The Beauty (TV series)

Did You Know?

• The first three episodes were released immediately on January 21, 2026, with remaining episodes released weekly.
• Internationally, the series was made available to stream on Disney+.

Premise

Two FBI agents, Cooper Madsen and Jordan Bennett, look into a string of mysterious deaths involving top supermodels. They find a sexually transmitted virus, dubbed "The Beauty," that makes people more attractive but is always lethal. Following the trail, they link it to a shadowy tech leader called "The Corporation," who wants to keep the virus spreading worldwide. A hired killer, "The Assassin," chases them as they work across several global cities while the outbreak worsens.

Production

Mac Quayle composed the score. Evan Peters, Anthony Ramos, Jeremy Pope, and Ashton Kutcher were cast at the series order announcement; Rebecca Hall joined by the start of production. Isabella Rossellini was cast in a recurring role in February 2025. In July 2026, the entire cast was released so actors could pursue other projects. Murphy described the series as a commentary on "Ozempic culture" and society's fixation on drug-assisted physical transformation, framing it around how much people would sacrifice for beauty and positioning it as an extension of themes from Nip/Tuck with science fiction and body-horror elements.

Critical reception

Critics were split on The Beauty. While aggregate scores leaned positive—a 72% on Rotten Tomatoes from 64 reviews and a 64 out of 100 on Metacritic from 31 critics, which the site calls “generally favorable”—many individual reviewers were far less kind. Ben Travers of IndieWire called the series a “misshapen mess” and a “feeble spin” on that film. RogerEbert.com said it had “so much style and very little substance” and failed to dig into its ideas. On streaming, The Beauty hit No. 1 on Hulu’s “Top 15 Today” list on January 23, 2026, and stayed on the chart until March 6.