Monsters: Your Guide to the Multiple Perspectives in the Series

The series — which stars Javier Bardem as José Menendez, Chloë Sevigny as Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez, and Nicholas Alexander Chavez as Lyle Menendez — is told from multiple perspectives, from those who believe the brothers were victims of heinous abuse to those who think Lyle and Erik callously killed their parents for financial gain. Monsters offers no concrete conclusions regarding the brothers’ driving force. Rather, it shows all points of view as if presenting arguments to a jury — and invites people watching to draw their own conclusions. “The audience is in for a real roller-coaster ride because every episode shifts perspective to a certain degree,” said Murphy. 

Brennan added that showing many angles was “the only way you could do this show responsibly because ultimately the truth of what happened is not knowable by anybody else, other than two people who are sitting in prison right now,” he said. “So the job was then … this Rashomon approach. I kept picturing it like we’re holding up a gem, or a sculpture, and looking at different facets of it.”

In actuality, only four people know what happened that night, and two of them are dead. “We ask you as the audience to make the decision about what really happened because we’re just going off research, theories, and court testimony,” said Murphy.

Below, dive into the perspectives that helped shape this complex story.

Erik Menendez

Bio: The youngest son of Kitty and José and younger brother to Lyle, Erik is a keen tennis player and aspires to become a model and actor. After he and Lyle kill their parents, Erik is racked with guilt and confesses the crime to their therapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel. 

Key scene: In Episode 9, Erik and Lyle argue about the retrial. 

Perspective: By the end of the series, Erik expresses remorse about what they did. “I’m really scared, because I don’t want to die. And I don’t want you to die,” he tells his brother in Episode 9. “And I hate what we did. I wish it never happened. I wish I could take it back, but I can’t. And now I’m stuck here in this hellhole.”   

From the actor: “When you’re playing a part, you have to be on their side,” Koch said recently at a panel in New York. “You have to understand them. You have to find that deep, deep empathy. You have to get [into] everybody’s perspective so that the audience can then form their own. I think that’s the only way to tell the story.”

Lyle Menendez

Bio: Lyle is Kitty and José’s oldest son and Erik’s older brother. He’s suspended for plagiarism during his first semester as a student at Princeton University. 

Key scene: In Episode 8, Lyle and Erik argue after Erik’s testimony goes awry. 

Perspective: After Erik’s testimony is disrupted by a faulty microphone, the brothers argue about whose fault their situation really is, and Lyle continues to justify their actions. “Erik, let’s not forget what they did to us, OK?” he says in Episode 8. “They got exactly what they deserved.”           

From the actor: “Tragedies are tragedies because they have really far-reaching ramifications that affect a lot of people, and I think that this style of storytelling allows for everyone to offer their perspective on how this tragedy affected more than just the nucleus of the Menendez family,” said Chavez. 

Kitty Menendez

Bio: A former college beauty queen, Kitty married José at age 21. After the births of their two sons, Lyle and Erik, Kitty stayed home to look after them but had hopes of resuming a career in journalism.

Key scene: In Episode 6, Kitty describes her kids while in therapy. 

Perspective: Kitty struggles to connect to her two sons. “I hate my kids. May as well come out and say it,” the character reveals to her therapist. “Lyle? Lyle scares me. Erik’s just. Erik’s pathetic. Still, I do care about them in my own way. So much. When they’re fast asleep, I can still feel connected to them. The umbilical cord still holding us together. In the deep of the night, I can remember them as little boys. And then I can feel love for them again. But most days, I hardly recognize them.”   

From the actor: “I found it very challenging because as an actor, you play the truth of your character, and I was playing a different truth every episode — whether it was who the boys were trying to paint Kitty as, or Dominick, or our episode,” Sevigny said at a panel in New York recently. There’s very little really known about Kitty. So it was all what people were projecting onto her and I found that very challenging and confusing.”

“[In regard to] her alcoholism and turning a blind eye to the abuse and stuff, I just thought, ‘This is a trap that so many women find themselves in,’ ” said Sevigny. “And to be able to investigate that and hopefully bring some humanity and depth to that and reflect it back on the audiences — I thought it would be an amazing experience, and it was.”

José Menendez

Bio: José is a music industry executive, husband to Kitty, whom he met in college, and Erik and Lyle’s father.

Key scene: In Episode 6, José complains about his sons to his assistant, Marzi, after he bailed them out of jail.

Perspective: José says he’s frustrated about his sons’ behavior and entitlement. “When you love your wife, when you love  your children, when you’re working from the bottom. I couldn’t speak English and I bussed tables, I cleaned floors, whatever. And you meet the woman you love, and she is going to give you two beautiful children, two sons. And then you feel so grateful to her, to this country. And you want to give them everything you are, everything you have, you own. But then, from them, all I get, all I see is this entitlement. And you fought and you fought. You … You fucking fought for all of it. But they just want it simply handed to them on a silver platter with silver spoons to put in their fucking greedy mouths with no struggle, no effort, no sacrifice. I mean I am ashamed of them. I’m ashamed of myself, of the way I raised them.” 

