The story of Lyle and Erik Menendez: The Netflix show sparks controversy

A new Netflix drama about two brothers who killed their parents has been criticized by one of the real men it is based on.

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

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

The series is a continuation of the controversial first Monsters series about the US serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. which was sometimes criticized as insensitive.

The show is created by Ryan Murphy, the director, writer and producer of series such as “Glee,” “Pose,” “The Watcher,” “Feud,” “American Horror Story,” “Hollywood” and “Ratched,” and Ian Brennan , the co-creator of “Glee.”

On the first weekend of release The series is said to have had 12.3 million viewsHowever, we don't know how many individual viewers or households that is, as it will be split across the nine episodes.

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

The brothers, then 21 and 18 years old, initially told police that they found their parents dead when they returned home.

The pair were eventually tried individually for the murders, with a jury for each brother. However, both jurors disagreed, resulting in a mistrial, and the two were later retried together.

The brothers claimed they committed the murders in self-defense 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 prosecutors argued they wanted to kill their parents to inherit their money.

During their second, joint trial, the judge excluded evidence of abuse from their defense.

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

They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The Netflix drama presents the murders from different perspectives and examines what may 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 an effort to show things from the parents' perspective, which the creators say is based on extensive research.

“Monsters” was released on Thursday, September 19th and quickly climbed to the top of the Netflix streaming charts – as is often the case with shows in the wildly popular true crime genre.

But the show wasn't well received by critics. In a two star review described Jesse Hassenger of the Guardian it as “tiring and monotonous” during IndieWire's Ben Travers said it was a “chaotic, salacious slog”.

Variety's Aramide Tinubu added: “Despite the gripping subject matter and stellar performances, (the series) has no idea what it wants to be. Therefore, it simply dissolves into a retelling of unspeakable abuses and horrific crimes.”

There was a similar mood from Ed Power of the Telegraph, who said: “Under the withering gaze of the Netflix algorithm, no topic is too sensitive to remain taboo or be turned into eyeball fodder.”

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

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

In a statement released by his wife on X, Erik Menendez criticized the production the day after its release, calling the show a “disheartening slander.”

“I believed that we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle and created a caricature of Lyle based on terrible and blatant lies that were rife in the series,” he said.

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

He continued: “It is sad for me to know that Netflix's dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime has set the painful truths back several steps – back to a time when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that Men did not have sexual abuse and that men experienced rape trauma differently than women.

“These terrible lies have been refuted and exposed over the past two decades by countless courageous victims who have broken through their personal shame and courageously spoken out.”

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Murphy said: “I find it interesting that he made a statement without having seen the show.

He admitted: “When it's your life, it's really hard to see it on screen.”

“What I find interesting, what he doesn't mention in his quote, is that if you watch the show, I would say 60-65% of our show is about the abuse and what supposedly happened to them.”

“We do this very carefully and give them time in court and they talk openly about it.”

However, Murphy added that it was important to him and his team to also show things from the parents' perspective.

“In this age when people can talk about sexual abuse, it can be controversial to speak and write about all viewpoints,” he said.

“There were four people involved, two people are dead, what about the parents? As storytellers, we had a duty to include their perspective based on our research, which we did.”

Murphy also later responded to the brothers' family's criticism of the series: Tell Variety Her comments were “predictable at best.”

Members of said the family The couple were “outwardly victims of this grotesque shock drama,” adding that the show was “full of untruths.”

Murphy said her answer was “interesting because I would like to have details about what they think is shocking or not shocking. It's not like we're making any of this up. It’s all been presented before.”

The family's statement also said: “The character assassination of Erik and Lyle, our nephews and cousins, under the guise of 'storytelling' is disgusting.”

They added: “We love them and remain close to them to this day. We also know what went on in their home and what an unimaginably turbulent life they went through.”

“Some of us were eyewitnesses to many atrocities that should never be witnessed.”