What to watch: Beautiful people keep blowing up in Beauty'

"Like those, it scours our culture's incessant preoccupation with physical beauty, both the lusting for it and the lengths we will go to get and keep it. But The Beauty possess a mind of its own as it expounds on rich themes that Murphy's been interested in, mixing humor with black humor while he comments on sinfully glamorous lifestyles and the dark side of human nature and desire."

"It opens with a bang in Paris as an extra-thirsty European supermodel goes on a rampage and then explodes. That bit of carnage propels hottie FBI agents, and causal lovers, Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall) to spearhead an investigation where they soon discover there are more beautiful people going kaboom and it looks like a virus is partly to blame. Their snooping leads them to romantic places, including Venice, and takes them down unexpected blind alleys both personally and professionally."

"One follows Jeremy, a sex-obsessed Jersey hothead who lives with his mom and is the butt of jokes and so wants to be hot so that he can get women. A special lovemaking session enables him to become sexy Jeremy (Jeremy Pope). The other storyline involves a sleazy and mysterious billionaire figure (Ashton Kutcher, well cast) who bullies and holds court wherever he goes, including on his yacht with his disgusted wife (Isabella Rossellini, arching her eyebrows with classic style) who sneers at him."

The Beauty blends body-horror, satire, and melodrama to probe cultural obsession with physical attractiveness and the extremes people pursue to gain and preserve it. The series opens in Paris with a supermodel's violent explosion, triggering FBI agents Cooper Madsen and Jordan Bennett to investigate a pattern of beautiful people detonating, with evidence suggesting a viral cause. Their inquiry travels to Venice and exposes romantic entanglements and professional complications. Parallel plots follow Jeremy, a Jersey hothead who transforms into a sexy version of himself after a lovemaking encounter, and a sleazy billionaire who bullies those around him, including his contemptuous wife.

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