My Review of The Beauty: "Beautiful Pilot"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Matthew Hodgeson

Directed by Ryan Murphy 

Jordan (to Cooper): "Beauty is pain, my friend."

What would happen if Ryan Murphy decided to go into the sphere of comic books? Well, he'd picked up an obscure title like this one and the results would be if Nip/Tuck and American Horror Story had a love child.

This ambitious, globetrotting show opened at the Balenciaga show in Paris where a model named Ruby (Bella Hadid) went feral on the crowd in order to quench her insatiable thirst. Spoiler alert: the thirst didn't quench, people died and she spontaneously combusted.

Ruby's violent death led to our protagonists - an FBI pairing of Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall). They're a likeable and seemingly competent pair who are also sleeping with each other on the side. Already, there's strong chemistry between Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall.

I can't believe how quickly I liked Cooper and Jordan. They genuinely had some funny banter between them and while I get the feeling that Cooper's feelings are deeper than Jordan's, both of them spark off each other so well. I guess this means that they're clearly doomed as the show will progress.

For the duration of this episode, they're in Paris and deep into trying to figure out what happened to make Ruby combust. This resulted in learning that Ruby along with other models that went the same way looked very different beforehand and their gorgeous features weren't plastic surgery related.

As the premise for the show made it clear, it's an STD that's caused this transformation. Cooper and Jordan's superior (John Carroll Lynch) likened it to a cross between HIV and rabies but not quite. This episode also focused on another recepient of this treatment.

That recepient being an incel named Jeremy (Jaquel Spivry/Jeremy Pope). He was as stereotypical as you could get with his desperation making him a target for an exploitative consultant (Jon Jon Briones) and some party girls. Eventually an encounter with a woman named Claire turned things around for him for the better. Jeremy became a Chad in almost no time whatsoever. 

- I had to laugh when the consultant referred to Glen Powell as a Chad seeing as that was the character the latter played in Scream Queens (2015-2016).

- We learned that Cooper's a former Navy SEAL, Jordan had a boob job and there seems to be a two year limit on the recipients of the Beauty.

- The show opened with a triple bill for FX. Half the regulars appeared in this first one.

- I know Cooper was likely joking about Grindr but if he hooks up with a man in a later episode, I won't complain.

- Standout music: The Prodigy's Firestarter and Modjo's Lady (Hear Me Tonight).

- Chronology: Current day Paris. Cooper and Jordan also left for Venice, Jeremy was from Jersey but travelled to LA and there were similar incidents in London and Berlin.

For an opening episode, Beautiful Pilot managed to have the right amount of everything needed. It wasn't too shocking or exploitative, set up the general premise well enough and gave us two likable leads in Cooper and Jordan. I'll catch up with the next two episodes within the next day.

Rating: 7 out of 10