Monster: The Ed Gein Story

• 1. Introduction

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  Monster: The Ed Gein Story earned a Metacritic score of 28 out of 100, yet it drew 12.2 million views on Netflix within its first three days. That split between audience appetite and critical disgust is the strangest fact about this 2025 television season. It is the third chapter of the anthology series Monster, and its subject is Ed Gein, a convicted murderer and graverobber who is also a suspected serial killer. Charlie Hunnam plays him. The season does not simply retell his crimes. It also wants to ask why films, and the people who watch them, keep returning to Gein. Did the show answer its own question? Why did so many viewers press play on something so few critics admired? And what did the season claim that one man from a rural community handed to Hollywood?

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• 2. Making the Season

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  Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story arrived in 2022, and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story followed in 2024. The Gein season is the third installment of that American anthology of biographical crime dramas, made for Netflix. Ian Brennan created the series. This time he was its sole creator and writer, which made it the first season not led by Ryan Murphy as a co-creator.

  In September 2024, word came that the next season would center on Gein. By October 2024 it had a working title, The Original Monster. Under that name it was pitched as an exploration of Gein as the first celebrity serial killer, and of how true crime grew into a pop culture phenomenon. In August 2025 the season was retitled Monster: The Ed Gein Story.

  Charlie Hunnam was announced as Gein in September 2024. In October 2024, Laurie Metcalf, Tom Hollander and Olivia Williams joined, as Augusta Gein, Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville. Suzanna Son was named a series regular in February 2025, with her role left undisclosed. The complete cast list followed in August 2025.

  Principal photography was scheduled to begin on the 31st of October 2024. A report on the 23rd of November said cameras had actually started rolling earlier that month. By February 2025, the production was reported to be filming in Chicago. Netflix released the finished season on the 3rd of October 2025.

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• 3. Echoes in Hollywood

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  Psycho reached cinemas in 1960, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in 1974, and The Silence of the Lambs in 1991. The season tells Gein's story largely through allusions to these three fictional works, all inspired by his crimes.

  Tom Hollander plays Alfred Hitchcock, the English director known for Psycho. Olivia Williams plays his wife, Alma Reville, an English screenwriter and film editor. Ethan Sandler appears as Robert Bloch, the American writer known for writing Psycho.

  Joey Pollari plays Anthony Perkins, the American actor known for portraying Norman Bates in Psycho. Around Perkins the season places Mildred Newman, a psychologist famously known for conducting conversion therapy on him, played by Mimi Kennedy. Jackie Kay plays Tab Hunter, an American actor and Perkins' boyfriend.

  Will Brill plays Tobe Hooper, the American filmmaker who directed and co-wrote The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Brock Powell appears as Gunnar Hansen, the actor who plays Leatherface in that film. Golden Garnick plays Ted Levine, the actor who plays Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.

  Sean Carrigan plays Robert Ressler, the FBI special agent who coined the term "serial killer". Caleb Ruminer plays John E. Douglas, an FBI special agent and criminal profiler. Tobias Jelinek plays the mass murderer Richard Speck. Happy Anderson plays the serial killer Jerry Brudos, a role he reprises from Netflix's Mindhunter.

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• 4. Gein's Circle

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  Laurie Metcalf plays Augusta Gein, Ed Gein's mother, and Darin Cooper plays his father, George Philip Gein. Hudson Oz appears as his brother, Henry Gein. These family members sit at the heart of the season's portrait of how Gein grew up.

  Suzanna Son plays Adeline Watkins, a woman romantically involved with Gein. Robin Weigert plays Enid Watkins in a recurring role. Together they give Gein a life outside his family farm and his crimes.

  Rondi Reed plays Mary Hogan, one of Gein's victims. Lesley Manville plays Bernice Worden, a local hardware store owner and his final victim. Charlie Hall plays Deputy Frank Worden, Bernice's son, and Tyler Jacob Moore plays Sheriff Arthur Schley.

  Addison Rae plays Evelyn Hartley, an American teenager who mysteriously disappeared in 1953.

  The cast also stretches well beyond Gein's own world. Vicky Krieps plays Ilse Koch, a Nazi war criminal. Elliott Gould plays Weegee, a photographer known for stark black and white street photography in New York City. Alanna Darby plays Christine Jorgensen, an American actress and the first person to become widely known in the United States for having sex reassignment surgery. That last casting choice would later draw one reviewer's sharpest objection.

