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‘THE BEAUTY’ on FX
Writer, director and producer Ryan Murphy (“Glee” and “American Horror Story”) looms large as a cultural force in the world of film, television and streaming, creating controversial shows with a distinct style that sets him apart in the entertainment world.
The Ryan Murphy universe, seeing how it often dwells on the grotesque, the bizarre, or weirdly campy, is an acquired taste, and yet, whatever his newest endeavor may bring, the result is rarely boring.
Along with co-creator Matthew Hodgson, Murphy’s latest oeuvre finds “The Beauty” tapped into the dark world of high fashion when supermodels begin dying in gruesome and mysterious ways with their bodies exploding like stepping on a landmine.
As the FX series opens, little time is wasted when a model (Bella Hadid) strutting down a runway at the Paris fashion show goes bonkers, assaulting some audience members to steal their water bottles and causing bodily harm to another.
Next, after a getaway on a motorcycle and a brutal crash with another vehicle, she manages to walk away as if unharmed, only to end up being shot by a detective and then facing a squad of police in riot gear on a street before something strange happens.
Meanwhile, FBI agents Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall) are not just partners, but friends with benefits enjoying a sexual tryst at a Paris hotel. They are on assignment to investigate the demise of the model who ran amok.
Elsewhere, a man named Jeremy (Jeremy Pope) suffering from involuntary celibacy, what one might call an “incel,” is frustrated that he’s so unappealing to women that he submits to cosmetic surgery that makes him unrecognizable to his former self.
Of course, there’s a sinister force behind genetic engineering, and that would be the richest man on the planet known as “The Corporation” (Ashton Kutcher), who will do anything to protect his growing business empire.
During an FX press conference for TV critics, Kutcher talked about pervasive medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro, where some drugs are “for health complications, others are just for aesthetic outcome.”
Here, the evil billionaire is marketing injections that alter one’s DNA to create flawlessly youthful beauty, but the catch with this transformation is a person’s ultimately combustible demise.
The shots also result in a virus being sexually transmitted, which is so problematic for The Corporation that a man known as “The Assassin” (Anthony Ramos), looking like he may have been cast in “The Matrix,” is a lethal killer protecting the secrets of the conglomerate.
“The Beauty” poses questions for one to contemplate. After all, what is “beauty?” At the press conference, Ashton Kutcher noted the series is about what one is willing to sacrifice, and “what risks are you willing to take?”
There’s an ugly side to the physical transformation to beauty that could be unsettling, to say the least. Ryan Murphy fans will take it in stride, because nothing is truly startling in his fictional world.
‘THE LINCOLN LAWYER’ on Netflix
Season 4 of “The Lincoln Lawyer” on Netflix picks up after Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) was stopped at night while driving his vintage Lincoln Continental convertible for having a missing rear license plate in the previous season.
Despite a protest of illegal search by the lawyer, the police officer pops the trunk only to find the bullet-riddled dead body of con artist Sam Scales (Christoper Thornton).
A former client, Sam owed substantial legal fees to Haller, thereby leading to the district attorney’s office filing a murder charge in a case that the rest of us know is nothing more than a frame. The quandary is how Haller can defend himself from jail and hold his law firm together.
Haller’s predicament means that he’s no longer the dominant character. His associates must step up. Lorna Crane (Becki Newton), feeling overwhelmed on caseload, struggles to convince current clients not to abandon the firm.
Office manager Izzy (Jazz Raycole), engaged with a new love interest, is working with Lorna’s husband, investigator Cisco (Angus Sampson), to spend time trying to figure out who has a turbulent history with Haller to set him up for a murder rap.
In the preliminary hearing, Haller and Lorna discover that the prosecutor is going to be Dana Berg (Constance Zimmer), a grim-faced lawyer who is known as “Death Row Dana” for her fearsome track record and playing games in the courtroom.
Haller’s ex-wife, prosecutor Maggie McPherson (Neve Campbell) and mother to their freshman college student daughter Hayley (Krista Warner), plays a key role in helping her former husband.
A fair criticism, while not detracting from a very positive assessment of this season, is that the trial of Mickey Haller could have easily been concluded in about four episodes, which would leave the remaining episodes to chart his career rehabilitation.
Fans of “The Lincoln Lawyer” franchise will not be disappointed with this thrillingly tense, dramatic season. The fifth season is already in development, a validation that the series has strong legs.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.