Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story lands on Netflix to mixed reviews

All eight episodes, released at once

"Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story," the fourth installment of Ryan Murphy's anthology, launched all eight episodes on Netflix yesterday, Thursday, September 17, 2026.

Ella Beatty plays Lizzie Borden. The cast includes Charlie Hunnam, Rebecca Hall and Vicky Krieps, with a Sarah Paulson cameo as Aileen Wuornos.

The full-season drop is the format Netflix has used for the anthology throughout, and it shapes how the series is received: the entire run is available to critics and viewers simultaneously, which compresses the review cycle into a single day rather than spreading it across weeks.

The critical response has been cool

Early reviews are mixed to negative, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter and The Guardian. Some reviewers called the blood-and-period excess over-the-top, and some described the series as faux-feminist.

That second criticism is the more pointed one, because it goes to the anthology's recurring problem rather than to this installment's execution. The series repeatedly takes real violent crime and builds prestige drama around it, and each time it does so it invites the question of whose perspective the result actually serves.

A period piece about a woman accused of a notorious killing sits directly on that fault line. Reviewers describing the result as faux-feminist are arguing that the show adopts the framing without doing the work behind it.

The fourth installment of a format under strain

This is the fourth installment of the anthology, and the arithmetic of that is part of the reception.

Anthology series are renewed on the strength of a format rather than a continuing story, which means each new entry has to justify the premise again from scratch. By a fourth outing, critics are no longer assessing whether the approach works; they are assessing whether it still has anything to add.

The mixed-to-negative response suggests a substantial part of the critical response answered that question in the negative, independently of the specific execution here.

A cast assembled above the material's reputation

The casting is the element that has drawn the least argument.

Ella Beatty in the title role is surrounded by Charlie Hunnam, Rebecca Hall and Vicky Krieps, three performers with substantial film and prestige-television credits. That is a deeper bench than a streaming true-crime series would normally assemble.

It also raises the stakes for the reception. When a production of this cast quality draws mixed-to-negative notices, the criticism tends to land on the writing and the conception rather than on the performances.

The Paulson cameo and the anthology's self-reference

Sarah Paulson appears in a cameo as Aileen Wuornos.

That is a deliberate piece of internal cross-reference within Murphy's body of work, and it has been one of the more discussed elements of the release. It signals that the anthology is now large enough to quote itself.

Whether that reads as a reward for long-running viewers or as a distraction from the story being told is precisely the kind of question dividing the early response.

Why the full-season drop shapes the reaction

Releasing eight episodes simultaneously concentrates the response into a very short window.

Weekly releases give a series time to build an argument for itself, and allow a slow opening to be reconsidered as later episodes land. A full drop removes that. Reviewers publish on the whole run at once, viewers reach the end within days, and the verdict that forms in the first 48 hours is largely the verdict that sticks.

For a title arriving to mixed-to-negative notices, that timing is unhelpful. There is no second week in which the reception can change direction.

What the drop means for Netflix's fall slate

Releasing a complete season on a Thursday gives the series a full weekend of viewing before the first meaningful audience data circulates.

It also places the release directly alongside the weekend's theatrical news, with Zach Cregger's "Resident Evil" opening in theaters the following day. The two are competing for the same genre-interested audience across different formats over the same 72 hours.

Streaming performance figures for the title have not been published.

The period setting and the criticism it attracted

The objection to blood-and-period excess points at a specific tension in the production.

A period reconstruction requires detail to be convincing, and detail is expensive to build and tempting to display once built. Reviewers describing the result as over-the-top are arguing that the show leans on that surface rather than through it, and that the accumulated texture becomes the point instead of the story.

That criticism sits alongside the faux-feminist charge rather than separately from it. Both describe a production accused of adopting a serious register without earning it.

A crowded 72 hours for genre audiences

The release also lands in an unusually busy window.

Zach Cregger's "Resident Evil" opened in North American theaters the following day, Friday, September 18, to strong early reviews and franchise-best tracking. The two titles are chasing an overlapping audience across different formats inside the same weekend, with one arriving to acclaim and the other to mixed notices.

That contrast has shaped a good deal of the conversation around both.

What has not been reported

Several details remain unavailable:

• No viewership or completion figures have been released.
• No decision has been announced about a further installment of the anthology.
• Reviews are early; the fuller critical picture will take several days to settle.
• No statement from Netflix or the production has been published in response to the criticism.

The first audience indicators would normally follow in the week after release.

Frequently asked questions

When did Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story come out?

All eight episodes launched on Netflix on Thursday, September 17, 2026. It is the fourth installment of Ryan Murphy's Monster anthology, and the full season was released at once rather than weekly.

Who stars in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story?

Ella Beatty plays Lizzie Borden. The cast also includes Charlie Hunnam, Rebecca Hall and Vicky Krieps. Sarah Paulson appears in a cameo as Aileen Wuornos, a piece of cross-reference within Ryan Murphy's wider body of work.

What are reviews saying about Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story?

Early reviews are mixed to negative. The Hollywood Reporter and The Guardian reported criticism of the blood-and-period excess as over-the-top, and some reviewers described the series as faux-feminist. The reviews are early and the fuller critical picture is still forming.

How many episodes are in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story?

There are eight episodes, and all of them were released simultaneously on Netflix on September 17. No viewership figures have been published, and no decision has been announced about a further installment of the anthology.