Plot: Trapped in a cruel Victorian-era household, Lizzie Borden kills her parents in a gory ax murder that shocks the nation.
Review: Ryan Murphy productions tend to follow a familiar trajectory: the first season or two connect with audiences who appreciate the transgressive and shocking nature of the subject matter, prompting Murphy and his writing team to take it up a notch. After that, subsequent seasons begin to show signs of diminishing returns as the desire to drop jaws and deliver buzz ends up being gross and, worst of all, boring. The latest season of the true-crime anthology Monster chronicles the American killer Lizzie Borden but focuses more on the crime and sensationalist media frenzy than on the truth of what actually happened. The result is a series filled with Ryan Murphy trademarks but lacking the spark that made earlier seasons work.
To be blunt, Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is all over the place. The series opens with a sequence depicting the brutal axe murders of Andrew Borden (Charlie Hunnam) and his wife, Abby (Rebecca Hall), at the hands of Lizzie (Ella Beatty). The famous nursery rhyme about Lizzie giving her parents “forty whacks” is shown on screen, along with blood splatter on the face of the young murderess. The episode then shifts earlier as we see Abby as more of an evil stepmother out of a fairy tale, treating Lizzie like a mentally deficient burden. Trying to marry her off proves fruitless as suitors see Lizzie as horse-faced and strange, not to mention her unusually heavy menstrual cycle. Andrew is a workaholic who struggles with not having a son to pass his legacy down to and lets Abby berate and emotionally abuse Lizzie, along with countless housemaids. When Bridget Sullivan (Vicky Krieps) arrives and is hired, she awakens romantic thoughts in Lizzie and plants the seeds for what will become her infamous crime.
So much of what happens in this series has little to no basis in reality that it boggles the mind how this series could be considered “true crime.” Lizzie is portrayed as being in her early twenties rather than the thirty-two-year-old historical figure. The housemaid Bridget was in her mid-twenties in reality but is much older here. The rest of what takes place throughout the series maintains key points from Lizzie’s crime through her acquittal in what was then deemed the crime of the century and a landmark legal moment in American history.
The series examines what happened to Lizzie and Bridget after the trial, chronicling their involvement in the suffrage movement and more, but so much of the backstory and insight into the crimes feels closer to American Horror Story than an actual historical investigation. The Lizzie Borden Story focuses more on digging into Lizzie’s sexuality and romantic relationship with Bridget than on other suspects and theories of the crime. It also alters the relationship between Lizzie and her sister, Emma (Billie Lourd), into something more adversarial.
In the title role, Ella Beatty is effective as Lizzie Borden, giving the young woman an impressionable air that conceals her deeper, calculating interior. The relationship between Lizzie and Bridget is a key element of the series, with Vicky Krieps performing well as the mentor, teacher, and instigator of Lizzie’s crimes. Charlie Hunnam returns to Ryan Murphy’s world after his leading role in Monster: The Ed Gein Story, delivering an understated performance as Lizzie’s father, while Rebecca Hall carries much of the emotional weight. Hall previously starred in Murphy’s The Beauty, and here she is sensational as the epitome of an evil stepmother. Chewing every scene she appears in, Hall is a phenomenal villain, and I enjoyed every moment she was on screen.
The only other actor in this cast who matches her caliber is Sarah Paulson as Aileen Wuornos. The inclusion of Wuornos fits well when comparing her to Lizzie as two women who committed heinous crimes with some parallels; however, mashing them together feels heavy-handed and doesn’t quite work narratively. Still, Paulson deserves recognition for her transformative performance, which rivals Charlize Theron’s Oscar-winning portrayal in the 2003 film Monster, despite both actors approaching their roles very differently.
Ryan Murphy’s long-time collaborator Ian Brennan is credited on all eight episodes of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, with directing duties handled by Max Winkler on six episodes and Sarah Adina Smith on two. The period costumes and production values for scenes set in both the turn-of-the-century era and those in the 1990s are impressively executed, as are the bloody effects prevalent throughout the series. This season has a far more sensationalized feel compared to the bleak first and second seasons focused on Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez Brothers.
All four seasons of Monster have attempted to humanize their murderous subjects, but this season feels even more focused on portraying Lizzie as an impressionable young woman who followed someone else’s lead. Ian Brennan falls into critiques often directed at Ryan Murphy for failing to write realistic or believable queer female characters—something especially noticeable given there is an extensive historical record of actual events surrounding Lizzie Borden.
The Monster franchise has tread new ground this season by presenting its first female-led entry in the anthology; however, it does a disservice to historical accuracy by transforming it into a grand guignol bloodbath filled with tangential plot elements that unnecessarily pad out this eight-episode season. Ella Beatty performs adequately alongside Vicky Krieps, but much of the series feels languid and dull, punctuated only by occasional moments of gore.
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story stands out as overall the weakest entry in the anthology thus far; it’s unfortunate since both Rebecca Hall and Sarah Paulson deliver two of this year’s best performances. I expect this season will be popular with audiences flocking to yet another true crime series; however, it deviates so far from factual accounts that it fails to capture what this anthology was meant to convey.
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is now streaming on Netflix.
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