Joseph Stanziani
Staff Writer
Netflix’s new documentary series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” started streaming on the platform Sept 19., as the series garners controversy over the betrayal of the original case.
The Ryan Murphy series covers the real-life murder case of José Menendez (Javier Bardem) and Kitty Menendez (Chloë Sevigny) who were killed by their sons Lyle Menendez (Nickolas Alexander Chavez) and Erik Menedez (Cooper Koch).
The show follows the sons through the killing of their parents up to their eventual conviction. As of Oct. 13, the show sits as the second most-watched Netflix television show in the U.S.
With the high viewership of the series, the show has been under fire for its inappropriate and misleading content regarding the Menendez case. Family members from the Menendez family have come out to the media to criticize Murphy, saying the show is full of misinformation.
In a CNN article published about the documentary, Erik Menendez stated the documentary contained “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,” E. Menendez said.
E. Menendez even took it as far as to blame Murphy for publishing the documentary with malicious intent via a statement on X.
“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 to do this without bad intent,” E. Menendez said.
Further into the article, Menendez adds his disappointment towards Netflix for allowing this documentary to create a dishonest narrative. The article further goes on to state Murphy’s reaction to the controversy regarding his documentary series.
However, this is not Murphy’s first confrontation with controversy regarding a documentary series he has done, as his last series “Dahmer” was under scrutiny because he never spoke to victims and families of those involved in the Jeffrey Dahmer case. So when asked about his response to the backlash he has gotten from the Menendez brothers, their family, and public opinion he had a few things to say.
“It’s really hard, if it’s your life, to see your life up on screen,” Murphy said in an interview with BBC News. “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 centers around the abuse, and what they claim happened to them,” Murphy said.
Murphy also responded to direct criticism from the family of the brothers, as they said the show is “riddled with mistruths.”
“Interesting because I would like specifics about what they think is shocking or not shocking. It’s not like we’re making any of this stuff up. It’s all been presented before,” said Murphy.
The show has opened opinions on whether the documentary portrays the brothers truthfully, as there is an argument about whether this document is more drama than truth. This debate may have impacted it’s Rotten Tomatoes score of 45%.
“I think it was truthful to the public perception,” said freshman Allie Gibbs.
“We don’t know the brothers personally, but I think the show is trying to show how the public perceived them at the time of the case.”
Gibbs, however, believed the show treated the humanity of the brothers poorly.
“They were two rich boys from Beverly Hills who killed their parents. But since the case occurred, we’ve seen so much more humanity from both the brothers,” Gibbs said. “That I think was lacking in the show.”
With reviews split in half about whether the show is good or bad, it is clear that the controversy of whether creating these documentary series is ethical has impacted the show.
