Ryan Murphy’s The Beauty Is Wildly Entertaining and Surprisingly Smart

Ryan Murphy never gives us any peace. One month, the megaproducer is on Netflix, using Ed Gein as a vehicle to indict the audience that devours the kind of lurid true-crime tales that are his specialty; the next, he pops up on Hulu, pairing a half-dozen acclaimed actresses with one of the most famous women on the planet for what is nominally a lawyer show but actually just hollow girlboss pastiche. In February, he’ll celebrate Valentine’s Day with Love Story, an FX anthology series that will dramatize real-life romances...