evan Peters) and Bennett (Rebecca Hall), remaining hot and smoking like the remains faced by the characters in The Thing. The virus spreads like in It Follows by David Robert Mitchell (2014), another auteur horror and metaphor for the universe of sex and relationships.

An investigation into human nature

Then there’s the placenta from which people emerge after taking The Beauty, like cocoons turning into butterflies, yet covered in blood and sticky residue, ready to welcome their new selves into the world. When it’s Jeremy Pope’s character’s turn, there’s also a touch of the ballet from Joker by Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix. Emerging from his viscous shell, Jeremy spins and hovers to complete the transformation. He is no longer the same person, but his new appearance won’t help him with his problems; in fact, it may amplify his worst traits.

While agents Madsen and Bennett try to stop an unknown epidemic, viewers can enjoy Ryan Murphy’s flashy pop work when he’s at his best. Never refined, sometimes lacking finishing touches not so much in writing but in staging, especially during action sequences, he delivers a blazing product, tackling a theme that affects all of us every day and choosing a cast that fits perfectly in this sometimes splendid, sometimes caricatural frame.

Each actor, more or less over the top, serves an investigation exploring the human and philosophical aspects of humanity and the society around it, occasionally slipping but always coherent with the environment. Even Isabella Rossellini agreed to participate, still embodying beauty and having captured its cinematic essence in 1992 in one of the most eloquent films on the topic, Death Becomes Her by Robert Zemeckis. For its creator, the series must retain some camp principles, which this time feel less out of place than expected. Guaranteed entertainment for those familiar with Ryan Murphy’s work and aware that every desire can hide its own monstrosity.