Lyle and Erik Menendez Story Controversy Explained

Top line

“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” the new Netflix series from Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan based on the 1989 murders of José and Kitty Menendez by their sons, has been controversial with viewers and critics for scenes that viewers say suggest the brothers had an incestuous relationship.

Ryan Murphy and the cast of Netflix’s “Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story.” (Photo by Steve … (+) Granitz/FilmMagic)

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Key facts

“Monsters,” the sequel to Jeffrey Dahmer’s Emmy-winning series (also titled “Monster”), was met with mixed reviews and critical reaction on social media after all nine episodes premiered on Thursday.

Some social media users have criticized the show for scenes suggesting that Lyle and Erik Menendez — who in real life are serving life sentences for murdering their parents who allegedly sexually abused them — were incestuous, though there is little evidence that this was the case in real life.

In the second episode of the series, the brothers kiss on the lips in a scene where they discuss their future plans, and later in the same episode, the two dance close to each other while caressing each other’s faces at a party, much to the confused and disgusted looks of the other partygoers.

Later in the series, journalist Dominick Dunne suggests that the brothers killed their parents to cover up the fact that they were lovers, though the real Dunne reportedly never supported this theory in his account of the trial.

One post on X, formerly known as Twitter, liked over 100,000 times, slammed the show for depicting the brothers as an “incest fantasy,” while another, liked over 80,000 times, stated that “creating fan fiction about incest in the context of real brothers is INSANE.”

During his 1995 retrial, Lyle testified that he had molested Erik when they were children – though the show depicted their interactions as adults and apparently as consensual acts.

Major critics

The series has received mixed reviews from critics, with many criticizing what they call an uneven tone that they say vacillates between kitsch and the seriousness of a real-life murder case. Variety called the tone “unwieldy” in a largely negative review, stating that it “waves between sinister and light kitsch” and contains “over-the-top homoeroticism” (both brothers said during the trial that they were not gay). In a three-star review, The Independent called the series “the best and worst of Ryan Murphy’s work”, known for hit television series such as American Crime Story and American Horror Story, and stated that whether his efforts are “inquiring or just utterly exploitative can be quite hit and miss”, opining that Monsters lands somewhere in the middle. The Hollywood Reporter said the series comes close to “devaluing two brutal deaths or a decade of molestation, all in the name of rehashing a story that has been rehashed abundantly over the years.”

Key general information

Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted in 1996 of shooting and killing their parents in 1989, when they were 21 and 18, respectively. The brothers faced two trials — the first in 1993, when they were tried separately, which ended in two hung juries, and the second, which began in 1995, when they were tried together and convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The brothers argued that the killings were self-defense, saying they had endured years of sexual and physical abuse from their father. Prosecutors argued that the brothers killed their parents to inherit their fortune, citing large purchases they made after the slayings, such as a Rolex and a Porsche Carrera. The initial trial, which was televised, attracted significant media attention, and the trial also went viral on TikTok in 2021, with many Generation Z users advocating for their release, The New York Times reported.

Where are the Menendez brothers now?

Both brothers are incarcerated at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, where they are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole. Lawyers representing the brothers filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court last year seeking a new hearing, citing recently discovered evidence — a letter that lawyers say was written by Erik eight months before the murders, in which he discusses alleged sexual abuse by his father.

Tangent

Murphy’s previous series, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, also drew controversy, with families of Dahmer’s victims criticizing it for reopening old wounds. “This isn’t just history or historical fact, this is real people’s lives,” Eric Perry, a relative of Dahmer victim Errol Lindsey, told the Los Angeles Times. “I don’t have to watch it, I lived it,” Lindsey’s sister Rita Isbell wrote in an Insider op-ed, criticizing Netflix for failing to ask the families of Dahmer’s victims “if it bothers us or how we feel about doing this.” The series has received mixed reviews, with a 57% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite the controversy, the series received 13 nominations at the rescheduled 75th Emmy Awards in January 2024, winning one for Niecy Nash’s supporting role.