“Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story,” the fourth installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s “Monster” series, takes the anthology in a new and exciting direction with its first female killer. Set in Fall River, Massachusetts in the late 19th century, the show follows Lizzie Borden (an engaging Ella Beatty), a peculiar young woman suffering under the hand of her cruel stepmother, Abby (Rebecca Hall), whom she calls Mrs. Borden, her detached father, Andrew (Charlie Hunnam, who portrayed Ed Gein in the previous season) and the pain of her terrible menstrual cycles. However, a friendship with the family’s new housemaid, Bridget Sullivan (Vicky Krieps), cracks open Lizzie’s world, shepherding her along a bright and bloody path that will forever go down in infamy.
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The eight-episode Netflix series (I screened two episodes for this review) opens with a ruby red curtain, an ornate piano and a touch of whimsy. Lizzie walks down the stairs barefoot in her white nightgown, moving through the house until she stops at Andrew’s ax cupboard. Elsewhere, Mrs. Borden is seen bursting into Lizzie’s room and tidying up her haphazardly made bed. However, before she can stand again, Lizzie comes barreling through the door, swinging an axe and hacking away at her stepmother. Moments later, Andrew enters the home and lights a pipe before meeting the same fate. His body collapses in on itself on the fainting couch in the sitting room. As blood soaks her nightgown, Lizzie calmly observes the scene of the crime.
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Though the Bordens met their end on August 4, 1892, “The Lizzie Borden Story” dials back to four months earlier. It’s April, and Lizzie’s heavy period and odd personality have scared off yet another suitor. (The show also makes it seem like she’s the homeliest woman in town.) With no potential husbands to sweep her off her feet despite her father’s considerable fortune, and her sister Emma (Billie Lourd) off living life on her own terms, Lizzie is content to spend her days lazing among the family’s cherry trees or in her dovecote among her beloved birds. But her world unexpectedly expands when Mrs. Borden hires a new maid, Bridget, who tells Lizzie stories about Paris, knows all manner of herbal remedies and even meets Mrs. Borden’s impossible cleaning standards.
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Emboldened by Bridget’s friendship, and following yet another one of Mrs. Borden’s horrendous acts of barbarity, the women plot to kill the Bordens so Lizzie might seek some sense of freedom and safety. Despite the subject matter, “The Lizzie Borden Story” has a playful, vibrant tone. Lizzie is not a woman pushed to the brink without cause. Instead, others cast her aside and treat her horribly until she finally snaps. In its opening episodes, the series carefully distinguishes Lizzie from her male killer counterparts while highlighting the oppressive conditions women faced in the era.
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Still, after seeing only two episodes and knowing what’s typical of the “Monster” anthology, I do have some concerns. In the trailer, frequent Ryan Murphy collaborator Sarah Paulson appears as convicted serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who killed seven men between 1989 and 1990. The Wuornos killings occurred nearly 100 years after Lizzie Borden chopped her parents to death, but this is not the first time Murphy and Brennan have thrown other widely recognized murderers in the middle of their narratives.
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In “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” copycat killers Ted Bundy and Richard Speck were highlighted. There was a clumsy attempt to tie together Gein and Bundy’s stories with a fabricated plot that suggested Gein was somehow involved in the strangler’s capture. Though Paulson’s Wunornos in the Borden’s sitting room seems out of left field, another featured serial killer is woven seamlessly into the series. Bridget reads Lizzie the tale of Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Ecsed (also portrayed by Krieps), a 16th-century Hungarian noblewoman said to have bled beautiful virgins to bathe in their blood and preserve her beauty. The countess’ tale highlights the obsession with women’s appearances across time while adding to the show’s fun campiness and gothic nature.
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As the fourth offering of this franchise, “The Lizzie Borden Story” offers something refreshing and wholly unique to the “Monster” canon. A window into the Victorian era, the series depicts a young lady tormented by her family, misogyny and her own body. A highly watchable depiction of one of the most gruesome crimes in American history, the narrative, of course, bends and twists the truth of what actually occurred in the Borden home that infamous Thursday morning. Still, the show also reminds us that the last person anyone should underestimate is a woman, especially one clamoring for even a small slice of freedom.

“Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” is now available to stream on Netflix.