\n<\/p>\n
Through his attorney, Alex told People<\/em><\/a> that Fuller and Carr\u2019s series \u201cmischaracterizes Alex\u2019s relationships with his wife Maggie and his son Paul, both of whom Alex loves so dearly.\u201d To that, Fuller tells VF:<\/em> \u201cI do truly believe, to whatever extent I can understand, that he did love Maggie and Paul. I think that\u2019s one of the reasons he can\u2019t open that door of monstrousness to acknowledge what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n In one final, prescient twist, Alex used a visit to his elderly mother, Libby, then suffering from dementia, as an alibi for the murders. \u201cAfter the most dehumanizing, monstrous thing someone could do, he went and sat there with his mom,\u201d Fuller says.<\/p>\n Like Alex fleeing from the darkest moments of his life and into the arms of his mother, Fuller ventures that the rocky last few years have led us back there culturally too. \u201cWe\u2019ve been through so much in the past 10 years, particularly the past five. The collective psyche has just been so traumatized, and there\u2019s so much uncertainty when we\u2019re dealing with AI, what the economy\u2019s going to look like, climate change\u2014all these massive things,\u201d says Fuller. \u201cWe dramatized [Paul\u2019s older brother] Buster Murdaugh<\/strong> saying at the end of his father\u2019s murder trial, \u2018I just want my mom.\u2019 There is something fundamental that a mother in the most general way provides. But what we\u2019re seeing, with If I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You<\/em> and Die My Love,<\/em> is the burden of that on the individual.\u201d<\/p>\n Die My Love<\/span>Mubi\/ Everett Collection<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n In a year where men channeled their inner demons into vampires (Sinners<\/em>), gods (Superman<\/em>), and even a new Frankenstein,<\/em> motherhood served as a trippy catalyst for many writer-directors. \u201cWe are thinking about ourselves as mothers, but also our own mothers. If you have a good enough mother, those problems and demands and terrible feelings that we\u2019re putting forth in these movies are all behind the scenes,\u201d says Bronstein. \u201cThose are mommy\u2019s little secrets. Kids go to bed, wine comes out or whatever it is, but we don\u2019t see that as kids. We don\u2019t see all the work that goes into even something as simple as a birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n The unflinching portraits of maternity have had a profound effect on mothers, but also on young people deciding whether or not to procreate. \u201cWomen are really openly expressing a total disinterest in marriage and children,\u201d says Gallagher, citing a recent Pew Research Center study<\/a> that found a 22-point drop over the last three decades in teenage girls\u2019 desire to get married. As of 2025, teenage girls are officially less likely than teenage boys to say they want to get married. \u201cSo, it makes sense to me that we\u2019re finally free enough perhaps to explore and say out loud that having kids isn\u2019t for everyone, and\/or you can love your kids to death and still acknowledge that the life of having kids is really hard,\u201d she continues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n