Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story (2026)

Our Verdict on Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story (2026)

Ryan Murphy has found a formula with Monster that is as reliable as it is predictable: take a notorious American crime, reinterpret the perpetrator as a victim of systemic oppression, and let the audience decide whether they are watching true crime or a political brief.

The Lizzie Borden Story applies this template to one of the most mythologized crimes in American history. Lizzie Borden has always been a Rorschach test: was she a cold-blooded killer who got away with murder, or a trapped woman driven to violence by a society that gave her no other outlet? Murphy and Brennan have clearly chosen their answer, and the series is an eight-hour argument for it.

The production values are high. Beatty gives a committed, unsettling performance as Lizzie. Hunnam is oddly cast as Andrew Borden but brings a brutish energy that serves the show's thesis. Hall's Abby is a cold, grasping figure. The period detail is meticulous and the direction is stylized in the Murphy house manner: beautiful surfaces over ugly interiors.

The problem, as with much of Murphy's work, is that the storytelling is subordinated to the argument. Every scene is a data point in a case for the defense. Andrew Borden is not merely a stern 19th-century patriarch; he is a monster of control and cruelty who has metaphorically been axing women his whole life. Abby is not merely an unloved stepmother; she is a conspirator in patriarchal control. Lizzie is not merely a suspect with motive, means, and opportunity; she is every woman who ever snapped under the weight of a society that denied her agency.

The series earns its WOKE LEAN verdict through the systematic application of the Murphy template: reframe crime as justified resistance, recast criminals as victims of structural oppression, and treat the justice system that acquitted the defendant as proof that the system was the real problem all along. The historical Lizzie Borden was acquitted by a jury of her peers after an hour of deliberation; the series treats this as a complex event layered with meaning rather than a straightforward verdict.

There is a traditional counter-current. The series does not shy away from the brutality of the murders themselves. The axe blows, recreated in unflinching detail, remind the viewer that two human beings were hacked to death in their own home. The performances ground the show in something real even when the framing pulls toward ideology. And there is an argument to be made that true crime as a genre inherently respects the search for truth, which is a traditional value.

The question for parents is whether the historical and dramatic interest justifies the ideological freight. The series is well-made and well-acted. It is also a sustained brief for a particular worldview, and parents should know what they are walking into.

Woke Tropes & Content Analysis

Formula: Weighted Score = Severity × Authenticity Multiplier × Centrality Multiplier

🔴 Woke Tropes

Trope	Severity	Authenticity	Centrality	Score
The Victimhood Meritocracy	3	Low	Moderate	4.2
The Bumbling Patriarch	3	Low	Moderate	4.2
TOTAL WOKE				8.4

🟢 Traditional Tropes

Trope	Severity	Authenticity	Centrality	Score
Objective Good vs. Evil	3	Moderate	Moderate	3
Justice Restored	2	Moderate	Low	1
TOTAL TRADITIONAL				4.0

Score Margin: -4.40 WOKE

Content Breakdown

Is Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story (2026) Safe for Kids?