Netflix's Monster series leaves viewers 'speechless': 'Absolutely vile and insane'

Warning: This article includes references to sexual assault.

The second instalment of Netflix's Monster anthology series, which started with the story of Jeffrey Dahmer (Evan Peters), is back. Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story tells the story of the Menendez brothers, who killed their parents on August 20, 1989.

The brothers were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Many people at the time suggested that Erik and Lyle had killed their parents to access their inheritance, despite the siblings testifying that they had suffered years of abuse at their hands.

What’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story about?

Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan tackle the story of the brothers who fatally shot their parents, José and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menéndez, at close range in their Beverly Hills mansion.

While police initially suspected the mob's involvement due to the gruesome nature of the murders. The brothers, who were 21 and 18 at the time, told police they found their parents shot dead at home.

Following their parents' murders, the brothers were seen spending their inheritance extravagantly on Rolex watches, real estate and more.

The police received a tip-off about the brothers' involvement when Judalon Smyth, the mistress of Erik's psychologist, Jerome Oziel, revealed there were audiotapes of Erik confessing to the murders during his therapy sessions.

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Following the brothers' arrest for first-degree murder, there was a highly publicised legal battle involving two juries, two trials, and one mistrial. Lyle and Erik's legal team argued that the brothers killed their parents in self-defence and they both testified that their mother and father abused them. The brothers claimed that they killed their parents out of fear their parents would kill them after they threatened to expose their years of sexual abuse.

Prosecutors, however, claimed that the brothers killed their parents to gain control of their $14.5 million estate. They reportedly spent up to $700,000 of the money before being arrested.

The first trial ended in a mistrial because jurors couldn't agree on whether the brothers should be convicted of manslaughter due to the alleged abuse, or first-degree murder. The second trial found Lyle and Erik guilder of first-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms. The brothers are currently serving their sentences at the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California.

Viewers slam Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

Viewers have slammed the series, which appears to create the storyline that the brothers had an incestuous relationship.

One user wrote on X, "Creating fanfiction involving incest between real-life brothers especially when they have been victims of abuse and incest themselves is absolutely vile and insane I'm literally speechless."

"I do not understand why Ryan Murphy made it seem like Erik and Lyle Menendez had an incestuous kind of relationship... Like c’mon now. Just p***ed me tf off," another agreed.

"Honestly hate how they are literally playing in our faces about this…Making it about the boys seemingly being lovers 💔 takes away so much from their ACTUAL STORY OF ABUSE," a third said.

"Ryan HAS to stop this, he is playing with the victims of these cases," someone else said.

Some defended the show, with one user writing, "Ryan Murphy will always Ryan Murphy with his projects, but it’s important to remember when watching #MonstersNetflix that this is how the Menendez brothers actually were with each other. Their emotional codependent behaviour and weird boundaries stemmed from shared SA trauma."

"Ryan isn’t portraying the brothers as lovers or having an incestuous relationship he’s showing that sexual abuse they experienced skewed their mindset with it came to love & sex," another said.

Lyle opens up about abuse claims

The decision to imply a romantic involvement between the brothers is especially curious given that Lyle admitted on the stand to sexually abusing his brother, claiming he learned to do so from his father. He held back tears as he apologised to Erik.

Lyle claimed that José sexually abused him from the age of six until he was eight years old, while Erik alleges his abuse lasted into adulthood, which is what prompted the brothers to ultimately kill their parents.

Lyle spoke to ABC News in January 2017, revealing he had come to terms with his actions, saying, "I am the kid that did kill his parents, and no river of tears has changed that and no amount of regret has changed it."

He added, "I accept that. You are often defined by a few moments of your life, but that’s not who you are in your life, you know. Your life is your totality of it...You can’t change it. You just, you’re stuck with the decisions you made."

He also spoke about the abuse he and Erik experienced, saying it bonded the brothers through secrets, "It’s so painful and complicated and confusing."

"We have an intimacy related to that shared experience… [and] the bond become very great and intense," he said. "I’m the older brother so I find myself trying to protect Erik quite a bit through childhood, but pretty much trying to survive."

"It was pretty crushing to in the end to realise that I had not been able to protect to or save him from such horrible abuse as I thought. I thought we had sort of survived early childhood pretty well and that turned out not to be true."

Erik declined to speak to ABC, but previously told ABC's Barbara Walters in 1996 that he feels "tremendous remorse" for the murders.

"There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about what happened and wish I could take that moment back," he said.

The brothers' defence attorney, Cliff Gardner, is hopeful that a resurfaced letter Erik wrote to his cousin Andy Cano in December 1988 will help secure their release from prison.

In the letter, which was written eight months before the murders, Erik tells Andy about the abuse he allegedly suffered at the hands of his father.

If you or someone you know is suffering from sexual or domestic abuse, don’t suffer in silence, call 1800RESPECT for assistance.

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