"The Beauty," was a comic created by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley. It was at Image for a number of years, and a new iteration is currently at Ignition Press. It follows a virus people want to catch as it is dubbed, "The Beauty," for how it makes people look good...before sometimes they randomly blow up some time later. The latest project from showrunner Ryan Murphy adapts a degree of the comic but is also its own wildly bizarre beast. Murphy has been involved in a ton of shows from, "Nip/Tuck" to, "American Horror Story," "Glee," "American Crime Story," "Pose," and the list goes on. Sometimes Murphy is a bit restrained, and other times his shows are insanely over-the-top. "The Beauty," is Murphy relatively unhinged, but I dig it. This is a show where he makes sure people infected with the virus who have a bad reaction literally blow up into a mess of viscera. He's loaded the show with sex. He has weird moments of dark humor and surreal monologues (one episode features a professional hitman waxing at length about the talent of Christopher Cross and how the fact that he looked like a normal dude doomed his career with the rise of MTV). It's a lot, but I like it.
Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall play FBI agents investigating a number of mysterious deaths that can be traced to a strange new virus--one seemingly made in a lab. As the show goes on, we witness a Phrama CEO (played by Ashton Kutcher to sleazy perfection) who was behind the virus and didn't want it to leak, but when an employee ran off and had sex...well, the fact that you don't always need a shot to be hot and can pass this potentially new cure/disease to others sexually is, "More of a bug than a feature." Hence, a lot of people who shouldn't have The Beauty do, are blowing up, and in the first three episodes, we witness a tug-of-war between those trying to figure out what is going on and those desperate to make sure nobody learns anything until The Beauty is perfected and ready to launch as some kind of treatment you can buy.
As I said, "The Beauty," is Ryan Murphy doing the most. Tons of sex, lots of violence, and the occasional shockingly sharp moment of social commentary. A black man who finds himself infected with The Beauty (played to perfection by Jeremy Pope post-transformation) in one scene discusses how even being made beautiful he still finds himself at a disadvantage in a society that values an ugly white man more than him, with the fact he is good looking, if anything, ampflying stereotypes of his being an attractive man with a, "BBC," and little else to offer in America's culture. The idea that weight loss drugs could be rendered useless by this new drug/virus is touched upon as well, with it clear why The Beauty needs to be kept a secret before it is revealed to the marketplace (not that such a fact excuses all the murdering).
"The Beauty," is set to be 11 episodes total in this first season, and if the first three are any indicator, we are in for one visceral, messy, and sometimes pretty smart and insightful ride. Buckle up, things are going to get fleshy! I rare these first three episodes...5 out of 5 Stars. It airs/unlocks new episodes on Hulu every Tuesday, so I'm eager for the next entry that'll be available today!
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