30-years after the infamous trial of brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez for the murder of their parents, the latest instalment of Netflix’s “Monsters” series is facing backlash from its audience – and the brothers themselves.
Who are the Menendez brothers?
The high-profile trials of Erik and Lyle Menendez began in 1989 when the brothers shot and killed their parents José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez in their Beverly Hills home.
Prosecutors argued the brothers were motivated by greed, murdering their parents to inherit their $14 million fortune.
However, Erik and Lyle instead say they killed their parents in self-defence after enduring years of psychological, physical, and sexual abuse committed by their father and enabled by their mother.
In 1996, the brothers were each convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, with the presiding Judge Stanley Weisberg ruling the brothers’ defence failed to provide substantial proof of their abuse.
The Netflix Series
Monster: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is the second instalment of the Netflix true-crime anthology series following last year’s similarly controversial Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
The series was denounced by several families of Dahmer’s victims and copped backlash from audiences for exploiting real-life tragedies for the sake of entertainment
Despite immediately shooting into the top 10 most-watched list on Netflix, The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story has proven equally controversial.
What’s so controversial about it?
Viewers and critics have criticised the series for taking serious liberties in the reconstruction of the facts surrounding the murder case as well as re-victimising the Menendez brothers.
Netflix has also received backlash from audiences for sexualising the relationship between Erik and Lyle, implying that the brothers shared an incestuous relationship with one another.
The show contains scenes which depict the brothers kissing, dancing together at a club, and showering together.
Based on theories posed by Vanity Fair reporter Dominick Dunne that the Menendez brothers murdered their parents after they discovered an affair between them, journalist Robert Rand, who wrote the 2018 book on the Menendez murder case, dismissed these accusations as pure “fantasy”.
Erik Menendez has spoken out against the “horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show,” and denounced the series for supporting “lies and ruinous character portrayals,” of him and his brother, Lyle.
In a statement published on X by his wife Tammi Menendez, Erik Menendez also accused the series of reinforcing harmful myths that suggest men cannot be victims of rape and sexual assault.
“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 naïve and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent,”
“How demoralizing to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shining light on childhood trauma,” Erik says in his statement.
“Is the truth not enough?”
Article by Ashleigh Wyss , is a Master of Journalism student at the University of Melbourne.
Want to know more? Check out these podcasts:
Cult Liter | 95: The Menendez Brothers
Killer Psyche| The Menendez Brothers
The Generation Why Podcast | The Menendez Brothers – 307
