Every Netflix ‘Monster’ Season in Order, From Dahmer to Lizzie Borden

Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan built one of Netflix’s most talked about franchises out of true crime, and the anthology has only grown more ambitious with each new chapter. The first season became one of Netflix’s most-watched English language shows of all time despite receiving negative reviews from critics, and it also picked up award nominations and wins along the way. That mix of huge audience numbers and constant debate has followed the show through every installment since.

Since 2022, the series has moved from one infamous killer to the next, asking the same uncomfortable question about whether monsters are born or made. The anthology has become one of Netflix’s most controversial franchises precisely because of how it handles real tragedies, even as every season keeps drawing massive audiences. With four installments now released, here is the full ‘Monster’ lineup in the order it arrived on Netflix.

Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

The season that started it all premiered on Netflix on September 21, 2022, with Evan Peters starring as Jeffrey Dahmer alongside Niecy Nash, Richard Jenkins, and Molly Ringwald. The show is a ten episode biographical crime drama created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan for Netflix. It told the story of the Milwaukee serial killer and the systemic failures that allowed his crimes to continue for years.

The reception was split from the start. Despite the negative critical response, ‘Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ still landed among Netflix’s most-watched English language series ever made. That performance is what convinced Netflix to expand a single true crime drama into a full anthology.

The scale of the viewership is what made the difference. Following that success, Netflix ordered two additional seasons of the anthology from Murphy and Brennan, building out what would become a recurring franchise rather than a one off project. The Dahmer season remains the origin point for everything that followed.

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

Season two arrived on September 19, 2024, and shifted the anthology’s focus from a single killer to a pair of siblings. The nine episode season starred Javier Bardem, Chloë Sevigny, Cooper Koch, and Nicholas Alexander Chavez, with Ari Graynor and Nathan Lane also joining the cast. It revisited the case of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted in 1996 for killing their parents.

The show leaned into the psychology behind the case rather than just the crime itself. The season chronicled the real life brothers and their conviction for the murders of José and Mary Louise Menendez, framing the story around the family dynamics that preceded it. That approach set the tone for how later seasons would handle their own subjects.

Production on the next chapter began almost immediately. Work on the third season started the month following the Menendez premiere, keeping the anthology on a fast annual pace. That momentum carried the franchise straight into its most visually referenced season yet.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story

The third installment premiered on October 3, 2025, with Charlie Hunnam taking on the role of Ed Gein. The eight episode season also starred Suzanna Son, Vicky Krieps, Laurie Metcalf, and Tom Hollander, marking the shortest run of the anthology so far. Laurie Metcalf played Gein’s mother Augusta, while Tom Hollander and Olivia Williams appeared as Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Hitchcock.

Gein’s story carried a different kind of cultural weight than the previous two seasons. His crimes as the Wisconsin killer and grave robber directly inspired some of horror’s most enduring villains, including Norman Bates, Leatherface, and Buffalo Bill. That connection between true crime and horror cinema gave the season a broader pop culture angle to explore.

The announcement leaned into that legacy directly. Netflix described the season as the story of how one ordinary man in Plainfield, Wisconsin became history’s most singular ghoul, and how he revealed the truth that monsters are not born but made by the people around them. The rest of the cast included Joey Pollari, Tyler Jacob Moore, Charlie Hall, Will Brill, Mimi Kennedy, Robin Weigert, and Lesley Manville.

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story

The fourth season is the anthology’s most recent release and its first built around a female subject. Ella Beatty stars as Lizzie Borden, with Vicky Krieps, Rebecca Hall, Billie Lourd, and Jessica Barden also joining the cast of the fourth installment. The season dramatizes the 1892 axe murders of Andrew and Sarah Borden in Fall River, Massachusetts, and the trial that followed.

Casting the lead required an extensive search. Murphy and Brennan ultimately chose Ella Beatty for the role, an actor previously seen in Murphy’s Feud, The Swans, and in Mary Bronstein’s Sundance drama If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. Sarah Paulson, a longtime collaborator of Murphy’s across multiple projects, also joined the season in a supporting role.

The show’s marketing followed a similar rhythm to the earlier seasons. By moving to its first female subject, the anthology positioned Lizzie Borden as a deliberate change of pace after three seasons centered entirely on male killers. If Ella Beatty’s Netflix Tudum interview on how the season ends is any indication, this installment is meant to close its chapter on a note that invites its own debate about guilt and innocence.

Four killers, four eras, and one recurring argument about what actually turns a person into a monster, which season of this anthology do you think got closest to the truth of its subject.