Ryan Murphy defends ‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’ following criticism
Netflix’s most recent true crime drama, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, is the latest instalment in the series created by Ryan Murphy, which comes after the controversial first season about Jeffrey Dahmer.
The topic of whether these traumatic stories should be dramatised for the sake of entertainment became a particularly prominent area of discussion after the first season aired, and now Murphy is coming under fire again. The series portrays the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who killed their parents, José and Kitty, in 1989, with a shotgun.
When the brothers were finally convicted in 1996, the jury accused them of killing their parents so that they could inherit their house, which was worth millions of dollars. However, the Menendez brothers claimed that they were abused by their father, both sexually and physically, when they were children, and they killed the couple out of fear that they would be murdered for exposing this information.
The public have been divided on what to believe for years, and in Murphy’s show, he explores several theories surrounding the events of the night, including the claims that José was abusive. Yet, the Menendez brothers are not happy with the way they’ve been portrayed on screen, criticising Murphy in a statement.
Erik wrote, “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 sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward.”
He continued, “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.”
Murphy has responded in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, saying, “I think it’s interesting that he’s issued a statement without having seen the show. It’s really, really hard — if it’s your life — to see your life up on screen.”
He stated that “60 to 65 percent” of the series focuses on “the abuse and what they claim happened to them. And we do it very carefully and we give them their day in court and they talk openly about it.”
However, Murphy wanted to make sure that all points of view were covered. “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.”