Cancel your Thursday evening dinner reservations and silence your group chats: Ryan Murphy’s cultural guillotine has dropped once again. Today, Netflix unleashed season four of the juggernaut Monster anthology, this time diving headfirst into the Victorian blood-soaked domestic nightmare of Lizzie Borden. And predictably, every group chat in Manhattan is already diagnosing 19th-century family trauma over takeout sushi.
The Ryan Murphy Formula: High Fashion Meets Grisly True Crime
Nobody aestheticizes morbid historical tragedy quite like Ryan Murphy. Where historical documentaries present drab courtroom sketches, Murphy serves cinematic perfection: Victorian wallpaper so gorgeous it belongs in Architectural Digest, crisp high-collar lace blouses, and lingering slow-motion cinematography that makes an 1892 crime scene look like a high-fashion editorial.
Following this week’s television frenzy at the 2026 Emmy Awards, this latest release proves our collective cultural obsession with unhinged period drama isn’t going anywhere.
Why America Is Still Obsessed With Lizzie Borden
More than a century after forty whacks entered the American nursery rhyme canon, Borden remains the ultimate unsolved psychological puzzle. In Murphy’s hands, the narrative transforms from a brutal historical footnote into a razor-sharp exploration of repressed rage, Victorian societal cages, and the dark underbelly of old-money domestic secrets.
So dim the lights, pour a deep Cabernet, and prepare for ten hours of prestige murder melodrama. Just don’t let anyone in your apartment hold the carving knife tonight.