The Beauty on Pause
Ryan Murphy’s collaboration with the FX network is nearly as extensive as Taylor Sheridan’s with Paramount+. Murphy’s latest project, a series developed with American Psycho writer Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards, has just unveiled its trailer for audiences. Last year, Murphy’s provocative series The Beauty premiered, but the future of the show is now up in the air as Deadline reports that the network has now put it on hold and the cast has been released from their contracts. This includes Evan Peters, who is a recurring member of Murphy’s American Horror Story, and fellow cast member Rebecca Hall, who is in talks to join the Dan Brown show, The Secret of Secrets.
Although the first season of The Beauty ended on a cliffhanger, it is said that the nature of the show still allows for a rotation of cast members without losing continuity.
What is The Beauty?
Created by Murphy and Matthew Hodgson, who have worked together on Glee, 9-1-1, American Sports Story, and American Horror Stories, The Beauty will show us what happens when the world of high fashion turns dark as international supermodels begin dying in gruesome and mysterious ways. FBI Agents Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall) are sent to Paris to uncover the truth. 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. Their path leads them directly into the crosshairs of The Corporation (Ashton Kutcher), a shadowy tech billionaire who has secretly engineered a miracle drug dubbed “The Beauty,” who will do anything to protect his trillion-dollar empire—including unleashing his lethal enforcer, The Assassin (Anthony Ramos). As the epidemic spreads, Jeremy (Jeremy Pope), a desperate outsider, is caught in the chaos, searching for purpose as the agents race across Paris, Venice, Rome, and New York to stop a threat that could alter the future of humanity. The Beauty is a global thriller that asks: what would you sacrifice for perfection? The show is based on the comic book series written by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley, who serves as a consultant.
What did we think of season one?
Our resident TV critic, Alex Maidy, gave the show a glowing 8/10 review, where he states, “Maybe it is because it comes from existing source material, or maybe because he and Matt Hodgson wrote the entire series, but The Beauty is the best project from Ryan Murphy in years. As disturbing as American Horror Story and as timely as anything he has done, The Beauty is a darkly bizarre and fun series that is one of the most bonkers shows to debut on American television in a very long time. From the stacked ensemble cast to the copious butts and buckets of blood in every episode, The Beauty is a scary, pitch-black, hilarious series that shows Ryan Murphy still has the skills to deliver the shock value that became his forte at the start of his career. I had a lot more fun watching this series than I ever expected, and I hope audiences are equally entertained.”
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