Monster

My 8/10 rating is for the first two seasons (covering Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez Brothers respectively), but my rating for season 3 (covering the life and crimes of Ed Gein) would have to be more like 4/10 - the decline in quality is huge.

The first episode of season 3 is excellent, even if it rushes through numerous aspects of Gein's story (e.g. His brother Henry), but after that point it's like a drop off a massive cliff. Season 3's main problem is the total fabrication of entire characters and plotlines - such as the babysitter storyline, but the biggest one concerns Adeline, who absolutely did not exist. Her inclusion re-writes numerous events and even some of the foundational psychological pillars of Ed Gein himself (e.g. Abject isolation, a lack of female relationships beyond his overbearing mother, and of increasing sexual dysfunction).

The desecration of Bernice Worden's character - as in, who the real victim was - also somes as a shocking embellishment. Quite frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if some sort of legal action was to be taken by the family of Worden for such a scathing depiction of the last person to suffer at the hands of Ed Gein.

Enveloping the various famous films that have been inspired by Gein's story is a neat idea, but the execution is quite sloppy. There is more reliance on recreating scenes from the films (e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) than on understanding what inspired which film and why: in regards to the aforementioned 1974 Tobe Hooper film, the clear inspiration was the 'house of horrors' aspect of Gein's crimes (furniture made out of human remains etc) - and NOT a chainsaw, which has no connection to Gein's story at all. Meanwhile, the time spent looking into Anthony Perkins' experience making Psycho (1960) feels similarly disjointed. The revealing of Gein's crimes to the American public was more of a watershed moment in the post-war crumbling of the national psyche, prefiguring many years of socio-political turmoil and serial murder - but such a thought barely enters into the conversation put forth by Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy.

I've no idea what on Earth the showmakers were thinking with this third season, moreso when you consider how well-made the previous two seasons were. With plenty of story to tell from the true history of Ed Gein there was no need to add in so much made-up rubbish.

I ate up seasons 1 and 2, they were really well done and with intriguing plots and character studies.

Season 3, however... The first episode showed a lot of promise, and I was actually looking forward to the following episodes. However, as soon as the myriad of sub plots started I quickly lost interest and almost stopped after episode 4, but I pushed through (so you won't have to).

It seems to me like the show wanted to do a general study of infamous serial killers but needed a key character for the hook, and choosing Ed Gein makes sense, seeing as he was prolific and went on to inspire many other serial killers. But the balance is way off. There's too much fluff and non-factual plots and characters in the majority of the season compared to the actual Gein aspects.

There's characters we see a few times or even just once and then never again, some only mentioned in passing, but in a way that makes them seem important, like the son of the woman teaching "Domesticated Husbandry" is mentioned as someone we're supposed to know, but I could not for the life of me remember who he was, if we'd even seen or heard of him previously.

Of course there's a lot of gratuitous scenes as well, whether they be of the sexual/sensual or gory nature, classic Murphy.

The last episode especially was atrocious, as many others have attested, particularly ripping off Mindhunter, even with Happy Anderson reprising his role as Jerry Brudos, and at first I thought they had cast Holt McCallany as well, but it was just a look-a-like.

The season seems to practically celebrate Ed Gein as well as painting him as someone we should feel sorry for. Very little time is spent on the repercussions surrounding the victims and their families, as if they are just an afterthought or even entirely irrelevant.

When it comes to directing and writing, it was just messy, too many too blurred lines between reality and hallucinations to such a degree it was difficult to know how much of Ed's social life was real and how much of it was in his head.

I've had a lot of issues with several of Murphy's productions over the past few years and honestly think he has run out of original creativity and has just gotten used to churning out shows, making money and then moving on to the next. I really miss the earlier days of his stuff, the first four seasons of AHS were amazing for example. I wish the whole Murphy production team would take a break for a few years and come back with, hopefully, renewed creative juices!

I'd probably give seasons 1 and 2 a rating of 7-8 and I can't rate season 3 higher than a 2.

I'm reading a lot of these reviews and it seems like the point of season 3 went over a lot of your heads. The majority of things that happen when Ed is on screen is in his head. It's the fanciful creation that he made up. What we're seeing on screen is the delusions of a schizophrenic mind which is why it is so jangled and weird and off-putting and not anywhere close to the truth. If you remember this as you're watching the series it'll come off as much better. You're not going to get the honest truth from Ed's perspective because he didn't see it the way we see it. The only stuff that portrays as accurate is when we switch to the movies that were inspired by Ed's life. The scenes with Hitchcock and Psycho and Texas chainsaw massacres creation. Those are the truest parts. Ed was inspired by war photos he saw in world war II in the Nazi camps and Toby Hopper and Hitchcock were inspired by what Ed actually did in real life to create what they did.

Now that we got that out of the way I just want to say that Charlie hunnam's performance is amazing although I do worry about what he had to do to get in a mental state to portray this character. He definitely needs an Emmy nomination.

The only reason this didn't get a higher rating for me was the very last episode with the various other serial killers. It's one thing to show Ed gein's crazy mind and the things he thought of but it's another thing to exploit the crimes that Ted Bundy and Richard Speck did for views and voyeurism. Plus both of their stories were pretty much untrue in their relation to Ed gein. Maybe this is just another example of him making this stuff up in his mind?

I had high expectations of this. After seeing Evan Peters in AHS, I just knew he would be great in this role. He did not disappoint.

I haven't seen many docos on Dahmer so don't really know that much about his personality or demeanor, but the character that Peters portrays is complex, creepy, and just plain twisted and evil.

One of the most disturbing details of Dahmer's crimes that this series highlights is how the police ignored and dismissed witness reports, and their lack of action allowed Dahmer to stay free and kill more men.

This series is excellent. I suggest you start watching it early in the afternoon as you will want to binge watch the whole series.

I knew very little about the Menendez brothers. I knew about the killings and about the molestation defense. But that's about it. The luridness of the story kept me at a distance but now, in this compelling Ryan Murphy series I was hooked from the very first episode. I could watch it as a work of fiction but the fact that it was a true story made me look back and read about it. Oh my God! There are no likeable characters in this saga but really good performances and that's enough to keep you glued to it. And here I discovered Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez. He took over my senses from beginning to end, including the episode that is just him. Superb performance and the humanity he finds in his monster makes you want to rethink the whole thing and believe them/him. He will make re-watch the series again, soon.