Ryan Murphy, the creator of “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” is defending the new Netflix series after it was harshly criticized by one of the brothers.
Erik Menendez slammed the series, released Sept. 19 on Netflix, as “blatant lies” and called the portrayal of his brother Lyle “ruinous” in a statement from prison released by his wife.
The series tells the story of the 1989 shotgun murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez in their Beverly Hills home and the trials of their sons. Brothers Joseph “Lyle” Menendez, now 56, and Erik Menendez, now 53, were convicted of their parents’ murders in 1996 after two trials, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. They both remain incarcerated in a California prison.
Ryan Murphy on Monday responded to the backlash from Erik Menendez, telling E! News: “I know he hasn’t watched the show, so I find that curious.”
“I know this for a fact. I hope he does watch it. I think if he did watch it, he would be incredibly proud of Cooper Koch, who plays him,” Murphy said. The series is the second season of his “Monsters” series, following his past season on serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
“I think the show is very interesting — what we’re trying to do is show many, many, many, many perspectives,” Murphy explained. “In every episode, you are given a new theory based on people who were either involved or covered the case.”
Murphy said as the show is rooted in a true crime, “we know how it ended.”
“We know two people were brutally shot. Our view and what we wanted to do was present you all the facts and have you do two things: make up your own mind about who’s innocent, who’s guilty, and who’s the monster, and also have a conversation about something that’s never talked about in our culture, which is male sexual abuse, which we do responsibly.”
The brothers in their first trials had said they were sexually abused for years by their father and killed their parents out of fear and trauma. Prosecutors argued they killed their parents to inherit their fortune. However, the abuse allegations were deemed inadmissible in court in their second joint trial.
“If you look at that show, 60 to 65% of the show centers around Erik and Lyle Menendez talking about their abuse, talking about their victimization, talking about what it emotionally put them through,” Murphy said. “Those two boys on our show get their moment in court, and then some.”
Murphy said he’s no stranger to controversy when it comes to his work.
“I’m used to this. I write about provocative things and controversial things, and my motto is ‘never complain and never explain,’” he told E! News.
In his Sept. 19 statement, Erik Menendez said: “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. I can only believe they 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.”
“It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward — back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women,” he continued.
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