《Monster》 Season 4 stills revealed: Lizzie Borden case enters eight-episode narrative

 Netflix’s true crime drama series Monster has released its first posters and stills for its fourth season, which will turn its lens to the Lizzie Borden case.Ella Beatty plays Lizzie, Charlie Hunnam stars as her father Andrew, and Rebecca Hall plays stepmother Abby.The eight-episode season was launched on September 17. A family murder that occurred at the end of the 19th century was once again brought to the public.

In August 1892, Andrew and Abby were murdered at their home in Fall River, Massachusetts, USA.Liz, then thirty-two, was subsequently charged and acquitted by a jury at a trial the following year.The case has not reached a generally accepted conclusion, and the murder weapon, motive, family conflicts and various gaps in the investigation process continue to cause controversy.She is not only a defendant in a historical case, but also a character repeatedly shaped by American popular culture.

Many people know this case through a nursery rhyme that has been circulating for many years.The nursery rhyme directly describes Liz as an axe-wielding murderer, and uses exaggerations to enhance the bloody impression.The catchy sentences keep spreading, compressing complex cases into simple conclusions.There is a huge gap between the acquittal result of the real trial and the folk narrative, which also provides the series with an angle worthy of questioning: how a person is fixed as “Monster” by public opinion for a long time.

Eight episodes allow for both inside-the-family and outside-the-court perspectives.The Burton family's living conditions were excellent, and the father's arrangements for money and real estate, as well as the relationship between the Liz sisters and their stepmother, have been repeatedly discussed by future generations.The dissatisfaction accumulated by family members in the same house can easily be interpreted as motivation, and it can also be repackaged by the media according to the imagination of women at that time.

Ella Beatty faces a character that has been covered in too many versions.She needed to convey Liz’s situation in the family, her state during cross-examination and the gaze she endured during the trial, while retaining a side of the character that cannot be fully seen.If the answer is given too early in the performance, the complexity of the case will quickly disappear; if the emotions are hidden too much, the character will easily be left with only an indifferent shell.

Charlie Hunnam played Ed Gein in the third season and switched to playing Liz's father in the fourth season.Entering 《Monster》 for two consecutive seasons, the character positions have changed significantly.Andrew is both a victim in the case and an important figure in understanding family power relations.How he manages his property and treats his daughter and second wife will affect the audience's judgment of his life before the murder.

Abby, played by Rebecca Hall, also cannot be just a name in the case.What is the distance between the stepmother and the stepdaughter? How much of the external narrative comes from speculation is an unavoidable question in the story.Allowing the victims to have daily routines and relationships can reduce the tendency of true crime works to create a sense of curiosity only around the suspects.

Sarah Paulson stars as another famous crime figure, Erin Wuornos, and Vicki Cripps, Billie Lourd and Jessica Barden are also in the cast.The addition of characters spanning generations means that the new season will also touch on how the image of crime is continuously rewritten by the media, film and television, and public memory.Certain names end up spreading further than the facts of the case, and how the work uses those names becomes part of the viewing experience.

《Monster》The first season of the series focused on Jeffrey Dahmer, the second season focused on brothers Lyle and Eric Menendez, and the third season chose Ed Gein.The first three seasons all revolved around real cases that have been widely discussed, and have repeatedly triggered debates about the presentation of victims, the scale of dramatization, and the responsibility of creators.The Lizzie Borden Case has more than a hundred years of cultural deposits, and the difficulty of adapting it will not decrease just because of its age.

There is another significant difference between this case and the previous three seasons: Liz was found not guilty during the judicial process.Dramas can reenact investigations and trials, and they can also present their own narrative hypotheses, but dramatizations cannot be used as legal conclusions.The line between the scene the audience sees may be from the record, or it may be a choice made by the screenwriter to connect gaps. The line between the two needs to be kept clear.

The circumstances of the times also determine how Liz is viewed.Society at the end of the nineteenth century had strict expectations about women's behavior, emotions, and domestic roles, and both prosecutors and defenses could exploit these perceptions.The jury found it difficult to imagine a woman of her social status committing such a violent act, and the public continued to write her into nursery rhymes after the trial.The not guilty verdict did not end the story, but continued the controversy in the form of a cultural symbol.

《Monster》 What Season 4 really needs to deal with is the temptation left by the factual void.The harder the mystery becomes, the easier it is for creators to fill the unknown with exciting scenes.If the eight-episode story allows victims, defendants, family relationships, judicial proceedings and media communication to appear together, Lizzie Borton will not only be left with her famous axe.In addition to questioning the murderer, the audience can also see how a case has been told for more than a hundred years, and how the telling itself shapes the truth that people believe.