"Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story" premiered on Netflix Thursday with eight new episodes, the fourth installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's true-crime anthology series — and it wasted no time pulling in an audience eager to binge it in a single sitting.
What the Season Covers
Ella Beatty stars as Lizzie Borden, the New England woman accused of killing her father and stepmother with an axe in Fall River, Massachusetts in August 1892 — a case Borden was acquitted of but that has fueled public fascination for well over a century. Charlie Hunnam plays her father, Andrew Borden, with Vicky Krieps, Rebecca Hall, Billie Lourd and Jessica Barden rounding out the cast. Unlike the real case, which ended in acquittal, the series takes it as settled that Lizzie wielded the axe.
Following a Pattern That's Worked Before
This is the same anthology format that turned Season 2's "The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story" and Season 3's "The Ed Gein Story" into some of Netflix's most-watched releases, each topping the platform's weekly viewership charts after launch. The Lizzie Borden case gives Murphy and Brennan a true crime story that's already deeply embedded in American folklore, complete with the schoolyard rhyme that's followed it for generations.
Where the House Still Stands
The actual Borden house at 230 Second Street in Fall River still stands today, operating as a bed-and-breakfast and museum where visitors can tour the rooms where the killings took place. The building's continued draw — more than 130 years after the murders — is part of what's made the case such durable material for Murphy's anthology.
