Summer Streamin' 24 - Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is the second season of Ryan Murphy's biographical crime drama anthology television series Monster.

Alongside Murphy, Ian Brennan delivers this series for Netflix. 

The second outing centres around the 1989 murders of José (Javier Bardem) and Kitty Menendez (Chloë Sevigny), who were killed by their sons, Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) and Erik (Cooper Koch). 

So how does Murphy follow up the incredible Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story?

Which was originally meant for a limited series. However following the huge success of the first run, Netflix announced in 2022 that it had been renewed as an anthology series, with two further editions to come. 

I missed this when it streamed back in September, so in the summertime heat, its time to catch up following my previous run of Murphy series earlier this quarter. 

Since its release, Erik Menendez denounced the season for its inaccuracies and Lyle's characterisation. However, it has achieved global commercial success, debuting as the number-one series on Netflix worldwide. 

Then, at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, it earned three nominations: Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film, Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film for Koch, and Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for Bardem.

A third season (The Original Monster) is in the works. Not bad for originally being a miniseries. Charlie Hunnam will be the lead as murderer and graverobber Ed Gein.

So Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is not anything new to popular culture. In 2017 (on NBC - so less explicit, yes there is loads of swearing and a penis in the Netflix version) I watched the Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, eight episodes miniseries.

Across the nine episodes (up one episode from the above NBC series) while the prosecution argued they were seeking to inherit their family fortune, the brothers claimed—and remain adamant to this day, as they serve life sentences without the possibility of parole—that their actions stemmed out of fear from a lifetime of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.

So we all know how it ends, but beware there are spoilers below the trailer.

In 1995, O. J. Simpson is declared not guilty, causing public outcry and adding to the tensions that have risen among Erik, Lyle, and Leslie, with the brothers now blaming each other. 

The new trial has Mr. Conn as the prosecutor, who despite Leslie's constant objections successfully makes a case of the brothers being guilty based on numerous witnesses of their manipulative tactics, spoilt behavior, and disrespect—rather than vulnerability—toward José and Kitty. 

He also surmises that the evidence for sexual abuse is very scarce, as well as the illogicality of confessing everything to Dr. Oziel except the abuse. 

He believes the brothers lied about being abused, with the real motive having been money, based on their greed, materialism, and having spent $700,000 in the weeks after the murders. Finally, he condemns Leslie's history of emotionally manipulating juries for money. 

The jury finds Lyle and Erik guilty of first-degree murder, sentencing them to life imprisonment without parole in separate prisons. 

In a flashback to the day the family goes sailing, José encourages Kitty to return to journalism while Lyle and Erik discuss their plan.

Look it would be hard to be as terrifying as Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. That was intense AF. This was too intense when it comes to the descriptions of sexual abuse, but as I'd already watched a series about this case before, I felt like there was no new ground covered here. That was just me.

Either way, it's worth a watch. Who knows whether this will help Lyle and Erik Menendez, but all I know is if the abuse was true, the parents were also monsters.