This series is an adaptation of a comic book series that ran from 2015 to 2022. It was created by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley. The comic book was adapted by Ryan Murphy and Matthew Hodgson who have worked together on shows like Glee (2009), 9-1-1 (2018) and recently with American Sports Story (2024). Even though the comic has been around for over a decade. It seems as if Murphy and Hodgson picked it up only in response to having seen The Substance (2024) and deciding that they wanted to do a series that hit on all the same topics, themes and even plot points. Murphy has already hit on some of those topics and themes in his series Nip/Tuck (2003) but there’s a supernatural and science-fiction aspect that this show has that Nip/Tuck never did. After 12 seasons of American Horror Story (2011), it’s clear that Murphy enjoys supernatural and science-fiction, particularly when those things are designed to scare audiences. In fact, this show could have very well been just another season of American Horror Story, and the only reason it perhaps isn’t would be because American Horror Story tends to lean toward the supernatural and magical. This show is more science-fiction, almost as if it could be an offshoot or clone of The X-Files (1993).
Evan Peters (Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and Mare of Easttown) stars as Cooper Madsen, a FBI agent, not unlike Fox Mulder from The X-Files. He’s not prone to believing in the existence of aliens from outer space. He wants to love and certainly have sex with a beautiful woman, but his standard of beauty isn’t as high as other people. He doesn’t need for his woman to be perfect in every conceivable way. It’s not clear what his standard of beauty is or what the range is for him. He never clarifies if he would be attracted to a woman who is overweight or older and wrinkled for example. He did serve in the military and served overseas in Japan where he met a Japanese man who embraced imperfections, which is in general Cooper’s philosophy.
Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona and The Prestige) co-stars as Jordan Bennett, a fellow FBI agent who is Cooper’s partner. She would essentially be the Dana Scully equivalent from The X-Files. Except, her standard of beauty is such that she would embrace perfections. She doesn’t seem to be so superficial and a perfectionist that she doesn’t enjoy hooking up with Cooper. Unlike The X-Files, these two do hook up right away. At first, it seems to be strictly sexual between the two, but romantic feelings form, especially from Cooper. We only get a few scenes between the two of them in the first episode before all of that changes, so I’m not totally convinced of the love story between them but the two actors sell it well enough.
Cooper and Jordan are investigating a series of cases of models going on killing sprees before they violently and literally explode. What Cooper and Jordan learn is that there is a sexually transmitted disease, not unlike HIV, that if infected, the person will physically transform, much like a caterpillar into a butterfly. Except, the depiction of the transformation is something David Cronenberg might concoct. It’s painful and disturbing, only slightly more disturbing than the transformation in Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance. Instead of emerging out of the old body, the former body mutates or is altered, only to emerge from a chrysalis or cocoon. This series has a lot of gore and gory moments as a result.
Ashton Kutcher (Two and a Half Men and That ’70s Show) also co-stars as Byron Forst, a billionaire whose company is developing all kinds of technology. His goal is to find a way to improve humanity by extending life or creating a kind of “fountain of youth.” One of his scientists invents a serum, a single injection, that can transform someone into a beautiful version of themselves. Unfortunately, someone who transforms can pass on the serum through their bodily fluids, either by blood, semen or vaginal. Byron wants to sell the serum and use it to build up a pharmaceutical company that’s the biggest and wealthiest drug company ever. He’s ruthless and he’ll do anything to make sure the sexual transmissions stop, including contract killings.
Anthony Ramos (In the Heights and Hamilton) plays Antonio, former military who worked as a bodyguard for the wealthy. He was in his 40’s or 50’s. He was scarred when he was burned with acid. He was disfigured. He worked for Byron, so Byron decided to give him the serum or the injection, which turned him into what he looks like now, which is Anthony Ramos. Byron hired Antonio to go around and find anyone who was infected with the serum through sex and kill them. Because the infection goes overseas to Europe, trying to kill every infected person would be like trying to kill everyone with HIV or COVID-19. It’s a fool’s errand or seems impossible, which almost makes the character pointless. If Antonio didn’t work for Byron and he simply was killing these people for some ideological or quixotic reason, that might have made him more interesting.
