[Editor's note: This material was found on our author's desktop in an unfinished state. Published as is. The author's fate is unknown.]

Day One. 10:47 PM

So, another Ryan Murphy. Again. The man who produces more content in a year than some streaming services, has taken on the comics of a certain Jeremy Haun — and here we have "The Beauty" on FX/Hulu. The plot? A sexually transmitted virus turns ordinary people into beautiful people, after which they explode after 855 days. The FBI investigates. Sounds like a pitch thought up at 3 AM on the third glass of whiskey.

I turned it on out of politeness. Well, and because Bella Hadid is in the cast. As an actress. For the first time in her life.

The first ten minutes — a supermodel in Paris tears down walls at a Balenciaga show, races through the city with inhuman strength and something irreparably fashionable in her eyes, then explodes in the Seine. Hadid handles it. That's already a surprise.

Alright, I'll keep watching.

Day Two. 12:15 AM

You know what's annoying about this series? That it's about beauty — and it looks beautiful. That seems like a dishonest trick. The cinematography here clearly cost as much as a small European car: bodies transform, faces rewrite themselves over old features, and it's all shot with pathological glossy meticulousness. Body horror in Vogue aesthetics — that's a witty idea in itself, and Murphy exploits it deftly.

The casting, a whole other story. Evan Peters as Agent Cooper (the surname is no coincidence?!) — that's typical Evan Peters in a typical Murphy project, no revelations. But Anthony Ramos as the Killer — that's a completely different story: his character, a 65-year-old man in the body of a thirty-year-old, is played with unexpected dignity. Rebecca Hall exists in the frame with such professional calm that everyone around her gets nervous.

And Ashton Kutcher as the villainous billionaire with perfect looks — that's a brilliant casting choice, given his background as a notorious handsome man.

Three episodes passed faster than I managed to pour a second mug of tea. A bad sign. It got hot — I opened the window.

Day Three. 11:30 PM

I'm starting to understand what this is really about. "The Beauty" is satire. Sometimes sharp, sometimes uncomfortable: about how beauty standards are literally deadly, how pharmaceutical giants sell poison in pretty packaging, how the rich have long bought themselves a different "reality." Byron Forst is Elon Musk plus Mark Zuckerberg, if they hadn't stopped at rockets and social networks but went further — to human genetics and a monopoly on attractiveness. The metaphor is explosive, just like the characters here.

To be fair, the series is very uneven. The storylines of Jeremy and the Killer — about two broken loners who discover something like family in each other — work really well. But, for example, Byron's production meetings and the family melodrama with his drug-addicted son clearly sag. Murphy again can't choose: he wants to tell everything at once, so one episode contains a Parisian catastrophe, a Croatian execution, and a flashback about the virus's origin.

But the episode about the Condé Nast office — when an infected Vogue employee causes an apocalypse right in the high-fashion open space — is the best thing Murphy has shot in recent years. Funny and creepy at the same time. I rewatched that scene twice. Got a second bottle of water. Strange, I usually don't drink this much.

Day Four. Late

Listen, have you noticed that "The Beauty" is actually about all of us? The virus here is just the next logical step after Instagram filters, retouching, and feeds where any face can be improved with one swipe, and with the spread of AI, you can even invent a new perfect person. Byron Forst is not a villain — he's an entrepreneur who took to its logical conclusion what we all silently think. And that's exactly why he's so frightening.

Okay, a small digression off-topic.

The neighbor on the landing — we've nodded to each other for about five years, no more — stopped today and asked if I changed my hairstyle. I didn't change my hairstyle. Then a colleague wrote in the general chat something about "you look good today" — just like that, for no reason. I chalked it up to good lighting in the office.

At home, I looked in the mirror longer than usual.

I don't know. Something changed.

Probably just finally got some sleep. Although yesterday I hardly slept — it was hot.

I keep watching. Five more episodes.

Day Five. 1:20 AM

by the way i'll finish the review properly later. first i need to find out what happens to jordan. very important series. very underrated. murphy knows how to work with pace, it's just that not everyone notices. kutcher gave the best role of the decade i'm serious, look at how he holds the frame — there's such charisma, such

something strange in my fingertips. probably typed too long.

just the finale now and that's it. i'll write the conclusion right away.

the conclusion is: it's beautiful. everything is so

beautiful. everything is so bea

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Editor's note: The material was found open on the author's work computer. The author himself has not made contact. On the desktop — traces of unknown origin, an empty mug of tea, and the 11th episode of "The Beauty" at timestamp 47:23 in the tray. If you have seen our author, please write to the editorial office.

"The Beauty" — on FX and Hulu. 11 episodes. No one to give a rating.