Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, the latest chapter in Ryan Murphy’s true-crime anthology, has opened on Netflix’s weekly Top 10 chart well behind its predecessor, Monster: The Ed Gein Story, even as the family drama Crew Girl quietly climbs past both of them. It’s a slower start than the franchise is used to, and the reasons say as much about audience fatigue as they do about Lizzie Borden herself.
Key Takeaways
- Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story has debuted lower on Netflix’s weekly English TV rankings than Monster: The Ed Gein Story managed in its opening week.
- Crew Girl has overtaken both true-crime titles this week, showing that audience appetite is shifting toward lighter, character-driven drama.
- The Ed Gein Story benefited from shock value and a starrier lead performance, giving it a bigger opening bump than the Borden season.
- Anthology fatigue, familiar source material, and a crowded September OTT slate are all working against the new season.
What Is Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story About?
Anyone above a certain age remembers the singsong playground rhyme: “Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks.” That case — the unsolved 1892 axe murders of Andrew and Abby Borden in Fall River, Massachusetts — has fascinated true-crime fans for over a century, long before true crime was even a genre.
Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Monster franchise, which previously dramatised Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers before turning to Ed Gein, now tackles Borden as its next subject. Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story leans into the same psychological-horror lens the anthology is known for, framing an old, half-forgotten case for a Netflix audience that wasn’t alive when the rhyme was still being chanted at school.
How Slow Is The Lizzie Borden Story’s Start, Really?
Going by Netflix’s self-reported weekly Top 10 lists, Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story has landed in the rankings but hasn’t matched the launch-week pull that The Ed Gein Story generated last year. It’s not a flop by any stretch — anything from the Monster franchise still draws a built-in audience — but the climb has been noticeably slower.
| Title | Franchise Position | Opening-Week Trend |
| Monster: The Ed Gein Story | Season 3 | Strong debut, held a top rank for multiple weeks |
| Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story | Season 4 | Slower climb, ranked lower in its first tracked week |
| Crew Girl | Standalone series | Surging past both titles this week |
That gap matters because Netflix’s own weekly Top 10 data is one of the few public windows into how a show is actually performing, since the platform doesn’t release traditional ratings the way broadcast TV once did.
Why Did Ed Gein Story Open So Much Stronger?
Part of it is simple shock value. Ed Gein’s crimes directly inspired Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs, so the season arrived with pop-culture hooks that Borden’s case, however infamous, doesn’t quite have. Charlie Hunnam’s lead performance also generated a wave of its own buzz, the kind that pushes casual viewers to press play in week one rather than week three.
Lizzie Borden’s story, by contrast, is older, quieter, and more courtroom-drama than slasher-horror. It’s a fascinating case for anyone who grew up hearing the rhyme, but it doesn’t carry the same visceral, edge-of-the-seat pull that made Ed Gein a conversation-starter the moment it dropped.
Is Anthology Fatigue Setting In?
There’s also a broader pattern worth naming. Four seasons in, Monster is starting to feel like a franchise viewers sample rather than binge instantly. That’s a familiar arc — the first season always lands hardest, and each new instalment has to work a little harder to justify the same urgency. Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is the season paying that price right now.
Who Is Crew Girl, And Why Is It Surging?
Crew Girl’s rise is the more interesting story this week. Without the true-crime baggage or the “have I seen this before” fatigue, it’s pulling in viewers looking for something warmer and more character-driven after a run of grim, murder-of-the-week content dominating the charts. It’s a reminder that Netflix’s weekly rankings rarely stay static for long — a title can leapfrog a bigger, starrier show simply by offering a different mood at the right moment.
An India Angle: Why This Comparison Resonates Here
True crime has had its own moment on Indian streaming platforms too, from Indian Predator to Delhi Crime, and Indian audiences have shown they’ll watch a slow-burn crime drama just as readily as a splashy one. But the Borden-versus-Gein gap mirrors something Indian viewers have seen locally as well — a genuinely good true-crime show can still underperform if it drops right after a louder, more sensational one. Timing and shock value often matter as much as craft, whether the platform is Netflix in the US or Netflix in India.
FAQ
Is Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story based on a true story?
Yes. It dramatises the real 1892 murders of Andrew and Abby Borden in Fall River, Massachusetts, and Lizzie Borden’s subsequent trial and acquittal.
How does Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story compare to Monster: The Ed Gein Story on Netflix?
Per Netflix’s weekly Top 10 rankings, The Lizzie Borden Story has opened with a slower climb than The Ed Gein Story, which held a top rank for multiple weeks after its release.
Why is Crew Girl beating Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story this week?
Crew Girl doesn’t carry true-crime fatigue and offers a different, lighter tone, which appears to be drawing viewers away from the grimmer Monster franchise for now.
What is the Monster anthology series on Netflix?
Monster is Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology, previously covering Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers before Ed Gein and now Lizzie Borden.
Where can I watch Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story?
It is streaming exclusively on Netflix, alongside the earlier Monster seasons.
Conclusion
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story hasn’t bombed — it’s simply opened softer than the season before it, while Crew Girl proves audiences are craving variety. Whether Borden’s slow-burn case finds its footing the way earlier Monster seasons eventually did is the one to watch over the next few weeks.