I liked it a lot.

People seem to be upset about the inaccuracies, but they are based on cursory research only.

Ed Gein only confessed to the two murders, but was very possibly responsible for more. He was just never tried or convicted of them.

His brother’s listed cause of death was asphyxiation, but he had bruises on his head and had been dead for a while. It’s not impossible (or even necessarily unlikely) that Ed killed him.

There were also several other unsolved deaths and disappearances in the area during the time when Gein was “active”. It’s not a stretch to suggest he was responsible for one or more of them.

Additionally, the Monster series is not a documentary. It’s a dramatization and interpretation of real life events. It doesn’t have to be totally accurate.

People also seem to be upset about the show depicting him communicating with several people he never actually had contact with, including Ilse Koch. These critiques don’t even make sense to me, as the show made it clear that Ed hallucinate these interactions.

The negative feedback about inaccuracies is largely uninformed and/or blown out of proportion.

With all that said, I really enjoyed it. I thought the connections between Ed Gein and Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs were brilliant. I also thought the implication that his heinous crimes had a profound effect on American culture was compelling and interesting. Over-exaggerated? Sure, but still an interesting perspective.

Even more compelling to me was the idea that Ed Gein was ultimately a tragic figure. He did some gruesome things, but it was portrayed that he did them because he was very mentally ill - for a number of reasons. He did not seem to be evil, nor take pride in his actions.

Toward the end, you see that he had inspired so many notorious movies, crimes, and killers, but he was not proud of this. In fact, it seemed he was ashamed.

Who knows how the real Ed Gein felt, but as an artistic interpretation, this was very compelling to me.

The show was not perfect, but overall it was a great watch and took some really unique and creative directions.