Everything You Need To Know About The Menendez Brothers TV Series Controversy
Image: Image: L - Nick UT/AP Images, R - Netflix.
Last week, Netflix released Ryan Murphy‘s new season of his true crime drama series Monsters – titled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, about the gory 1989 murders that caused the Menendez brothers to be handed life sentences without parole.
Murphy widely received praise for the previous season of the show, about notorious gay serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer – but this season seems to be surrounded by controversy, for a variety of reasons.
The miniseries has been largely denounced and criticised — in particular, regarding the way it portrays the two brothers, their crime, and their relationship with each other.
The 1989 Menendez Brothers murders
In August of 1989, Jose and Kitty Menendez were found in the family room of their Beverly Hills mansion, shot dead, multiple times at close range.
Their children, Lyle and Erik Menendez (who were 21 and 18 at the time), told the police that they arrived home and found their parents dead.
The brothers appeared to be ‘spending extravagantly’ after the death of their parents, buying everything from real estate to expensive Rolex watches.
The breakthrough of the case occurred when police received a tip-off from the mistress of Erik’s psychologist. She told police the Erik had confessed to the murders to his psychologist during therapy, and he had audio tapes of this.
The two brothers were arrested for first-degree murder in 1990. This was followed by long and highly publicised legal battles which spanned over several years. The siblings were first tried separately, with a jury for each brother – but the result in both cases was a mistrial, because both juries were deadlocked.
Their legal teams had argued that the brothers killed their parents in self-defence, because they experienced sexual, emotional, and physical abuse at the hands of both their mother and father and feared for their lives.
At the second trial, where the brothers were tried together, the judge excluded the evidence of abuse from their defence. The jury found them both guilty, and they were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
The brothers have been incarcerated separately in various prisons since 1996, but were reunited in 2018 and housed in the same unit as a part of an education and rehabilitation program.
Menendez Brothers speak out for first time in years over controversial depiction of them
Erik Menendez recently spoke out – for the first time in years – to condemn Murphy‘s miniseries about him and his brother.
In a statement released on social media by his wife Tammi, Erik said the show featured “ruinous character portrayals”, and accused Murphy of purposely having bad intentions with the narrative he used for the series.
“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. I can only believe they were done so on purpose,” Erik‘s statement reads.
“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.”
Erik’s response to the Netflix’s series.#NetflixMonsters #Netflix #RyanMurphy pic.twitter.com/Xz1waxA2u3
— Tammi Menendez (@TammiMenendez1) September 20, 2024
Trial expert addresses show’s portrayal homoerotic incest ‘fantasy’
In the show, several scenes show or imply that the brothers had a sexual, incestuous relationship.
The series has scenes where the brothers kiss, a scene where Lyle cuts in on Erik while he’s dancing with a woman, a scene where Lyle sticks his thumb in his brother’s mouth, and a scene (which is depicted as another character’s fantasy) where their mother walks in on them showering together.
However, there’s no evidence to say these events happened in real life. Lyle Menendez even testified at trial that he had never had any sort of sexual relationship with his brother.
Robert Rand, who covered the trials at the time and wrote a book that exhaustively covers the brothers trials and crime (2018’s The Menéndez Murders) made a statement to The Hollywood Reporter saying the scenes in question are “fantasy”.
“I don’t believe that Erik and Lyle Menéndez were ever lovers. I think that’s a fantasy that was in the mind of Dominick Dunne [a journalist played by Nathan Lane in the show],” Rand said to THR.
“Rumours were going around the trial that maybe there was some sort of weird relationship between Erik and Lyle themselves. But I believe the only physical contact they might have had is what Lyle testified, that when Lyle was 8 years old, he took Erik out in the woods and played with him with a toothbrush — which is what [their father] José had done with him. And so I certainly wouldn’t call that a sexual relationship of any sort. It’s a response to trauma.”
Rosie O’Donnell speaks out on her experiences with Menendez Brothers
The show has also been critiqued by Rosie O’Donnell, who called the show “wildly inaccurate” based on her past experiences with the brothers, which date back to 1996.
On Tiktok she told her followers,
“It was disappointing, is all I can say, knowing what I know about the case and about them and what they’ve done for 34 years since they’ve been in jail, and what kind of prisoners they are.”
@rosie monsters #lyleanderikmenendez #rickilake birthday #anxiety #life @Ricki Lake #halloween ♬ original sound – Rosie ODonnell
Kim Kardashian visits Menendez brothers in prison
Kim Kardashian has also visited the Richard J. Donovan Correctional facility, to speak about prison reform with a large group of inmates, which included Lyle and Erik Menendez.
Kardashian was joined by actor Cooper Koch, who plays Erik Menendez in the Murphy miniseries.
Details of Kardashian and Koch‘s visit with inmates and conversation with the Menendez brother has not yet been publicly released.
The reality star has been Kim has been pursuing a career in law since 2018, and regularly visits prisons to speak to inmates about rehabilitation programs and prison reform.
Viewers response to the show
The viewer response to Ryan Murphy’s Monsters: The Menendez Brothers has been controversial as well.
There has been an overwhelming response to the show’s portrayal of the brothers’ relationship – with some viewers accusing Murphy of confusing a trauma response to sexual abuse with homosexuality.
The Menendez brothers were victims of sexual abuse who finally retaliated against their abusers and this disgusting piece of trash has turned their story into an incestuous fanfic. Hell is not hot enough for Ryan Murphy. https://t.co/fAudGDUiXp
— Chungii🍉🍉 (@Chungiiie) September 19, 2024
Other viewers are sharing their thoughts not just about the show, but their thoughts on the real life case – for example, whether the brothers were lying or not about the murders, whether they are guilty, and even whether they are, in fact, “monsters” at all.
the fact that the trained actors couldn’t even bring the type of emotions the menendez brothers showed just proves they weren’t lying. pic.twitter.com/oLwS5AW06D
— zam (@cuntchael) September 22, 2024
Lyle Menendez spends his days now running a support group for inmates who have suffered sexual abuse, is in charge of the inmate government, and is involved deeply in prison reform. The real Lyle Menendez is a good person. #MonstersNetflix #MenendezBrothers pic.twitter.com/Y8MWRBm5l2
— 𝙶𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚎 (@graveburgers) September 20, 2024
i despise ryan murphy for the way he genuinely destroyed ahs, but now my hatred is even more deep rooted because why is he portraying the menendez brothers in this light? they’re victims, not cold blooded killers? this man deserves jail time for twisting the narrative
— kat (@wiIdsiide) September 19, 2024
Totally agree with Mark Lowe’s response. I tend to think those who say it was all about homosexuality & incest, didn’t taken in the other side of the narrative. Mental, physical & molesting of both the boys by parents who weren’t fit to be parents. It even explored a history of previous generations, within the family, who were also exposed to molesting & abuse. So it suggested there was a complete history from each generation that took this as normal.
The plot became complicated, as characters explored their own perspectives.
At the end of the day, we’ll never truly know what happened, except the outcome. Which I imagine is why they both got life sentences, instead of the Death Penalty. A truly sad story.
Well, i really enjoyed the series and as with anything like this I approach it in two minds
I take what i believe is true and accept what may not be true this allows me to enjoy shows factual or otherwise simply for their quality
As a gay man and and an avid viewer of realistic crime dramas I got the the best of both worlds
The boys are hot, the nude shots particularly of Eric quite erotic
As for the abuse, well it happens whether it happened to them or not I don’t really care and i don’t see it making a difference
Their sentence will most likely never change, they got their wish which is to live
As a crime and court series it was good or i would not have watched it