The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story: What's Wrong With the New Ryan Murphy Show?
You thought Season 1 was controversial? You haven't seen the second one.
There's no one more prolific in television than Ryan Murphy. In September alone, the Glee and American Horror Story creator released four projects. One of them is the second season of Monsters.
The first season, about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, was criticized for its lack of respect for the victims; the second also caused a stir – in part because of controversial writing choices. Murphy is not the sole author of all the projects he touches, but his shadow persistently accompanies each new brainchild.
What Is The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story About?
The main characters of the season were Lyle and Erik Menendez. In October 1989, the brothers killed their own parents, Jose and Kitty. The Menendezes claimed they committed the crime because of years of violence from their father.
Prosecutors believed the truth was hidden in Jose's will, which divided his multimillion-dollar fortune among his sons. In 1996, the court sentenced the Menendezes to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The Menendezes were raised as spoiled boys and had no need for media attention even before the murder. Lyle was eccentric, often angry, led a wild life and loved the band Milli Vanilli. Erik's mental organization was much more subtle, he was more trusting.
The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story Is an Extremely Superficial Work
If Jeffrey Dahmer came from the bottom, the Menendezes are the embodiment of luxury, the essence of the golden youth of Los Angeles. At best, the second season could have been a brutal fable or a nuanced psychological portrait of two killers. But right after the pilot, Murphy and co-writer Ian Brennan begin to play on the public's obsession with high-profile murders.
The whole idea of the series is literally reduced to the level of obscene headlines of the press. The subject of the study of Monsters is not the material of the Menedez case and not even the notorious truth, which, as we know, everyone has his own.
Creators Fail to Portray the Feelings of Abuse Victims
For nine hours, the authors do not spare dramatization and speculation, they build unethical hypotheses of wild proportions around the facts, the most important of which is the hyperbolic objectification of the brothers and the romanticization of their relationship.
Murphy, who has made a name for himself with his voyeurism, is extremely unprepared to explore the lives of victims of long-term abuse. The tone of the narrative is striking: from the very first episodes, the Menendezes are deprived of subjectivity, a connection between them is implied, and attention is focused exclusively on external signs.
The second half of the season seriously slows down, focusing on the court hearings and the reporting of Dominick Dunne, a Vanity Fair journalist who becomes obsessed with the case in the midst of personal loss.
The Best Thing in the Whole Season Is Episode 5
The emotional equator comes with the fifth episode The Hurt Man. The episode was probably shot in one take, with a slow zoom. Over the course of 36 minutes, Erik Menendez recounts numerous incidents of abuse that began when he was six years old.
The series' lead actor, Cooper Koch, bravely lives through a huge layer of accumulated pain. It is possible that The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story was made just for this episode, as the others are at best peripheral, at worst offensive to victims of sexualized violence.
The show is not about justifying or condemning the Menendezes. Murphy and the team simply have nothing to say, so they resort to awkward directness, couched in glamor for the sake of ratings.