Netflix has announced the second season of the Ryan Murphy-directed Monster series. Following the success of Monster: A Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which premiered in September 2022, the streaming platform signed Murphy on for at least two more seasons. The second instalment will focus on the Menéndez brothers, who were convicted of murdering their own parents in 1996.
Lyle and Erik Menéndez were given a life sentence in 1996 after being found guilty of shooting their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez, at their Beverly Hills home in August 1989. The chilling first-look trailer for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story features the phone call Lyle made when reporting the murders to the police.
It has been reported by Deadline that Netflix also has “exclusive access” to Lyle and Erik Menéndez, who remain alive behind bars today, for a supplementary documentary.
After the brothers reported their parents’ deaths, they were investigated as central suspects when it was found they had been spending lavishly on luxury items. Erik eventually confessed to the killings in a conversation with his psychologist Jerome Oziel, who relayed the information to his mistress, Judalon Smyth.
During the trial, it was discovered that Smyth and Lyle had also been involved in the murders. The Menéndez brothers claimed that the murders were an act of self-defence as they had endured a childhood fraught with physical and emotional abuse from their parents. In 1996, the brothers were sentenced to life without parole.
Last autumn, Monster: A Jeffrey Dahmer Story became Netflix’s second most popular English-language TV series to date, just trailing Stranger Things season four. Despite the series’ success, many viewers and those close to Dahmer’s victims criticised the glorifying nature of the recreation.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story is set to arrive on Netflix in 2024.
