Biopics and true crime have gained traction after Netflix docuseries like “Baby Reindeer” and “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile,” each retelling tragedies in hopes of broadening public awareness of the victims’ stories. Ryan Murphy joined the trend in 2022 with “Monsters,” focusing the first season on serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

On Sept. 19, Netflix released a second season titled “The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” covering the 1989 parricide in Beverly Hills. The Menendez Brothers are currently serving life sentences in prison after confessing to the murders during the trial, explaining the decision to kill their parents was the result of years of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

Docuseries reviving the intense pain and controversy of crimes often receive backlash from the public, the victim’s families and even the assailants themselves. Common frustrations are a lack of consideration for the emotional state of the victims and the sexualization and romanticization of criminals. In order to appropriately retell a story as sensitive as Dahmer’s or the Menendez brothers’, there needs to be a strong, confident script and cast, given the vulnerability of their traumas and the complexity of their psyches. But with its weak performances and lack of awareness surrounding the real-life traumatic context of the Menendez brothers, Murphy’s second season of “Monsters” woefully under-delivers. It was insincere, inappropriate and inadequate.

Performances in “The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” lacked the emotional diplomacy needed for their roles. Cooper Koch’s portrayal of Erik was inconsistent, switching between submissive and docile to angry and impulsive without a visible arc or transition. Nicholas Alexander Chavez’s performance of Lyle stripped him of his integrity, portraying a manic hothead who swears obsessively and exhibits erratic outbursts. While the boys may have been arrogant, privileged and immature, both of these portrayals fail to understand the nuance of the years of abuse they endured at home.

The dialogue surrounding vulnerable topics like the sexual abuse the boys experienced or the patricide they committed demonstrated Murphy’s lack of consideration for their experiences. Specifically in scenes involving therapy or the boys confronting their parents, the trauma informing the murder is discussed so bluntly with little signs of internal turmoil. When their first therapist asked Erik and Lyle why they killed their mother and if their father was mainly responsible for abusing them, they inaccurately say, “well, if we’re gonna kill our dad, we should probably just kill our mom too.” The bluntness of their responses makes the brothers seem like emotionless psychopaths who murdered their parents in cold blood. In the real case, the brothers’ lawyer emphasized the fact that a crime this intense had to have been prompted by years of emotional struggle. It was not simply a decision that was made overnight. 

The complete misunderstanding and factual inaccuracies of the characters combined with the out-of-place performances distort the brothers’ story. Murphy focuses on an incestuous relationship between the brothers, choreographing them grinding together at a party and holding each other’s thighs when they sit down. Given the intensely vulnerable subject matter of the series, these details are utterly inappropriate.

“It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent,” Erik Menendez said in a statement. He claimed that the series was “rooted in horrible and blatant lies.” 

Murphy then refuted Menendez’s claim in an interview with The Today Show saying it is “the best thing that has happened to the Menendez brothers in 30 years … It’s everywhere. Their case is suddenly a water cooler conversation.”

Crime biopics aren’t inherently destructive, but without a complex understanding of the trauma people like the Menendez brothers underwent to commit such crimes, we cannot monetize their stories. There’s no excusing the crimes the brothers committed, but there’s also no excusing the abuse that they endured.

Contact Bella Simonte at [email protected].