By
Rachel Leishman
Feb 6th, 2026, 5:36 pm
The Beauty hurts to watch. I both love and hate it. And then Ryan Murphy and company insinuated that Vincent D’Onofrio wasn’t beautiful on his own and would get the beauty STD and turn into Ashton Kutcher. That choice deserves jail time.
The concept of the show is that there is a shot you can get that turns you into a hotter version of yourself. The issue with this idea is that you have some of the most beautiful people alive playing characters who get the shot. Or the STD version that makes you beautiful. Whatever situation they find themselves in. Like, sorry, Rebecca Hall is beautiful!
But the most recent episode, titled “Beautiful Billionaires,” showed us how Byron (Kutcher) came to be his “beautifed” self. And that means the show insinuated that D’Onofrio needed changing. Look, I know that the show is actually pointing out how everyone thinks they need changed one way or another. I recognize the underlying themes of The Beauty. Doesn’t mean I agree with the way the show does it.
With D’Onofrio, it is born out of a frustration that I have with the show as a whole. Murphy’s tendency to be more tongue and biting cheek with his jokes often wounds me. I’m still mad about the Glen Powell shout out in the pilot. But using D’Onofrio as the Byron that needs “improved” sucks. Because D’Onofrio doesn’t need improved in my eyes! That’s an Italian king!
The Beauty is just messy
Like any “good” Ryan Murphy show, The Beauty is an addictive mess. You can’t look away from it even though you definitely should. Every episode finds some way of making me angry. Mostly over petty little personal grievances but they still count. And that’s kind of always the issue with Murphy’s work. It is so close to being good and yet!
I feel such frustration over Murphy’s inability to create something that doesn’t teeter one way or the other into the same pitfalls. He gets away with it because people like me do watch his stuff but I also remember when Murphy used to be great at making new and interesting shows. The Beauty reminds me of both Scream Queens and Nip/Tuck. I love both those shows but that means that I don’t find The Beauty that original.
If the rest of The Beauty carried the show, these little moments wouldn’t be so annoying. But I can see very clearly what the show could have been and it just all rolls itself up into a frustrating ball of “here’s another Ryan Murphy mess.”
All of this is coming from a place of love, from someone who has seen most everything Murphy and co. have created. But my god, I just want The Beauty to be better nonsense.
(featured image: FX)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
Editor in Chief
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is the Editor in Chief of the Mary Sue. She’s been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff’s biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she’s your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell’s dog, Brisket.
Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.