From the actor: “What we tried to portray with José was this commanding man that really thinks and feels that he’s absolutely right all the time, and that has to be obeyed by others,” said Bardem. “And that’s a very common behavior from different men back in the day. We’re talking about ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and unfortunately, even today. And that brings a toxic masculinity into the education of the kids and in the family, and everything that you can think that has some consequences. And at the same time, he’s not aware of that. He doesn’t see that as a problem because that’s the way he was raised and that includes a lot of heavy behavior, behavioral reactions to his wife, his children, and also the people around him. But I would say that that was a way to hide his fear and his insecurity and his way of saying, I don’t know how to do this.”

Leslie Abramson 

Bio: An attorney accustomed to high-profile clients, Leslie Abramson doesn’t blink when it comes to taking on the Menendez brothers’ trial. As Erik’s defense lawyer, she fiercely defends him throughout the two trials and adamantly believes that he and Lyle were abused by their parents. 

Key scene: In Episode 7, Leslie makes an impassioned opening statement at the trial in which she drives home that the boys killed their parents out of fear for their lives. 

Perspective: “What did these boys, these children do to deserve abuse like that, what did they ever do? Well, I will tell you what Erik and Lyle are guilty of — the only thing they are guilty of is loving the mother and father who tortured them. So when Erik and Lyle endured the horrific ordeal of shooting their parents, it was not out of malice or revenge. It wasn’t about fancy cars or brand-new clothes. It wasn’t about money. They fired those guns in self-defense. They shot the mother and father they loved so that José and Kitty Menendez wouldn’t kill them first.”

From the actor: “She’s an extraordinary lawyer, but she was an extraordinary person, and such a spirit, and fierce and loving,” says Ari Graynor. “I fell deeply in love with her.”

Dominick Dunne 

Bio: Prior to becoming a writer for Vanity Fair, Dominick Dunne’s life was changed forever when his daughter Dominique was violently murdered by her abusive boyfriend, John Sweeney. At trial, Sweeney got off on a manslaughter charge, a decision that crushed Dunne. During his time as a contributor to Vanity Fair, Dunne covered crime. Initially, his coverage of the Lyle and Erik Menendez trial was in favor of the prosecution’s stance, as he didn’t believe the allegations of abuse the boys claimed they suffered at the hands of their parents. However, later in the series, Dunne tells Abramson that the brothers either suffered immeasurable abuse and the parents got what they deserved or she trained them to be incredible actors.

Key scene: In Episode 7, Dunne hosts a dinner party where he shares his opinions on the boys with his guests. 

Perspective: “It’s a Greek tragedy. Brothers tormented and abused for years and fearful for their lives kill their parents in a desperate act of self-defense. It’s also utterly preposterous and riddled with plot holes. If José and Kitty were planning on murdering their sons that Sunday, why did Kitty invite her friend Karen Wiere over to the house to play bridge that very same night? And were Erik and Lyle really scared that their parents were going to murder them during that boat ride when there were three other people on that boat as well? Also, did you know Kitty and José were flying to Princeton the week they were killed to help Lyle furnish the new condo they just bought him? Which suggests they maybe weren’t planning to kill him? Kitty Menendez was filling out Erik’s college registration the night they were murdered. Now, for sake of argument, let’s say Lyle and Erik did murder their parents in self-defense because they were afraid for their lives — wouldn’t they then call the police and tell them the truth? Wouldn’t they confess and come forward with all the terrible family secrets they’d been hiding for years? Wouldn’t they behave as if they had one shred of guilt over what they’d done? But no, that’s not what happened. What did they do instead? They lied right from the very beginning.”

From the actor: “What’s interesting is you find out things that you think, ‘Oh, that can’t be true,’ and it is,” Nathan Lane said at a panel in New York recently. “You can’t believe some of the things that happened. For Dominick Dunne in that one episode, you explain why he’s such a passionate advocate for victims and why he’s looking out for José and Kitty in a way and doesn’t quite buy their story. And you find out why, which all goes back to his daughter who was murdered by an ex-boyfriend, and he went through this horrific trial, and it was just a travesty, and the guy got off with three and a half years. So yeah, I think it was very smart to do it this way and allow the audience to decide which version they believe, and it also makes for just interesting storytelling.”

Prosecutor David Conn

Bio: David Conn was the lead prosecutor in the retrial. He enters proceedings after a hung jury leads to a mistrial, and he takes a much different approach than the first prosecutor Pamela Bozanich did. He demolishes the brothers and all their claims by reminding the jury that Lyle can’t take the stand because confessional and damaging statements he’d made about the killings had recently come out in print. He succeeds in getting a guilty conviction and the brothers sentenced to life in prison. 

Key scene: In Episode 9, Conn’s damning closing arguments helps cinch the brothers’ verdict.

Perspective: “All they had to do was one little murder, and they could have all the money in the world … Ladies and gentlemen, the defendants and their legal team are guilty. Not just of the crime of which they’re accused, but of something even more sinister. They’re guilty of exploiting the trauma of real sexual assault victims everywhere and trying to use it to get away with murder.”

From the actor: “He really doesn’t allow the judge to let any of the abuse stories in, and he really goes after Leslie Abramson, who was the boys’ defense attorney and champion,” Paul Adelstein told Tudum at the show’s premiere. “He was a brilliant lawyer and described as a bulldog — I think that was a really good description of him.”

Watch the Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story Trailer #2