Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story Premieres on Netflix—Here’s When in Your Region

Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk

The third installment of Netflix’s "Monster" anthology, "Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story," comes to the platform featuring Ella Beatty as the protagonist as the 19th-century murder suspect.

Like other Netflix original series, the show follows the platform’s standard global release pattern: episodes go live simultaneously worldwide at 12:00 a.m. Pacific Time, which staggers across other time zones. That translates to 3:00 a.m. Eastern, 8:00 a.m. in London, and later that same morning across continental Europe and Asia, per the streamer’s usual rollout schedule.

The series is the latest entry in Ryan Murphy’s "Monster" franchise for Netflix, which previously dramatized the cases of Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers under the same anthology banner. Each season has paired a true-crime subject with a fresh cast and creative team while keeping the "Monster" title as the connective thread.

Lizzie Borden was tried and acquitted in 1893 for the ax murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts, a case that has remained a fixture of American true-crime lore for more than a century despite never being definitively solved. That unresolved quality has made it a recurring subject for dramatizations and documentaries long before this Netflix adaptation.

Studio CarryOnHarry will be watching whether the Borden season can match the audience pull of the Dahmer and Menendez installments, given how much more contested and thinly documented this case is compared to those two.

Studio CarryOnHarry Perspective

Casting decisions in true-crime drama carry weight beyond the role itself—they shape how audiences approach a character, and they signal what a network believes about an actor’s ability to carry a major project. Ella Beatty’s selection to front a Ryan Murphy production suggests Netflix and the creative team see her as capable of holding audience attention through a morally ambiguous, historically contested figure—no small ask.

In practical terms, casting often determines whether a lesser-known historical case gains cultural momentum or fades. Beatty’s profile will influence whether viewers come expecting a sympathetic portrait, a psychological study, or an open verdict. Her previous work and public presence become the lens through which millions first encounter Lizzie Borden, shaping water-cooler conversations and social media debate in ways the source material alone would not.

What remains unexamined here is whether Beatty’s casting reflects genuine creative vision or reflects Netflix’s confidence in the actor herself. A strong performance can elevate a script; it can also paper over uneven writing. The article doesn’t yet tell us which scenario applies, or how reviewers and audiences will actually respond to her interpretation.

The most useful takeaway may be to watch not just the show’s reception, but what this casting says about Netflix’s evolving appetite for true-crime subjects that lack the lurid certainty of Dahmer or Menendez. Sometimes the actor matters as much as the case.

Read more People’s Choice stories on Studio CarryOnHarry. Reporting via Live News Vault.

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