Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story has proven to be another big success for Netflix. However, just like the Jeffrey Dahmer season before it, the series is generating some controversy, including from one its subjects. Erik Menendez took to social media (through his wife Tammi) to slam Monsters co-creator Ryan Murphy for including “ruinous character portrayals” of both him and his brother.
While speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Murphy defended the show as he addressed Erik Menendez’s criticisms. “I think it’s interesting that he’s issued a statement without having seen the show,” Murphy said. “It’s really, really hard — if it’s your life — to see your life up on screen. The thing that I find interesting, that he doesn’t mention in his quote, is if you watch the show, I would say 60-65 percent of our show, in the scripts and in the film form, center around 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.“
Murphy continued, “In this age where people can really talk about sexual abuse, talking about it and writing about it and writing about all points of view can be controversial. It’s a ‘Rashomon’ kind of approach [in Monsters], where there were four people involved in that — two of them are dead. 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.“
The show also includes suggestions that Erik and Lyle had a homoerotic and incestuous connection, which Murphy defended. “If you watch the show, what the show is doing is presenting the points of view and theories from so many people who were involved in the case,” Murphy said. “[Vanity Fair journalist] Dominick Dunne wrote several articles talking about that theory. We are presenting his point of view, just as we present [criminal defense attorney] Leslie Abramson’s point of view… and we had an obligation to show all of that and we did.“
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is currently streaming on Netflix and you can check out a review from our own Alex Maidy right here.