Otherwise, he’s just an extension of corporate corruption and toxic capitalism. Byron is motivated by greed and trying to control how the serum gets out in order to maximize his profits and if people die who had no idea to what they were being exposed, Byron doesn’t care. He’s compared to Richard Sackler who was the head of Purdue Pharma who put out a drug meant to help people that ended up destroying them. Byron’s serum is a more sci-fi version of OxyContin. Yet, Byron’s serum is also meant to be this HIV metaphor as well, but instead of wasting away the body, it improves it but only for a little while. It’s revealed that Byron’s serum requires booster shots or else you’ll explode. With that caveat, it makes Antonio’s character even more pointless because Byron’s whole thing is to make money, but he hires Antonio to keep the whole thing a secret, but keeping it secret prevents him from getting money because infected people would need boosters, so instead of killing them, keep them alive to give him money.
Jeremy Pope (The Inspection and Pose) rounds out the cast as Jeremy, a young Black man in Indianapolis who takes the serum from a plastic surgeon who acquired the drug illegally. Jeremy wanted the drug because he’s overweight and thus considered ugly. He’s an incel and can’t have sex with women. He spends most of his time online or playing video games, which has turned him into an angry and bitter person who becomes homicidal and possibly suicidal. There are several episodes that focus on various other people. Most of whom are like Jeremy and are suffering from self-hatred or an obsession with superficial aesthetics.
The Substance is more about what a person is willing to do or willing to sacrifice in order to achieve good looks and specifically the toxicity and misogyny of Hollywood. It was more focused and more pointed in its overall critique. Here, Murphy’s message or critique is not as focused and is more all over the place. In general, it’s about what people think is beautiful and learning why they would want to be beautiful. It’s usually about not being fat and having abs. Being young seems to be a vital factor, but the series doesn’t really examine beauty beyond weight and age.
First of all, beauty is subjective. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so the idea of this thing making someone beautiful feels like it should also be subjective. Yet, this series lays down the objective fact that anyone who gets the injection becomes undeniably beautiful. Someone who gets it through sex isn’t so lucky. In that, the show goes the same route as The Substance in terms of how horrific the side-effects can be if not done the prescribed way.
Instead of going that full horrific route, I wish the series had explored the different standards of beauty. Those standards have changed over time. Men having six-pack abs wasn’t a standard in previous generations. Now, a man has to be practically a bodybuilder in order to be considered sexy. Yes, Jeremy is in great shape and has a muscular physique, but he isn’t Arnold Schwarzenegger or Ronnie Coleman, one of the greatest African American bodybuilders ever. Tall men are in general considered more attractive. However, Jeremy is under 6-feet. Most tall men are over 6-foot-2. At no point does this series examine someone suffering from dwarfism who becomes tall as a result of the serum.
Even Murphy might recognize that such a depiction would be offensive to people with a growth hormone deficiency. Yet, Murphy doesn’t mind stepping into other thorny areas. One of Byron’s sons takes the serum and goes from being a White guy to a Black guy. There’s a throwaway line about Byron having some African DNA in his ancestry somewhere, but when it comes to standards of beauty, there have long been racial divides and racial discrimination. When Byron’s son becomes Black, there’s no acknowledgment of how his experiences might change. If a White person can turn Black, then the reverse is true. Clearly, Murphy has no interest in dealing with the complications of how the person’s social life might change. With all the issues around colorism, exploring how people with darker skin and curly hair are considered less beautiful would’ve been fertile ground for this series, but Murphy would rather rely on gore, rather than dive into those more disturbing sociological concerns.
The supporting cast here is varied and pretty great. Isabella Rossellini (Conclave and Blue Velvet) plays Franny Forst, the wife of Byron. Vincent D’nofrio (Daredevil and Law & Order: Criminal Intent) plays the previous version of Byron. Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen and Pitch Perfect) plays Manny, a random guy who gets infected. Isaac Powell (Dear Evan Hansen and American Horror Story) plays the new version of Manny. Jess Alexander (Primate and The Little Mermaid) plays the new version of Jordan. Joey Pollari (Monster: The Ed Gein Story and American Crime) plays Mike, a scientist who steals the serum and uses it on himself, even though his previous version is played by Eddie Kaye Thomas (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and American Pie), which is an example of how hitting the gym and a Queer Eye makeover would’ve been just as effective. Finally, Sky Kawai is a young actor who has mainly done vertical dramas on platforms like ReelShort App. This is his first mainstream work and hopefully, he’ll be seen in more.
Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. / 11 eps.
Available on Hulu.
