“Well, if we’re gonna kill our dad, we should probably just kill our mom too.”
In August 1989, siblings Lyle and Erik Menendez purchased shotguns and drove to the Beverly Hills mansion they shared with their parents. They proceeded to fire several bullets through their parents’ hands, stomach and feet before retreating outside to their car to reload. They continued firing at their mother’s face to finish the job, setting off 16 shots between their two parents.
Afterward, they attempted to see a movie at a local theater before dining at a trendy Los Angeles area restaurant where they knew they’d be seen. The product of entertainment wealth and the sons of an immigrant father, the Menendez brothers initially claimed the mafia put a hit out on their family before admitting to murdering their parents after they were arrested.
The new limited series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story” serializes the events surrounding the Menendez murder and the possible motives the brothers had to kill José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez. Before the O.J. Simpson trial consumed the attention of households around the United States, the Menendez brothers became cultural icons for the brutality of their crime, and for their claim in court that they were subjected to sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their father.
This show expands Ryan Murphy and frequent collaborator Ian Brennan’s Netflix anthology franchise, which originated with 2022’s deep dive into the mind of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. This second season takes aim at wealth, privilege, good looks and the consequences of abuse, as seen through the players of a massive early-1990s real-life drama. There’s even a comparison referenced in this newest season where the Menendez brothers are referred to as “Jeffrey Dahmer’s cousins.”
“Dahmer” was starkly original in its execution with the creep factor turned up to 11, but this second season revolving around the Menendez brothers feels exploitative and speculative. Dahmer’s intentions are well-studied and Evan Peters’ interpretation of the character is transformative. Erik Menendez’s guilt is given an opportunity to grow in “Monsters,” but the season drags by exploring theoretical motives throughout.
But the project finds heart in its stellar cast. Actors Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch embody Lyle and Erik Menendez, respectively, while Oscar winner Javier Bardem plays their father, José, and Chloë Sevigny takes the role of Kitty.
But did the brothers murder their parents for financial gain? Or were their motives justified after they claimed to have been fearing for their lives after years of sexual abuse by their father and Erik subsequently abused by his brother, Lyle?
Time jumps around quite a bit in “Monsters” as we learn more about the Menendez family’s life and complicated relationships. By Episode 3, we are introduced to the other figures that round out this true-crime story: Erik Menendez’s criminal defense attorney, Leslie Abramson (a fantastic Ari Graynor), and Vanity Fair journalist Dominick Dunne (Nathan Lane). Abramson is credited with adding the sexual abuse defense to Erik’s first trial when the brothers were tried for the murder separately, as she previously used a similar angle in a different murder trial that she won.
For his part, Dunne is all too familiar with murder trials and how wrong they can go after his daughter, actress Dominique Dunne, was brutally murdered and her killer was acquitted. Lane plays Dunne with gravitas and fear, as he is often seen regaling friends with details of the Menéndez trial.
By the fifth episode, Erik’s graphic detailing of the sexual abuse at the hands of his father to his attorney Leslie Abramson seems like a long one-shot scene that goes on for hours. It provides a stark motive for a murder committed because of continued abuse. Heartbreaking, emotional and downright manipulative, Murphy and Brennan present the murder with risque and salacious slants.
The same premise has been parodied as a movie of the week and on “Saturday Night Live” years before it was the subject of the only season of “Law & Order True Crime,” which starred Edie Falco as Abramson. Murphy and Brennan turn the Menendez murder trial into a prestige Netflix series, further seeking out information about the brothers’ sexual proclivities, Erik’s rumored closetedness, their rage against both parents and the affluent lives they lived on and off the tennis court.
The series does a tremendous job of reflecting on the relationship between Lyle and Erik while never discounting their guilt, even incorporating the 1994 Northridge earthquake into the mix. The crime in question is shown from the jump — in graphic details — while leading to a time when women from around America would write love letters to the brothers in prison. Their eventual arrest, due in large part to a therapist’s mistress (Murphy favorite Leslie Grossman) coming forward with information about the murder, echoes a time when handsomeness draped in Beverly Hills privilege might mean getting off scot-free.
Nicholas Chavez is ferocious and calculating as the elder Lyle Menendez, always driving the car as his brother chooses the passenger seat. Cooper Koch’s take on the more sensitive Erik is equally disturbed, to the point that the audience is constantly questioning whether he’s telling the truth or not. Graynor’s casting is the stuff of legend in this series, however, as she takes a cunning perm-haired Leslie Abramson and gives credence to the notion that abuse is at the center of everything Erik does.
A theme of “white panic” emerges in this season of the “Monster” anthology series, noting an era that surrounds the Rodney King trial and white suburban folks fearing the unknown. Though the details are laid bare and the brothers are eventually found guilty and will spend the rest of their lives in a California prison, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story” gives its audience reasons to doubt the guilty verdict.
There’s no denying these two committed the crime, but their motives will always be called into question.
“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story” is now streaming on Netflix.