Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story Review: Disgusting and Exploitative

“Well, if we’re going to kill our father, we should probably kill our mother 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 multiple bullets through their parents’ hands, abdomens, and feet before going outside to reload their car. They continued firing at their mother’s face to finish the job, firing 16 shots between their two parents.

They then tried to see a movie at a local theater before dining at a trendy Los Angeles restaurant where they knew they would be seen. The products of entertainment wealth and the sons of an immigrant father, the Menendez brothers initially claimed that the Mafia had murdered their family, before admitting to killing 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 brothers’ possible motives for killing José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez. Before the O.J. Simpson trial consumed households across the United States, the Menendez brothers had become cultural icons for the brutality of their crime and for their claims in court that they were victims of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their father.

The show expands the Netflix anthology franchise from Ryan Murphy and frequent collaborator Ian Brennan, which began with 2022’s deep dive into the mind of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. This sophomore season focuses on wealth, privilege, good looks and the consequences of abuse as seen through the players of a massive real-life drama from the early ‘90s. There’s even a comparison in this latest season where the Menendez brothers are referred to as “Jeffrey Dahmer’s cousins.”

“Dahmer” was strikingly original in its execution with the creep factor turned up to 11, but this second season centered on 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 a chance to grow in “Monsters,” but the season drags on by examining theoretical motives.

But the project finds heart in its all-star cast. Actors Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch play Lyle and Erik Menendez, respectively, while Oscar winner Javier Bardem plays their father, José, and Chloë Sevigny takes on the role of Kitty.

But did the brothers murder their parents for financial gain? Or were their motives justified after they claimed to fear for their lives following years of sexual abuse by their father and Erik was then abused by his brother, Lyle?

Time jumps around quite a bit in “Monsters” as we learn more about the lives of the Menendez family and their complicated relationships. In episode 3, we’re introduced to the other characters who 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 separately for the murder, as she had previously used a similar angle in another murder trial that she won.

Dunne, for his part, 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.

In the fifth episode, Erik’s graphic description of his father’s sexual abuse to his lawyer Leslie Abramson seems like a long one-shot scene that lasts for hours. It provides a grim motive for a murder committed because of the ongoing abuse. Heartbreaking, emotional and downright manipulative, Murphy and Brennan present the murder with risky and salacious angles.

The same premise was parodied as a movie of the week and on “Saturday Night Live” years before it was the subject of a sole season of “Law & Order True Crime,” starring Edie Falco as Abramson. Murphy and Brennan turn the Menendez murder case into a prestige Netflix series, delving further into the brothers’ sexual orientations, Erik’s rumored intimacy, their anger at both parents and the prosperous lives they led on and off the tennis court.

The series does a great job of reflecting on Lyle and Erik’s relationship without underplaying their guilt, even incorporating the 1994 Northridge earthquake into the mix. The crime in question is presented from the start – in graphic detail – and builds to a time when women from across America were writing love letters to the brothers in prison. Their eventual capture, thanks in large part to a therapist’s mistress (Murphy favorite Leslie Grossman) who came forward with information about the murder, is reminiscent of a time when handsomeness wrapped in Beverly Hills privilege could mean getting away with it.

Nicholas Chavez is ferocious and calculating as the older Lyle Menendez, who always drives the car while his brother takes the passenger seat. Cooper Koch’s take on the more sensitive Erik is equally unsettling, to the point where the audience is constantly left wondering whether or not he’s telling the truth. Graynor’s casting, however, is legendary on this series, as she takes a wily, permed Leslie Abramson and lends credence to the idea that abuse is at the heart of everything Erik does.

A theme of “white panic” runs rampant in this season of the “Monster” anthology series, which chronicles the era surrounding the Rodney King trial and suburban whites fearing the unknown. Though the details are revealed and the brothers are ultimately found guilty and spend the rest of their lives in a California prison, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story” gives the audience reason to doubt the guilty verdict.

There is no denying that these two committed the crime, but their motives will always be questioned.

“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story” is now streaming on Netflix.