A new Netflix original show, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” has been gaining media attention for its unique portrayal of the case. Creator Ryan Murphy has been facing backlash for the false additions into his show as well as how the two men were like in real life.
The show involves a real case. The case of Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers who murdered their parents in 1989. Now, the boys testified in court that they were sexually molested by their father, practically their entire lives. They felt they needed a way out of the abuse. During the time, the stigma about boys being sexually molested was more conservative than the public opinion now.
35 years later, Murphy releases a show that gets the attention of not only everyone on the internet, but the Menendez brothers themselves.
There was a lot wrong with this show. And it is a shame because it could have been such a productive way to spread awareness about the case, but instead failed to do so.
Murphy portrayed Lyle Menendez, played by Nicholas Alexander Chavez, to be an aggressive and impulsive person. Many family members, including Erik, have come out to debunk this.
He and his writers also go on to write an entire storyline of Erik Menendez, played by Cooper Koch, being gay and having a relationship with a boy prior to the murder of his parents, as well as in prison. However, at the time of the trial, Erik Menendez had this to say about whether or not he was gay. “No. No, the prosecutor brought that up because I was sexually molested and he felt in his own thinking that if I was sodomized by my father, that I must have enjoyed it, and therefore I must be gay.”
To have it said by the person one is basing the show about and disregarding it anyway is one reason the show was not reliable. Another reason would be the made up or twisted for entertainment storylines in the story that can discredit them with a simple google search.
There were multiple times where the show was no longer worth continuing. Switching to a documentary seemed more dependable. Having researched the material and having seen documentaries years prior to this show, it was baffling to see the inconsistencies of the case and the brothers displayed in this show.
However, not all bad things have come from this show. TikTok has been going back in time and diving into the trials to get an opinion for themselves. Many believe what the brothers had been saying and have been criticizing the then media for making fun of the brothers.
Koch visited Erik Menendez days after the release of the tv show and Erik Menendez’s statement about the show. “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.”
It is said that new evidence has been found and will be reviewed by a court in the upcoming weeks. Not only that, but a Netflix documentary about the Menendez brothers will be released on Oct. 7, with the brothers telling their story for the first time in almost 35 years.
The last scene of the brothers was emotional and hard to watch. Knowing that would lead to the brothers being placed in different prisons for 22 years until they were reunited in 2018.
Sitting with this for days, and seeing all of the responses from the Menendez brothers, the actors, and most importantly the pathetic Ryan Murphy, it is safe to say that a documentary would have sufficed and it’s not recommended as a reliable and accurate show.
