The Real Monster: Ryan Murphy’s Misrepresentation of the Menendez Case
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Recently, #FreeTheMenendezBrothers and #MenendezBrothers have been swarming many TikTok feeds. This began a few years ago when the case of the brothers, Eric and Lyle Mendez, came back to fame once again. Romanticized video edits of the two gained popularity, fawning over their attractiveness on the stand of their highly televised murder trial from 1993 to 1996. “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and the documentary “The Menendez Brothers” have brought them back to fame. Surrounded by controversy and lies, we see two different perspectives of the brothers' story, finally hearing from the two for the first time in decades.
“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” was released on Netflix on Sep. 19, starring Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez and Nicolas Alexander Chavez as Lyle Menendez. The show brought on extreme controversy due to its false accusations and perspectives. This didn't sit well with the family's brothers, especially with the show garnering 153.8 million hours of views in its first two weeks. The show has been seen “as a ‘blatant lie’ amid its portrayal of sexual abuse trauma and the suggestion they had an incestuous relationship,” according to Forbes Magazine.
The brothers, who have been in prison for decades, have been informed of the show and disagree with how their situation has been perceived. “Erik Menendez criticized the production the day after it was released, labeling the show ‘disheartening slander,’” according to the BBC. “Members of the family said the pair have been ‘victimized, external by this grotesque shock drama,’ adding the show is ‘riddled with mistruths.’” Ryan Murphy, the creator of “Dahmer,” the first season of the same show about the infamous murderer Jeffery Dahmer, has been under slander for his second creation of a murder case that hasn't been brought to justice. With the “Dahmer” series, Murphy did not contact the victims’ families for factual information, let alone their approval to capitalize off of the victims’ stories. He has done the same thing with the second season of “Monster,” providing false information and depictions of the Menendez brothers. They go as far as suggesting that the murders were premeditated, there were drugs and alcohol involved, and that the brothers have an incestual relationship with each other.
While the show gained a large audience, it does not do the brothers justice. Their families have pleaded to have people not watch the television series but instead watch the new Netflix documentary “The Menendez Brothers.”, where the audience gets to hear from the brothers directly. It includes interviews with jury members, prosecutors, journalists, and authors who have written about the brothers at the time of the trial. Their representation is far more accurate because the brothers tell their true accounts of that night in their voices. While they continue to serve time in jail, they recently called in to be interviewed for this documentary. Through these conversations, they shared their raw emotions about their own story. Along with this, members of the Menendez family share their accounts of everything and admit to the abuse that was happening to the two. In the Hulu show, Lyle is a temperamental young adult with constant outbursts. In real life, he is a sweet guy who was abused and taken advantage of. These depictions of how the boys were, caused this feud and disagreements over the show and documentary.
Both Netflix specials offer different sides of the Menedez brothers' case of killing their two parents. With differing representations of the brothers, no one knows what to think of the two. Should the Menendez brothers be released, or should they both live out their lives in prison without the possibility of parole? While this is a question that has no defined answer due to the complications of premeditation to murder and sexual abuse allegations, the only one who knows the answer is in the courtroom.
