In the era of Ozempic, Botox and normalized surgical procedures, what magical potion will be next? That question is answered in Ryan Murphy’s new FX/Hulu body horror series The Beauty, about an experimental jab that promises complete aesthetic perfection. And it might have just predicted a dystopian future. Based on a comic book of the same name, the series follows two FBI agents as they investigate the spread of a mysterious sexually transmitted contagion that’s making people either A) explode into pieces, leaving behind only an oozing pool of guts or B) regenerate into a ludicrously hotter version of themselves.
When injected with The Beauty, patients emerge with chiseled jawlines, collagen-filled cheekbones, large sparkly eyes, perky bottoms and ripped abs; an archetype of Western beauty standards. There’s Jeremy (played by Jaquel Spivey and later Jeremy Pope), an isolated, depressed incel, who turns to surgery in his quest to look like a Chad and is given the drug instead. His bones crack. Steam rises from his skin. But he survives, hatching into an unrecognizable new man.
