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“American Crime Story” and “Monster” creator Ryan Murphy has a history of making … unusual choices when adapting true stories, often changing facts to make things more entertaining (and salacious) and just as frequently courting controversy<\/a> by doing so. Admittedly, it can be tricky to get things just right when dealing with topics as complicated as those in “Monster,” which details the crimes of alleged real-world killers. For the series’ third chapter, “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” Murphy made quite a few big changes and omissions<\/a> to the tale of notorious Plainfield, Wisconsin killer Ed Gein. Indeed, one particularly strange change even led to the series crossing over with another popular Netflix show: David Fincher’s “Mindhunter.”<\/p>\n Although the series’ timelines don’t line up, Murphy nevertheless has Happy Anderson reprise his “Mindhunter” role as Jerry “Shoe Fetish Slayer” Brudos in the “Ed Gein” finale. He even interacts with FBI agents John Douglas (Sean Carrigan) and Robert Ressler (Caleb Ruminer) \u2014 who are clearly dressed like their “Mindhunter” counterparts, Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) \u2014 while the episode around them completely changes the show’s style. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times<\/a>, however, series co-creator Ian Brennan insisted that he and Murphy simply had<\/em> to pay homage to Fincher’s crime show. Claiming that “Monster” finales are “particularly difficult,” he explained:<\/p>\n “We knew we needed to top the episodes that had preceded it by shifting the show’s look and tone \u2014 and we had in our hands the nugget that John Douglas and Robert Ressler had, indeed, interviewed Ed Gein in person. Ryan and I both find David Fincher’s oeuvre almost uniquely inspiring, so once we pictured an episode that played as an homage to Fincher’s tone and style and narrative approach, it was something I, at least, just couldn’t unsee.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n