Ryan Murphy's new series The Beauty feels like the love child of The Substance and James Bond.

Ryan Murphy's The Beauty is a high-glamour, high-octane, high-everything series.

And it's… a lot.

Based on the 2016 graphic novel of the same name by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley, The Beauty takes place as a deadly sexually transmitted infection is sweeping the world. The side effect? It transforms normal people into the most conventionally attractive person imaginable.

Think Bella Hadid-level beautiful because well, she literally opens the whole series with a horrifying sequence (and she's rather good in it, too).

"It's an STD that people actually want!" the billionaire behind the invention teases. The show's tagline is literally "One shot makes you hot."

But naturally, the STI's ability to transform anyone into an instant supermodel comes at a visceral cost: uh oh, the virus eventually causes its hosts' internal organs to fail or even spontaneously combust. Their hotness comes with a shelf life of just two years.

Watch the trailer for The Beauty. Post continues after video.

This series is everything you expect from a Ryan Murphy creation, who serves as co-creator, executive producer, writer and director on The Beauty, alongside his Glee collaborator, Matthew Hodgson, as co-creator and lead writer.

In Murphy's first foray into science fiction, the series blends sharp social satire with plenty of gruesome body horror, examining our culture's obsession with external beauty.

The series is elevated by its powerhouse ensemble. Even though Ashton Kutcher, as the sinister billionaire behind the STI, has been front and centre of the show's promo, it's the other actors who truly shine.

Image: Disney+.

Led by Murphy's longtime muse, Dahmer star Evan Peters, and The Night House's Rebecca Hall, they are both impeccable in this series, bringing a seriousness to some of the often silly material while playing FBI agents investigating a string of supermodel deaths across Paris and Venice.

As Kutcher's sidekick, Hamilton star Anthony Ramos is perfection as an ageless, lethal assassin.

But the surprise highlight of the series has to be the legendary Italian actress, Isabella Rossellini, as the estranged wife of Kutcher's billionaire character. She is campy perfection.

For fans of the 1992 cult classic Death Becomes Her, they will know Rossellini for her iconic role in the film about the high price of attaining eternal beauty — sound familiar? Yes, the casting crew knows what they're doing and this is a meta masterstroke.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Pope's performance is the beating heart of the series, as he elevates every scene he steals, and adds a much-needed layer of sincerity to the show's campier moments.

The show's storyline will draw obvious comparisons with Kutcher's ex-wife Demi Moore's Oscar-nominated film, The Substance. However, it exists in a much more glamorous universe to the far grittier Coralie Fargeat-directed film.

The Beauty feels like the love child of The Substance and James Bond. Its heart-pumping soundtrack, hectic action sequences, high-fashion set design and visually gorgeous cinematography feel like the setup to a new Bond Girl introduction.

Image: Disney+.

To be clear, people aren't ripping their own faces off in James Bond. Make no mistake: this series is gory-as-hell.

The comic's author, Jason A. Hurley, served as a consultant on the series to ensure the adaptation captured the body-horror spirit of their original graphic novel.

You will not make it through a few minutes without something genuinely stomach-churning happening, but in the spirit of the show's overarching 'beauty is pain' message, the body horror element feels earned, rather than coming across as overkill.

Is this the perfect social satire? No. Like much of Murphy's fare, he's doing the most, but a lot of the commentary on beauty standards doesn't penetrate past surface-level.

For instance, Rebecca Hall's Jordan commentary on the capitalist engine behind the beauty industry is hardly groundbreaking stuff. "True perfection isn't the goal. Inadequacy is. Keeping people feeling ugly is much more profitable than actually making them beautiful," she states in one scene. You think?

This series isn't exactly breaking new ground in shining a light on the pressures women face to be perfect. Comparisons to The Substance or Death Becomes Her will be less than flattering — especially in the way that characters with disabilities or rare medical conditions are portrayed in this series without much nuance or insight.

Image: Disney+.

That said, the premiere episode did include some genuinely affecting scenes featuring a sympathetic incel character named Jeremy.

The storyline touched on some huge issues affecting young men today — porn addiction, male loneliness and the right-wing radicalisation towards misogyny — but I only wish the character was treated with the seriousness that such a dangerous issue in today's society deserves, which Netflix's Adolescence so delicately captured.

But all in all, The Beauty is a strong return to form for Ryan Murphy, who had a bit of shaky 2025 with the universally panned legal drama, All Fair's — albeit still a wildly successful series that has already been renewed for season two.

Despite what his critics say, Murphy can't help but create a thoroughly watchable show. In The Beauty, he's made one of his most bingeable and addictive shows since Nip/Tuck.

Don't expect for your views of beauty standards to significantly shift from watching this show, but do expect to be entertained from start to finish.

The first three episodes of The Beauty are streaming on Disney+.

Feature image: Disney+.