At this point, you know what you’re going to get with Ryan Murphy. The TV icon may have started out with acclaimed shows like Nip/Tuck, Glee, and American Horror Story, but now he’s become synonymous with a certain kind of campy, unrealistic, glitzy drama that often recruits its actors from celebrity magazines. From The Politician to Grostesquerie to the fascinatingly watchable (and terrible) All’s Fair, a “Ryan Murphy show” is now a subgenre in and of itself.
Now, Murphy is taking this formula and applying it to sci-fi with a strange series called The Beauty. It follows a strange sexually transmitted disease that turns you into physical perfection. In the words of Ashton Kutcher’s character, “It’s an STD that people will actually want.” Check out the full trailer below:
The initial premise of a procedure that turns you perfect is nothing new: Netflix’s Uglies did it in 2024, to very mixed results. Thankfully, The Beauty has something else going for it: a murder mystery led by Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall, who are both playing it so serious that it butts up against the flagrant extravagantness of the dialogue.
But not everyone got that memo. There are classic Ryan Murphy performances in the trailer alone from Bella Hadid, Ashton Kutcher, Anthony Ramos, and even Isabella Rossellini, who knows something about magically-restored beauty from a previous movie in her career. The supporting cast includes Lux Pascal (Pedro Pascal’s sister), Meghan Trainor, and Vincent D’Onofrio, so it’s an eclectic group to say the least.
Judging by the trailer alone, this may be one of the strangest sci-fi shows of the year, and we’re only a few days into 2026. But despite how ridiculous it looks, I have to admit... I’m really looking forward to it. The allure of Ryan Murphy shows is just how frothy and over-the-top they are. Nobody comes to these shows looking for gritty drama, but if this show is able to deliver a noir-esque mystery on top of gorgeous supermodel quips and body horror, then that just adds to The Beauty.
