Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (2024)

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

• One thing that I can say for sure is that this season of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series was much more entertaining than the first season. I’m a huge true crime fan, and I already knew a solid chunk of the history behind the Menendez brothers case, so I was super excited to watch it. I did enjoy most of it, although there are some bits that seemed a little boring, but not often. I absolutely loved episode five, which in my opinion, is possibly one of the best episodes of television I think I’ve ever seen. Just the way it was put together, and the performance from the actors, really make it stand out from every other episode. But as good as the series was enjoyment-wise, I thought the character representation was absolutely atrocious. By the end of the series, it makes the brothers look like, as the series is called, monsters. They’re shown as evil sons who killed their parents for money and did a big acting job in the courtroom (which, to an extent, is true). But they were abused to a level that was extreme and permanently scarring. The series, in a lot of ways, basically sexualizes the brothers and doesn’t always portray them as the victims that they are. The inaccuracies leave gaping holes in the stories, and at times tries to draw you away from sympathizing with the brothers. But they were men who were tormented, abused, and needed help. I’m not saying what they did was right, but they have to spend life in prison without parole. Finally, case aside, the performances from Cooper Koch and Nicholas Chavez were absolutely amazing, and there couldn’t have been a better choice for the brothers. That goes for the parents as well, Javier Bardem brought an evil to the screen that really left me feeling uncomfortable. He tends to do that with his villainous roles. Overall, this series was entertaining and very intriguing, but the brothers’ representation was sometimes jarring and almost despicable. But I still enjoyed it. I’d probably recommend it to most true crime fans.