‘Don’t break mother’s heart…’
When I read that The Guardian had labelled Monster: The Ed Gein Story as ‘lurid exploitation’ and ‘morally dubious’, I assumed that it was typical pearl clutching from a publication that is prone to hyperbole. Having now sat through all eight episodes of this mostly terribly series, however, it brings me no great joy to confirm that, if anything, The Guardian didn’t go far enough on this occasion…
This third series in Ryan Murphy’s Monster franchise (after Dahmer and The Menendez Brothers) follows the exploits of Ed Gein (Charlie Hunnam), otherwise known as the Butcher of Plainfield, as he cuts, fucks and ‘aw shucks’ his way across rural America. The huge supporting cast includes Suzanna Son as Gein’s love interest, Laurie Metcalf as his overbearing mother, and Tom Hollander as… Alfred Hitchcock (for some reason).
Unlike Dahmer, which sensationalised the crimes of the killer whilst also centering the stories of the victims, The Ed Gein Story has absolutely no interest in the victims really. It also has no interest in the facts. It feels like at least three quarters of what we are seeing is completely made up which renders the rare moments of truth inert. Despite the best efforts of an unrecognisably effeminate Hunnam, the third season of Monster is laughable when it’s supposed to be serious and vomit-inducing when it’s trying to be funny. It’s also repetitive, predictable, and most terminally of all, consistently dull. More damaging than all of that, however, is the decision to recreate scenes from the films that were inspired by Gein, namely: Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Rather than feeling like a loving homage, these moments instead feel like showrunner Ian Brennan didn’t know how else to fill the time. In fact, all these scenes really succeed in doing is to make the viewer long to be watching the films being homaged instead of this garbage TV show. The portrayal of Hitchcock is a perfect example of everything that is wrong here. I like Hollander as an actor but he’s totally miscast as Hitch, and the version of the Master of Suspense we are presented with here is so utterly cartoonish and ridiculous that everything grinds to a halt in the thankfully few scenes in which he appears.
The Ed Gein Story is car crash television for all the wrong reasons – an utter disaster.
