The 4th installment of Ryan Murphy’s “Monster” series focuses on the legendary axe murderer. Since it takes place in the late 1800s, there less factual information, which means plenty of creative liberty has been taken with the story. Ella Beatty is effective in the title role with Vicky Krieps playing the housemaid (later becomes her love interest). Rebecca Hall plays the incredibly cruel stepmother with Charlie Hunnam returning after his brilliant turn as the previous series’ Ed Gein to play the father. As in that series, the writers added a contemporary parallel reference with Aileen Wuornos that features Murphy’s fave Sarah Paulson in heavy prosthetics and even heavier histrionics. The performances are all compelling and the murders are expectedly bloody. Between them is a dark, dark creation of Borden’s family life. The French book side trip and Wuornos subplot drag the story down and by the final eps, things have gotten tedious. Still, there are plenty of creepy moments as the show delves into the personalities and relationships. Every scene plays out slowly, trying to build the tension, but it sometimes spends too much time and things get repetitive. This series mostly succeeds thanks to the strong performances and is disturbingly fascinating. 3.0 out of 5.0 stars
NOTE: Here are links to my reviews of the other 3 series: Jeffrey Dahmer, Menendez Brothers, Gein
