Ryan Murphy is among the most prolific names in television thanks to “Glee,” “American Horror Story,” and Netflix‘s “Monster” series. Now, “The Beauty,” starring Ashton Kutcher, Evan Peters, Anthony Ramos, and Rebecca Hall, has premiered, and it has strong reviews from critics.
Ryan Murphy’s ‘The Beauty’ Premiered in January
“The Beauty” was first announced in September 2024 with Kutcher, Peters, and Ramos attached to the project. It premiered on FX and Hulu on January 21 at 9 p.m. ET. The network released the official trailer for the horror series on January 5.
It begins with Kutcher, who plays a sinister tech billionaire, wearing a patterned robe on a yacht. From there, the trailer shows a collection of clips of his character in a lab. He calls himself the “world’s greatest advertisement” for the “hottest new super drug that makes you effortlessly beautiful.”
Per the show’s official synopsis, Kutcher’s character is a “shadowy tech billionaire who has secretly engineered a miracle drug dubbed ‘The Beauty,’ who will do anything to protect his trillion-dollar empire.”
The trailer then shows patients who have used this so-called miracle drug. This includes a supermodel, played by Bella Hadid, who has been botched by it. From there, the trailer also reveals that this drug causes death in those who use it and that it’s set to go to market in six months.
Regarding Peters and Hall, they both play FBI agents who are tasked with investigating the drug. According to the official synopsis, “As they delve deeper into the case, they uncover a sexually transmitted virus that transforms ordinary people into visions of physical perfection, but with terrifying consequences.”
Regarding its reception, “The Beauty” has a 70% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, making it certified fresh on the platform.
Murphy Previously Opened up About the Show
GettyMurphy had several shows premiere in 2025. This includes Hulu’s “All’s Fair,” Netflix’s “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” and others that returned for new seasons. Now, he seems poised for just as much success in 2026.
He spoke to Variety in October 2025 about “The Beauty.” Murphy said, “It’s something I’ve never done before, which is a sci-fi medical show about a new virus that mutates and it’s sexually transmitted, that turns you into your absolute perfect self. And the question is, how far would you go to be beautiful? What would you sacrifice to that, and does that matter?
One little shot, and suddenly you’re going to look better and feel better, and all your problems are going to go away. But what are you really working on? What’s going on with you that you feel you need to do that? Sometimes it is health, sometimes it’s vanity.”
Murphy also stated that he’d always wanted to work with Kutcher and Ramos. He also said, “It’s very different. It shoots in Europe — Venice, Rome, and Paris. It’s a very big budget, kind of ‘Game of Thrones’ in its scale.”
