While Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 2 has dominated headlines and audience attention on Disney+, Ryan Murphy’s The Beauty surged to the top of Disney+’s worldwide streaming charts in its first week. The series blends body horror, mystery, and high fashion, and audiences are tuning in.
The Beauty debuted on Disney+ with a solid Rotten Tomatoes score. The success of the first three episodes is great news for the Ryan Murphy series, especially after his previous series, All’s Fair, debuted with such poor reviews in 2025.
What Is The Beauty About?
The Beauty is based on the Image Comics sci-fi horror series by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley. The adaptation of The Beauty is already being compared to The Substance, the 2024 body horror movie. This is because, like The Substance, it explores big ideas about perfection and image in a world obsessed with surface-level glamor.
The Disney+ series is about a sexually transmitted treatment nicknamed “the Beauty” spreading across the globe. It grants those infected near-impossible physical attractiveness but at a fatal biological cost. What begins as a series of gruesome, high-profile deaths among international supermodels quickly escalates into a full-blown epidemic.
The Beauty is set to ask provocative questions about society’s fixation on youth and perfection. It satirizes celebrity culture and the conflation of beauty with worth while leaning into the body horror tradition to create visceral, unforgettable set pieces. The result is a genre cocktail that has so far felt both fresh and provocatively cynical — equal parts thriller and social commentary.
The Beauty Debuted With Strong Reviews
For a show that could have easily been missed in the new year window, The Beauty has generated an early positive response from critics and audiences alike. Even though some comic book fans dislike The Beauty’s controversial story changes, its opening reviews praise the series’ audacity and narrative ambition.
Launching with a 78% score on Rotten Tomatoes, The Beauty has been described as “bonkers but addictive,” and many applaud its commentary on contemporary aesthetics and moral trade-offs. The official trailer also amassed an astonishing 190 million views across social platforms within its first week — making it the most-viewed trailer in FX’s history.
When New Episodes Of The Beauty Release On Disney+ And Hulu
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The Beauty premiered on January 21, 2026, with the first three episodes dropping simultaneously on FX and streaming the next day on Hulu in the U.S. and on Disney+ internationally.
After the triple premiere, new episodes release weekly every Wednesday in the United States at 9 p.m. ET. There are then corresponding local release times on Disney+ in the UK and other regions on Thursday mornings. In the final two weeks of the season, episodes are streamed as double features, culminating in the season finale.
The Beauty is perfect for fans of high-concept sci-fi horror, and those who crave something outside the usual fantasy or superhero arc. It delivers a narrative experience that’s both terrifying and thought-provoking. Its chart dominance proves that this is a streaming phenomenon worth watching.
