Netflix’s hit show Monsters just released its second season, and it has quickly become the most streamed show on the platform. Season one of Monsters covered the Jeffrey Dahmer murders and saw widespread controversy, though it was initially considered disrespectful towards victims and their families. Now, in season 2, the show has once again come under fire from critics and social media users.
Monsters dramatizes the very real story of brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez, then just 21 and 18 years old, respectively, who murdered their parents Kitty and Jose Menendez on August 20, 1989.
Executive producer and creator Ryan Murphy, who has been in charge of both seasons of the hit show, has brought their story back into mainstream conversation by delving into the alleged sexual abuse both brothers experienced by their parents, and why they killed them.
Ryan Murphy claims he depicted the brothers’ story responsibly, but the brothers disagree
Murphy has defended Monsters by saying, “If you watch the show, I would say 60 to 65 percent of our show, in the scripts and in the film form, center around the abuse and what they claim happened to them.”
“We do it very carefully, and we give them their day in court, and they talk openly about it,” he added. “We present the facts from their point of view.”
The brothers have not seen the show because they are incarcerated, but this did not stop Erik Menendez from putting out a statement about it. He did so through his wife, Tammi Menendez, who took to X to say that Erik did not feel the story was produced in a fair way.
That statement read: “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.”
In Tammi’s message, it was explained that Menendez felt the inaccurate portrayals, “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 so as to do this without bad intent.”
What makes Netflix’s Monsters so controversial?
The controversy surrounding Monsters has largely to do with the show’s depiction of sexual abuse, as many feel that it did not accurately portray this trauma. Rather, they feel the show is misleading in its portrayal of certain events.
The Netflix show depicts the two brothers confessing to killing their parents and admitting they did so due to years of sexual abuse from their father and physical abuse from their mother. However, the show also implied the two brothers had an incestuous relationship.
In episode 2 of Monsters, the brothers Erik and Lyle kissed in episode 2, and their mother caught them showering together in episode 6. In real life, however, the brothers testified before the court that they had never had a sexual relationship.
This is what has made Monsters come under fire. Some social media users commented on this depiction saying:
The show has deepened its controversy thanks to comments made by Ryan Murphy himself. In an interview with E! News, the show’s executive producers said, “Some of the controversy seems to be people thinking for example, that the brothers are having an incestuous relationship. There are people who say that never happened. There were people who said it did happen.”
The brothers themselves deny it, and it would remain to be seen whether or not this controversy deepens. Monsters has already been renewed for a third season by Netflix, and Ryan Murphy has chosen to focus the coming season on serial killer Ed Gein.