In 1989 Erik and Lyle Menendez entered their Beverly Hills home and murdered their parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez. 35 years later, Netflix released the second season of “Monsters” by Ryan Murphy.

The last season was extremely controversial as it covered Jeffery Dahmers infamous killings in a very poor manner. This season follows the Menendez case.

“Monsters” stars Cooper Koch as Erik and Nicholas Alexander Chavez as Lyle. Viewer discretion is advised as the show includes graphic material including: abuse, violence, and nudity. 

Although the show is interesting, the accuracy is debatable. The Menendez family, including the brothers themselves, have stated their opinions about the show. Erik Menendez says the show is a “blatant lie”. 

While the court scenes are direct copies of the notes and film taken in real life, they are fitted to Murphy’s idea of the case. Murphy repeatedly left out important scenes of the brothers defending themselves.

In the 1990s, the case took the media by storm. The prosecutors argued that the brothers killed for inheritance. However, the defense argued that brutal abuse took place at the hands of their father. Erik Menendez claimed that this abuse took place from ages 6-18. 

In the show, a claim was made that after Lyle had confronted his father about the abuse continuing, the dad had threatened to kill them and planned a nighttime fishing trip where he would follow through with this plan. 

The night of the fishing trip the brothers would buy guns and isolate themselves on the boat. The next day they would kill their parents. This claim was confirmed by Lyle and was how he believed Kitty and Jose were going to kill them. This is one of the very few accuracies. 

In the series a main plot point made against Erik was the writing of the screenplay “Friends”. “Friends” was a play written by Erik and his friend Craig Cignarelli. The script consisted of the main character murdering his parents and three other people.

The show conveniently neglected the fact that Kitty helped write this story alongside Craig and Erik. The screenplay and the night of the crimes have never been proven to be connected.

In fact, a reporter in close contact with Lyle and Erik named Robert Rand says “They [Lyle and Erik] were soft spoken and somewhat conservative. I thought they were nothing like the characters the two actors play in the series.”

This quote made by Rand makes the inconsistencies in the show very clear and derails the statements made by Murphy and his writing crew.

The media has critiques similar to that of the Menendez family. Critics at Vulture say that the series never tells the story from the brothers’ point of view. Furthermore, Vulture says that despite a few clips there is no talk on the abuse. 

Whispers of the show have been filling the halls here at Urbana High. Katie McGee, class of 2026, says “The scene that impacted me the most was in episode 5, when Erik was sitting down with his lawyer and was explaining all the abuse that occurred.” Lots of people have been claiming bias because this is one of the few scenes that shows the mistreatment of the brothers. 

Bias did not just exist in the show, as the main question Erik was asked, outside of court, was regarding his sexuality. In the brothers’ interview with Barbara Walters, Erik is asked if he is “a homosexual” and she says that maybe that’s why he was abused as a child.

In addition, they were repeatedly mocked by SNL. This mocking only pushes other victims of abuse to suffer in silence. Ryan Murphy doesn’t bring up the mocking or humiliation the brothers experienced via the media. If he was writing a series with intent to support Erik and Lyle, it should have been high on his list. 

Throughout this “Monsters” series, Murphy has continuously romanticized complex crimes and has minimized factual evidence. Murphy has no interest in true crime and should cancel this series and any further episodes. The one thing Murphy has done to help this case is getting publicity through dramatizing the facts. 

There is a huge possibility that with new evidence surfacing and support from the media that Erik and Lyle Menendez will get a retrial and have another chance for freedom.