My Review of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story (Netflix Series, 2026)

 

Written by Ian Brennan

Directed by Max Winkler And Sarah Adina Smith

Lizzie (to Bridget): "Just let me have the first whack."

In the previous three seasons of Monster/s, we've seen audiences being wholly divided on the handling of Jeffrey Dahmer, Lyle and Erik Menendez and Ed Gein. It was definitely time to tackle an infamous American female killer. Funny how two of them factor into this fourth season with mixed results.

Over the last few months, I've watched some other depictions of Borden in preparation for this show. Ella Beatty isn't a stranger to the world of Ryan Murphy as she's previously appeared in Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans and acquitted herself well there. She's finely cast here as Lizzie Borden herself but if I'm being honest, she's slightly upstaged by Vicky Krieps's constant hair changing Irish maid, Bridget Sullivan.

Krieps might be the ultimate standout of this season as a whole. As Bridget, there's the impact of her relationship with Lizzie, which did of course go down the Sapphic route between the two of them. She's also instrumental in the brutal deaths of Lizzie's father Andrew (Charlie Hall) and stepmother Abby Borden (Rebecca Hall). Oftentimes, I felt like I knew Bridget more than I knew Lizzie.

On top of that, Krieps also spent half the season playing the sadistic and bloodthirsty Countess Elizabeth Bathory. She's just as effective in that role as she was as Bridget. The more I think of it, the more it's clear that Krieps was the standout performance of the whole season.

While the Elizabeth Bathory managed to tie into Lizzie Borden's story better than expected, I'll admit the use of Aileen Wuornos was more of a mixed bag. Sarah Paulson gave the sort of performance that was solid work but some of the dialogue that tried to draw parallels between Aileen and Lizzie was very clunky at times. It didn't quite land as it should've done.

Getting back to Family Borden. Yup, they were a lot. Abby behaved like the typical evil stepmother while Andrew barely tolerated his daughters and second wife. Emma Borden (Billie Lourd) didn't care for Lizzie until the script needed her to and abandoned her when the script also required her to do so.

Then there's estranged uncle John Morse (Joey Pollari) himself. He's a guy who desperately wanted money he felt he was owed and tried and failed to be a foil to both Andrew and Lizzie at different points. There's a brief encounter with Abby that added little value to proceedings before he slipped out of the picture as quickly as he tried to enter.

Another character who was a mixed bag was stage actress Nance O'Neil (Jessica Barden). I found the character grating to begin with but she won me over with the way she trained Lizzie for that trial. One of the campest performances in the entire season.

Now this had me thinking as well. The first three seasons were dead serious but tonally, it felt like this season was riffing the likes of Killing Eve and Fleabag. The season tried to say a lot about female rage and even ended on voting rights for women. It's handling of such topics aren't bad but definitely could've been tackled a little better.

- Episode titles are Bloodbath, Strong Kitty, Whack Job!, R.I.P. (Rest In Pestilence) Abby Borden, 41, Bed And Breakfast, The Trial Of The Century and Carnival.

- Andrew named all of his axes after women while John named his knives after men. John being a suspect was briefly referenced in the last episode.

- Other noteworthy performances were from Jessica Lee, Ari Graynor and Linda Reiter.

- Cherries were referenced a lot with the likes of Lizzie, Bridget, Abby and John all being fond of them. Both the fruit and the trees.

- Standout music: The Runaways Cherry Bomb, Bronski Beat's Smalltown Boy and Natalie Merchant's Carnival.

- Chronology: 1892 to 1911 in Falls River, Massachusetts as well as Montana. There was also 1500/1600s Hungary for Elizabeth Bathory and 1980s/1990s/2000s for Aileen Wuornos.

I think Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story was definitely an improvement on the previous season but not as strong as the first two seasons. It had things to say about female rage, prisons, misogyny and so on but the messages don't quite land the way they should. Ella Beatty was a good casting choice for Lizzie Borden but it's Vicky Krieps's dual roles of Bridget Sullivan and Elizabeth Bathory that was the standout of this season.

Rating: 7 out of 10