Netflix’s true-crime anthology Monster opens a new chapter today. On September 17, 2026, the streamer releases all eight episodes of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story—the first installment in the franchise built around a woman accused of killing, rather than a male killer at the center of the frame.
A familiar case, a different focus
Ella Beatty plays Lizzie Borden, the Fall River woman tried (and acquitted) for the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother. Creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan have framed the season as a deliberate shift: previous arcs leaned on infamous male perpetrators, while this one digs into how a young woman became both defendant and cultural myth. In a September 16 Reuters interview, Beatty called it “a very new chapter for the show,” noting Murphy and Brennan’s interest in telling the story through a female lead.
The ensemble around the axe
The cast stacks prestige names around Beatty—among them Vicky Krieps, Rebecca Hall, Jessica Barden, Billie Lourd, and Charlie Hunnam, with Sarah Paulson appearing as Aileen Wuornos in a connective thread that keeps the anthology’s larger universe in view. The format remains binge-first: every episode arrives at once (roughly 3 a.m. ET / midnight PT), so the conversation will move as fast as viewers can click Next.
Why it matters this week
True-crime dramatizations still dominate streaming chatter, and Monster has the brand recognition to own the mid-September feed. Whether you come for Victorian dread, courtroom spectacle, or another Murphy-style moral maze, September 17 is the date the axe drops—and the date the spoilers start flying.