Netflix's “Monsters”: Erik Menendez and family members criticize the show

The brothers' case was one of the biggest media sensations of the 1990s and is the subject of numerous films and television shows.

Co-creator Ryan Murphy said during a Q&A about the show in New York that the story was true, Vanity Fair reported last week.

“Everything here is true, by the way,” he said. “We've spent many, many, many years researching this.”

However, since the show began airing last week, several viewers, including the Menendez family, have criticized the creators for what they felt were inaccurate scenes. It was not clear which specific scenes their comments were referring to.

On Friday, Tammi Menendez posted a statement on X from her husband Erik Menendez criticizing the show's portrayal of Lyle Menendez.

“I thought we had moved past the lies and devastating character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle based on horrific and obvious lies that were rampant on the show. I can only believe this was done on purpose,” wrote Erik Menedez. “It is with a heavy heart that I must say that I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be so naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives to do this without malicious intent.”

Erik Menendez also criticized the series' portrayal of sexual abuse, which the brothers say they committed at the hands of their father, José Menendez.

During the trial, there was debate about whether the brothers killed their parents to get their money or in self-defense. The brothers, who are currently appealing their life sentences, said their father physically and sexually abused them and that they shot him to protect themselves.

“It saddens me to know that Netflix's dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime has pushed painful truths back several steps – back to a time when prosecutors built a narrative on the belief system that men were not sexually assaulted and that men experienced rape trauma differently than women,” Erik Menendez wrote in his statement. “These horrific lies have been refuted and exposed over the past two decades by countless brave victims who have overcome their personal shame and courageously spoken out about it.”

“And now Murphy is shaping his horrific narrative through vile and horrific character portrayals of Lyle and me and disheartening slanders.”

Tammi Menendez also expressed her own criticism of the series before and after the premiere on Netflix.

“The Menendez drama on Netflix is ​​a disaster! The portrayal of events is so exaggerated and untrue that it feels more like a dark soap opera than a drama. They really missed the facts!” she wrote before the show's release.

After the show's release, she added in a separate post: “I'm sorry I was right. The Netflix show was an insane distortion of the truth and a complete and tragic misrepresentation of Erik and Lyle!”

A Facebook page apparently run by a family member of Lyle Menendez, which was quoted in many news outlets, also sharply criticized the series, giving its own opinion on each episode before telling followers to stop watching the show.

Business Insider contacted the account to verify that it was operated by a relative of Lyle Menendez.

In one post, the user wrote: “They had a wealth of material to draw from and this is what they did????? It's ridiculous. It's pathetic. And it re-victimizes the victims. It's imaginary. It's fiction. And putting forward the absurd notion that the brothers were lovers is the height of pure evil.”

The last line refers to several scenes in the series in which the brothers kiss or in which it is suggested that they are secret lovers.

In 1995, the Los Angeles Times reported that Erik Menendez testified at a retrial that Lyle Menendez had molested him as a child. However, no evidence or testimony was presented at any trial to suggest that the couple had a secret relationship.

Other viewers criticized a kiss between the brothers in the show and wrote on X that it was wrong to include a fabricated incest story, even though the brothers claimed they had been victims of abuse.

The first season of Monsters also faced criticism when it was released in 2022. Several family members of Dahmer's victims said Murphy and Netflix were profiting from their pain, claiming neither had contacted them to ask for their permission to tell their stories.

The Hollywood Reporter reported in October 2022 that Murphy told a Directors Guild of America event in Los Angeles that they had contacted 20 families and friends of the victims and received no response.

A representative for Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.