Monster season 3's hypocrisy with Ed Gein means it's nowhere near as clever as Ryan Murphy thinks it is

Following the controversy of the previous two seasons and their focuses on serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and then the Menendez brothers, Murphy is back with his most gruesome and stomach-churning instalment yet.

Where the moral problem of previous seasons has been the lack of involvement of the victims' families, this story of Gein shouldn't present any real problems of that sort, right? It's too early to comment on whether there will be anything of the sort, but seeing as Gein is a figure that has gone on to influence characters like Leatherface and Norman Bates, there's certainly more ground to embellish the story as one sees fit.

While there are plenty of Monster season 3 scenes that will leave the prospect of eating a meal as just a distant memory, this season is teed up as being slightly different than the rest for the fact that it's trying to make us, as viewers, look inwards.

Ian Brennan, the show’s co-creator, said in an interview with Variety: "His story was bent and twisted, like a Silly Putty image. And the most interesting layer was turning the camera on ourselves – on Ryan and I, and on the audience. 'Oh, look, we’re doing the same thing. We’re obsessed with this guy.'"

The notion was first hinted at in the show's trailer, in which Charlie Hunnam's Gein turns to the camera and says: "You're the one who can't look away."

Similarly, in episode 4, when two strangers who have been deer-hunting stumble into Gein's barn and see him using his chainsaw, he tells them: "You shouldn't be watching this." The way the scene is shot, Gein is speaking to the camera and in turn, us. Four episodes in, though, it's all a little redundant.

The conversation around the morality of true crime, the boom in it as a genre and audiences' seemingly insatiable appetite for the most chilling stories is a prevalent one. Despite this, Netflix (and many other streamers and channels) boast dramas and documentaries digging into the grisliest crimes.

Fresh content is churned out in a bid to get us to understand sadistic criminals that we just can't seem to wrap our heads around. But isn't it high time that the majority of us accept the fact we're not criminal psychologists and don't really have a desire to get into the crevices of such dark minds?

In this series, we see how directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Tobe Hooper use Gein's story as inspiration, making him a Hollywood character rather than platforming his actual name as a known one. They've cashed in on the Gein machine for their own benefit, it's clear – but it's also the very same thing that Murphy is doing.

The hypocrisy of it all – the way in which Murphy has clearly used Gein's crimes as inspiration for American Horror Story and has now based an entire series on him – just undoes the intended outcome of it all. Can you really be a critic of the way we consume true crime and the glamorisation of it all if you too are one of the people taking home a cheque indebted to these stories?

Series creator Murphy told Tudum: “The thesis statement of every season is: are monsters born or are they made? I think in Ed’s case, it's probably a little of both.”

But... do we actually care?

If Monster: The Ed Gein Story is supposed to be an intelligent exploration of nature vs nurture whilst looking at the definition of 'monster', I guess I'd be saying something different. But simply put, the series really isn't as clever as it thinks it is.

The usage of the term 'monster' is particularly ham-fisted this season, being used in pretty much every episode. It's likely done to make us consider the different forms that a monster can take, different situations that create monstrous personalities and tendencies.

But if a series like Monster was smart enough in making us think about these things subconsciously whilst watching, would you have to spell it out in black and white for its viewers? If the dialogue, storytelling and drama of it all were done in a way that actually made us sit back and critically analyse (in the manner of any great TV series), we'd be lauding Murphy's series as turning the true crime genre on its head.

Instead, Monster season 3 feels like a sensationalised and ludicrous waste of time.

Where the first episode has some relative slivers of hope, it's all undone in the second episode with the introduction of concentration camp prisoners chasing Gein across his farm to his home, like something out of a misjudged and tone-deaf horror film.

Later in the series, we see Gein speaking to Nazi war criminal Ilse Koch, who tells him: "Don't let anyone call you a monster. You are a human being." How poetic! Lest we forget the actuality of Gein's crimes, the ghastly details of which are showcased throughout all episodes. Weirdly, in the last episodes of the season, there's an attempt at some kind of redemption arc for an elderly Gein.

He realises that people have been telling his story for him, becoming inspiration for serial killers like Charles Manson, Ed Kemper, Jerry Brudos, Richard Speck, all of whom Gein meets in a dreamy haze in the hallowed hallways of his psychiatric institution.

As well as nothing really making much sense in this series, the dialogue is so clumsy that it almost seems laughable at points. Once again, viewers won't leave the series knowing what Murphy was trying to do here. And yet still, another Monster series is in the pipeline.

There's clearly something about the franchise that is striking a chord with viewers, otherwise Netflix wouldn't be chomping at the bit to commission more. Maybe it's a me problem, but there are plenty of examples in this instalment that really do take things too far.

Some notable ones that spring to mind include Gein imagining having sex with Ilse Koch but it's actually a dead corpse, or the several vulvas that Anthony Perkins is shown in preparation for his role in Psycho, the same ones that we're shown again when officers raid Gein's home. Or perhaps Frank (Charlie Hall) hallucinating and seeing Gein carve up his mother (Lesley Manville) like a Thanksgiving turkey.

Still, Monster co-creator Ian Brennan said of this third outing: “I think this is the best season of the three, and I think it’s going to blow people’s socks off."

We see how in the aftermath of Gein's arrest, there's public fanfare about his house and possessions. "See the Plainfield butcher's actual home!," the sign on the driveway reads as people pick and fawn over the most chilling details. Most facial expressions of visitors are filled with disgust, but the noticing of blood stains and human hair (likely from victims) only peaks interest further in people who are thinking of taking these objects home with them.

The true crime machine started whirring in the aftermath of Gein's crimes, the series maps out for us, and it's one we're part of while watching this series.

Whilst we're told that other directors and producers have only furthered the grotesque fascination of it all, it's almost as though Murphy himself should make a cameo in his own series – perhaps that would be the clever mic-drop moment that this season so wishes it had.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story is now streaming on Netflix – sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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