Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story Made Me Question How Much of True Crime We Know

The strange thing about watching The Lizzie Borden Story is how easily you can start to understand Lizzie Borden. She is not exactly someone you are supposed to feel sorry for.

She was accused of killing her father, Andrew Borden, and her stepmother, Abby Borden, with an axe in 1892. She was tried and acquitted the following year, and more than 130 years later, nobody can say with certainty what happened inside that house.

The mystery around Lizzie is what gives Netflix's Monster something to work with. We know the murders, and we know the nursery rhyme. What we don't know is what happened inside that house before everything went wrong. That is where the series steps in to fill in the blanks and imagine what might have happened.

Monster Lizzie Borden Story: What’s True and What’s Fiction

Netflix’s Monster turns Lizzie Borden’s unsolved murder case into a fictional story built around the gaps in what history can prove.

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Ella Beatty Made It Easy To Understand Lizzie

Ella Beatty’s performance is easily one of the best things about this series. I had never watched her before, so I went into the series without any real idea of what she would do with Lizzie. By the time I finished it, I wanted to look her up, and that alone says a lot about how well she brought the character to life. 

Beatty plays Lizzie as someone difficult to dislike completely. She is lonely, frustrated, and clearly desperate for some affection in a household where she hardly seems to receive it. The series places her in a strict Victorian environment and spends a lot of time showing just how trapped she feels.

The way Lizzie relates to her stepmother, Abby, tells us a lot about what life is like for her at home. The series portrays Abby as cruel towards Lizzie, while her father is distant and largely uninterested in what is happening around him. So if Lizzie becomes angry, you understand where that anger comes from.

At one point, I caught myself thinking that her rage was justified. Then I had to stop and think about what I was actually doing. I was watching a woman who had been portrayed as deeply mistreated, and I was slowly moving from understanding her anger to excusing the violence that followed.