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• 5. Netflix Numbers

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  Number two on Netflix's global weekly chart was where the season landed in its opening days. That placement set up a second week that beat every expectation set by its predecessors.

  In its second week the season reached number one worldwide, with 20.7 million views and 154.2 million hours viewed. That topped the 19.5 million views recorded in the second week of The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

  The third week told a different story. Views fell to 9.5 million, or 70.5 million hours viewed. The Menendez season had held 13.1 million views in the same week.

  By the fourth week the audience was down to 2.8 million views, or 21.2 million hours. The season stayed on Netflix's Top 10 of most-watched English-language shows for five weeks. Both The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and The Jeffrey Dahmer Story had lasted seven.

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• 6. Critics' Verdict

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  Rotten Tomatoes reported a 22% approval rating from 41 critic reviews. Reaction to Charlie Hunnam's performance was divided, and the season's meta commentary, subplots, runtime and violence drew much of the criticism.

  Aramide Tinubu of Variety was among the most generous. She praised the strong production values and what she called the "absolutely outstanding performances" of the lead actors. She also liked the "classic noir film style" portrayal of 1950s Wisconsin. But she found the tone campy, the violence excessive and the subplots overabundant. In her view, the show favored Gein's pop culture image over the abusive bond with his mother Augusta, a theme the first episode introduced and later left behind.

  Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter called the season a "tired, overstuffed mess" that squanders the talents of Hunnam and Metcalf. He argued that its explicit imagery caters to audience demand for "monstrosities" while mocking the same audience for consuming it. His verdict was that the season "feels like Ryan Murphy's anthology has finally run out of gas."

  Roxana Hadadi of Vulture thought the show came close to a thought-provoking argument. She wrote that Monster "tiptoes very close to delivering a thought-provoking argument" about how entertainment lets people avoid responsibility for collective sins. She felt the fourth episode would have made a fair ending. Her closing lines were pointed: "We already know how the tale of Ed Gein ends, with commercialization and infamy. What Monster fails to consider is that it's part of the problem."

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• 7. Fact and Fiction

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  Craig Mathieson of The Age wrote that the series chose "the wrong monster." In his words, Gein "had little personality, zero purpose, and provided no real illumination on his crimes." He described Hunnam's work as a "one-note performance as a mewling weirdo with a high-pitched voice."

  Mathieson also objected to what the writers invented. He listed a fictional love interest for Gein and "pointless hallucinations," including Gein dancing to a record and flirting with a corpse. He disliked Hitchcock being portrayed "as a peeper like Gein." Most of all he attacked a "late, heinous effort to fictitiously rehabilitate" Gein, in which the killer helps capture Ted Bundy.

  Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the season 1 and a half stars out of 4. He called its approach "connecting dots with crayons" and found Hunnam's performance "distracting and unconvincing." He pointed to unsubstantiated depictions of Gein's crimes, including a sexual encounter with the victim Bernice Worden. He also asked of the graphic Psycho shower scene recreation: "Is it a commentary or just provocation?"

  Drew Burnett Gregory of Autostraddle called the portrayal of Gein as a crossdresser "grossly inaccurate." She said historical evidence does not support it. She argued that showing him in women's clothing and idolizing the actress Christine Jorgensen perpetuated harmful stereotypes.

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• 8. Awards Season

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  The Critics' Choice Awards of the 4th of January 2026 considered Hunnam for Best Actor in a Movie or Miniseries. A week later, on the 11th of January 2026, the Golden Globe Awards considered him for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film. The Actor Awards on the 1st of March 2026 added a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie.

  The Satellite Awards of the 8th of March 2026 also list Hunnam, under Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film.

  Craft guilds noticed the season as well. The Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild, on the 14th of February 2026, lists Corey Castellano and Heather Koontz for period and character make-up. Barry Lee Moe, Erica Adams, George Guzman, Michele Arvizo and Randy Wilder are listed for hairstyling. Corey Castellano, Mark Nieman, David Leroy Anderson and David Snyder are listed for special makeup effects.

  The Art Directors Guild Awards of the 28th of February 2026 list Matthew Flood Ferguson for production design. On the 8th of March 2026 the American Society of Cinematographers Awards list Michael Bauman for the episode titled "Buxum Bird."

  The anthology is already moving on. A fourth season, about the parricide suspect Lizzie Borden, is currently in production.

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