Monsters – The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story: Netflix show sparks controversy

A new Netflix drama about two brothers who killed their parents has caused controversy after it was criticised by the real-life men it is based on.

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story was released last week and shot to the top of Netflix’s streaming chart.

The show stars Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez as the two brothers, and Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny as their parents.

It is the follow-up to the first Monsters series which focused on US serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

The show was created by Ryan Murphy, the director, writer and producer behind series including Glee, Pose, The Watcher, Feud, American Horror Story, Hollywood and Ratched.

Lyle and Erik Menendez are two brothers who killed their parents on 20 August 1989. Jose and Kitty Menendez were shot multiple times at close range at their mansion in Beverly Hills.

The brothers, who were 21 and 18 at the time, initially told police they found their parents dead when they arrived home.

The pair were eventually tried for the murders, first individually, with one jury for each brother. However, both juries were deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial, and the pair were later tried again together.

The brothers claimed they committed the murders in self defence after years of alleged physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

They said they feared their father would kill them after they threatened to expose him. But the prosecution argued they wanted to kill their parents in order to inherit their money.

During their second, joint trial, the judge excluded evidences of abuse from their defence case.

A jury found them guilty and the pair were convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder in 1996.

They were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

The Netflix drama presents the murders from different perspectives as it explores what might have led the siblings to kill their parents.

It follows the events surrounding the murders, including the brothers’ claims of physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

But the show also makes efforts to show things from the parents’ point of view, something its creators have said was based on extensive research.

Monsters was released on Thursday, 19 September, and quickly climbed to the top of Netflix’s streaming chart – as is often the case with shows in the hugely popular true crime genre.

But the show hasn’t gone down as well with critics. In a two-star review, the Guardian’s Jesse Hassenger described it as exhausting and repetitive” while IndieWire’s Ben Travers said it was a “messy, salacious slog”.

Variety’s Aramide Tinubu added: “Despite the gripping subject matter and the outstanding performances, [the show] has no idea what it wants to be. Therefore, it just dissolves into a retelling of unspeakable abuses and gruesome crimes.”

There was a similar sentiment from the Telegraph’s Ed Power, who said: “Under the withering gaze of the Netflix algorithm, no subject is too sensitive to be off-limits or turned into eyeball fodder.

“And that, in the end, is all that Monsters adds up to. It’s a competently put-together hokum made in the worst possible taste.”

Erik and Lyle Menendez, now aged 53 and 56 respectively, are currently in prison in San Diego, California.

In a statement released on X by his wife, Erik Menendez criticised the production the day after it was released, labelling the show “disheartening slander”.

“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show,” he said.

“I can only believe they were done so on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent.”

He continued: “It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward – back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women.

“Those awful lies have been disrupted and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out.”

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Murphy said: “I think it’s interesting that he’s issued a statement without having seen the show.

He acknowledged: “It’s really hard, if it’s your life, to see your life up on screen.

“The thing I find interesting, that he doesn’t mention in his quote, is that if you watch the show, I would say 60-65% of our show centre around the abuse, and what they claim happened to them.

“We do it very carefully and we give them their day in court, and they talk openly about it.”

But, Murphy added, he and his team felt it was important to also show things from the parents’ point of view.

“In this age where people can talk about sexual abuse, talking and writing about all points of view can be controversial,” he said.

“There were four people involved, two people are dead, what about the parents? We had an obligation as storytellers to also try and put in their perspective based on our research, which we did.”