Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s follow-up to Dahmer is a more sensationalized true crime expose with a slightly pulpy edge.
PLOT: Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story chronicles the case of the real-life brothers convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, José and Kitty Menéndez. While the prosecution argued they were seeking to inherit their family fortune, the brothers claimed – and remain adamant to this day, as they serve life sentences without the possibility of parole – that their actions stemmed out of fear from a lifetime of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse
REVIEW: The ever-expanding anthology series credited to super-producer Ryan Murphy continues to expand. Earlier this week, we shared our review for the newest American Story series, American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez. While that series did not have Murphy directly involved as a writer or director, he does boast direct credits alongside longtime collaborator Ian Brennan on the second entry of Monster; this time focused on the tantalizing crimes of Lyle and Erik Menendez. One of several cases dubbed the Trial of the Century, the story of the Menendez siblings and the heinous murder of their parents has been adapted many times across multiple formats. Murphy and Brennan know the public may be familiar with the sordid details. Still, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story aims to outline the events for a new generation and shed multiple angles on the conflicting theories as to what really happened.
Told over nine episodes, Monsters is very similar to the Dahmer entry in the anthology but completely different simultaneously. Both series look at the inner psyche of people who committed atrocious acts of murder, but Dahmer felt almost nihilistic and brutally dark. Monsters paints Lyle and Erik Menendez in a comical light, giving this season a tone that is almost campy. There are multiple scenes in Monsters that I chuckled at. I immediately felt guilty laughing at a crime that is among the most disgusting in modern history. The bizarre series of events that led to the murders in Monsters are too strange to be true, and yet here we are watching a tale that is somehow weirder than Jeffrey Dahmer eating people. Nevertheless, had the Menendez brothers been fictional, they would have been right at home on American Horror Story. Since they actually exist, Monsters works as a forum to chronicle every seedy and odd aspect of the siblings’ crimes in a way that goes beyond the boundaries of the similarly-themed American Crime Story.
Taking the story from Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) and Erik (Cooper Koch) planning the shotgun deaths of Jose Menendez (Javier Bardem) and Kitty (Chloe Sevigny) to executing their parents through their failed first trial and subsequent second trial that led to life in prison, Monsters posits the claim that the two brothers committed their crimes because their father was sexually abusing them. Rather than claiming the truth of the accusation, Monsters shows us the various holes in the Menendez brother’s claims while allowing both Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny to play Jose and Kitty in various styles. In one claim, Bardem is over-the-top evil as an abusive and overbearing father, while Kitty is useless in a drug and alcohol-induced stupor. In other alibis, there are tweaks and changes to how Jose and Kitty actually were in public versus private situations, each altered by testimony from family and friends that assert and deny Lyle and Erik’s claims. Both Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch play their roles as pathological and sociological, leaving the audience unsure of whether they are telling the truth or not.
Spanning 1989 through 1996, the majority of Monsters is presented in a linear fashion with flashbacks, some true and some lies, that illustrate the calculating nature of Lyle and Erik. While the brothers command the screen the majority of the time with solid supporting performances from Bardem and Sevigny, there are also key roles for Nathan Lane as journalist Dominick Dunne, who chronicled the brothers for a Vanity Fair article, as well as Ari Graynor as defense attorney Leslie Abramson. Dallas Roberts and Leslie Grossman have key roles as Dr. Jerome Oziel and Judalon Smyth, along with several minor ensemble players from prior Murphy productions. The 1990s are encapsulated perfectly through pop culture cues like songs from Milli Vanilli and the parallel occurrence of the O.J. Simpson trial. As a look at a specific period in the late twentieth century, Monsters boasts better production values than it does engaging and consistent writing.
Monsters features eight writing credits from Ian Brennan and two from Ryan Murphy. Brennan has been a professional partner with Murphy, dating to Glee in 2009, followed by Scream Queens, The Politician, Hollywood, Ratched, Halston, and The Watcher. While Brennan scripted nine of the ten episodes of Dahmer (four with Murphy and four with David McMillan), his heavier presence on season two without Murphy seems to indicate the tonal shift this season. Brennan also directed an episode this season alongside returning helmers from Dahmer, including Paris Barclay and Carl Franklin, with new helmers Michael Uppenahl and Max Winkler. The writing and directing team this season are very focused on showcasing the different angles on the true events of how and why Lyle and Erik murdered their parents. Still, it wavers between a steadfast approach to telling the truth and the fabricated and overindulgent excess that comes across as blatantly trying to dramatize an already dramatic story for no reason other than sensationalism. Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan have always been good at using sensationalism to drive a more layered story, but that does not work with the Monsters anthology as it does with American Crime Story.
With exceptional performances from Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny alongside decent lead turns by Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is a mixed bag of true crime and untrue crime, with the blurred line separating them hard to distinguish. Like Dahmer before it, Monsters feels overlong and overindulgent, and it should have been more focused on insights we did not already know. For a generation unfamiliar with the Menendez Murders, this series may be a shockingly new story. Still, for those who witnessed the media circus in the Nineties, it does not bring much new to the table. Like the brutal and graphic recreation of the murders themselves, Monsters succumbs to being too callous with the horrible crimes it is warning us about.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is now streaming on Netflix.
