Monsters: High in Views and Backlash
Story by Sydni Rogers. Photo courtesy of Forbes.
The show Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story, produced by Ryan Murphy, premiered on September 19th of this year on Netflix. The show is about Lyle and Erik’s Menendez story about the murder of their parents. This project was inspired by the popularity of the case on Tiktok and Instagram. This is definitely worth the watch simply because it gives a different view of the case rather than the courtroom tapes and other documentaries and shows.
The show received a lot of backlash for being inaccurate. Producer Murphy told Variety, “I have no interest in talking to them.” After hearing of the show Erik said, “I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent. Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth. How demoralizing to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma.” This was posted on his Facebook page run by his wife Tammi Menendez.
Ryan Murphy also told The Hollywood Reporter, “The Menendez Brothers should be sending me flowers. They haven’t had so much attention in 30 years.” This is highly imprecise because of the TikTok movement back in 2021, and a petition made by Menachem Enayatian on March 9th 2020, which as of today, has 106,231 signatures.
This show gained popularity and attention with the help of TikTok. One month after air, the show still sits in Netflix’s top ten shows at number six. Not only has the show gained even more popularity but so has the cast due to TikTok.
Netflix later came out with a documentary titled The Menendez Brothers. You could say this project is more accurate and legitimate because people that were in the courtroom, such as Lyle and Erik’s cousin and the prosecutor, are speaking in this documentary. There are also videos of Erik and Lyle themselves over tape recording telling the story.
Sydni Rogers is an 8th grade scholar at Friendship Armstrong Middle School.