Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual abuse which some readers may find distressing.
Netflix viewers have been drawing comparisons between the two seasons of Monster so far focused on Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez Brothers – and have found one ‘inaccuracy’ they believe the two have in common.
Monsters, starring Cooper Koch, Nicholas Alexander Chavez, Javier Bardem, and Chloë Sevigny, has been the biggest show on Netflix in the last week.
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The second season of the show focuses on Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez, a pair of brothers who famously murdered their parents in 1989.
Both were convicted of murder in 1996 and were sentenced to life in prison.
The show focused on the brothers has received a wide variety of responses from viewers after its release on Netflix last week.
Some have been highly complimentary of the show, with one episode even seeing Cooper Koch receiving calls for awards due to his performance.
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Others, however, have called out Netflix and creator Ryan Murphy for inaccuracies within the show.
Among these dissenting voices is Erik Menendez, who released a statement via his wife Tammi.
He said of the show: “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.”
The first season of the show, which focused on Jeffrey Dahmer and his horrific crimes, received similar levels of both praise and condemnation from those close to the case.
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In particular, the family of Dahmer’s victims slammed Netflix for not reaching out to them.
One Reddit thread discussing Monsters’ second season has made further links between the two shows.
They posted to say: “Why so much weird sex stuff? Ryan Murphy is really outdoing himself with Monsters: 'Menendez Story.' The focus on overly sexual content is distracting from the real-life events, making it feel cringeworthy rather than insightful.
“The story of the Menendez brothers is already shocking without adding unnecessary sensationalism.”
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One comment on the post read: “Ryan Murphy has made a career of sexualizing true crime. At least he used to just sexualize fictional horrors.
“Now he has to eroticize Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers”.
Another comment read: “I don't watch Ryan Murphy's trash anymore. I was done after the Dahmer show he did. Trashy and disrespectful to survivors.”
The show has received criticism for its portrayal of the relationship between Lyle and Erik Menendez, with some accusing Murphy of portraying the two as ‘incestuous’.
This is raising particular criticism due to both Lyle and Erik having accused their father José of sexually abusing them, which they say played a major role in their decision to kill him.
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In his statement, Erik went on to say: “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.
“Those awful lies have been disrupted and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out.”
LADbible has reached out to representatives for Ryan Murphy and Netflix for comment.
Topics: Jeffrey Dahmer, Netflix, TV, TV and Film, Menendez Brothers
Michael Slavin