Netflix’s new documentary “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” exaggerates the murder of the Menendez parents for a more entertaining watch. The documentary portrays the brothers as cold-hearted killers who show little remorse for their actions. Erik and Lyle have expressed their dissatisfaction with the series and claim it is not only damaging to their case but also to their reputation.
Many television shows have been known to take true stories and twist them to create a more entertaining narrative. In this case, the Menendez documentary portrayed Erik as a homosexual man, when in reality he is a heterosexual, married man. In addition, the documentary manufactured a sexual relationship between Erik and Lyle, but both of the brothers testified in court that they never had sexual relations with one another.
In addition to creating false narratives about the brothers, the show undermined their abuse due to their sex. “‘It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime has 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,’” said Erik Menendez.
Male sexual assault victims are often dismissed by the US justice system. Men are less likely to report abuse due to societal stigmas or pride; however, when men report sexual assault, they are questioned or invalidated because of their gender. Erik and Lyle experienced this when the jury failed to believe that their father sexually assaulted them and denied that the abuse gave the men enough cause to commit murder.
When the trial took place, the brothers’ lawyer, Leslie Abramson, made a point to acknowledge that regardless of her client’s gender, they are sexual assault victims. “‘If my client’s name were Erika instead of Erik, would you have an easier time believing his story?’” said Abramson during the 1993 trial.
The director of Monsters, Ryan Murphy, is facing extreme backlash for his shortcomings in the film. His misinterpretation of the case and the glamorization of the Menendez brothers rubbed many viewers the wrong way. Some watched the documentary and formed strange obsessions with the brothers and others without prior knowledge were misinformed.
Those who lacked background knowledge of the case formed beliefs based on Murphy’s perspective. “It made me understand how their upbringing influenced how they thought about their parents and why it drove them to violent acts,” said senior Hailey Asselin
Many teenagers have made sexual edits of the actors who play Erik and Lyle. These edits have gone viral on short-form video platforms but oversexualized the brothers and distracted from the seriousness of the case.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time murderers have been romanticized. When the Dahmer docu-series was released on Netflix in 2022, many TikToks raved about the actor who played Dahmer. Although viewers technically glamorize the actor’s appearance, their actions can be taken as glorifying the criminal.
“When I’m on TikTok all I see is edits and stuff about the actors who play the brothers in the show and scenes of them from the show which I feel is the complete wrong point of what the show is trying to explain. They’re trying to portray a story and show how terrible the lives of these people were, but instead people are focused on how attractive the actors are,” said senior Abby Rogers.
Murphy’s documentary has sparked significant controversy for its sensationalized and inaccurate portrayal of the Menendez brothers. By distorting key information from their case and perpetuating harmful stereotypes about male sexual assault victims, the documentary misinformed the public. The public backlash highlights the importance of ethical storytelling in the media, particularly when portraying someone else’s story.
