Netflix's Monster: The Ed Gein Story has come under fire for its wholly fictionalized portrayal of certain events and the twisting of his actual life story to reflect aspects of later stories that were loosely inspired by his crimes. However, star Charlie Hunnam, who plays Gein in the series, says he "never felt like we were sensationalizing" the tale of Gein's life.
"I never felt like we were sensationalizing it. I never felt on set that we did anything gratuitous or for shock impact. It was all in order to try to tell this story as honestly as we could," Hunnam tells EW. "If people are compelled to talk about it and think about it, hopefully they'll actually be compelled to watch the show. What I would hope and feel really confident in is that it was a very sincere exploration of the human condition and why this boy did what he did."
Unfortunately for those committed to honesty and historicity in relating such a grave story, the show spends most of its time on supposition, fictionalization, and twisting of actual facts into a comic, camp narrative that barely reflects what we actually know of Ed Gein's life and crimes.
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"Is it Ed Gein who was abused and left in isolation and suffering from undiagnosed mental illness and...that manifested in some pretty horrendous ways? Or was the monster the legion of filmmakers that took inspiration from his life and sensationalized it to make entertainment and darken the American psyche in the process?" Hunnam says, asking viewers to consider the actual "monster" of the story. "Is Ed Gein the monster of this show, or is Hitchcock the monster of the show? Or are we the monster of the show because we're watching it?"
These are perhaps ironic questions for Monster, which fails to honestly answer most of these philosophical concepts or even give actual space to exploring them in between portrayals of Gein as an irresistible ladies man who actually chased people with a chainsaw (both lies crafted for the show).
Monster: The Ed Gein story is now streaming on Netflix. You can also check out the 25 best shows to stream on Netflix right now.
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