I am a big fan of Ryan Murphy, and the amount of stuff that he is able to pump out is just insane. He truly is one of the great minds of modern TV. Ryan Murphy’s Monsters series on Netflix started with Dahmer, and recently we got the Ed Gein story, but sandwiched between these was Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
Where to Watch Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story was released on September 19, 2024. You can stream the series from Netflix.
The Movie Review
I thought the other two seasons were fantastic, but this one here did not land in the same way. I was quite familiar with the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, as it has been covered via movies, documentaries, and so on over the years. For me, this would have been a better show if it were about half as long.
A Story That Might Have Been Told More Efficiently
To be fair, as much as I love Ryan Murphy, some of his other shows and even some seasons of American Horror Story, which If or the most part love, tend to run just a tad too long for the story that he is trying to tell. That is 100 percent the case here, as I did find myself getting bored by the time we got to the ninth episode.
Who Were Lyle and Erik Menendez?
In case you do not know the story of the Menendez brothers, let me give you the basic version. Lyle and his younger brother Erik were 21 and 18 at the time the “main event” of the story happened. The main event was the brothers killing their parents so that they could inherit their father, Jose’s, vast fortune.
Abuse, Trauma, and Controversy at the Heart of the Story
Now, on the surface, you think that they just want his money. However, Jose was a very complicated man, and there were stories of horrible abuse that the brothers suffered. Not only this, their mother turned a blind eye to it all, and apparently, she knew exactly what was going on. Honestly, it is just a horrible and brutal, abusive, and dysfunctional family. Of course, we have no idea how true to life the story is, and the homoerotic stuff that happens here between the brothers has been disputed by some people.
Standout Performances from a Stellar Cast
The performances are great. Javier Bardem playing the role of Jose, Chloe Sevigny as his wife, Kitty and then Nicholas Alexander Chavez as Lyle and Cooper Koch as Erik are the main members of the cast. We also have doctors, lawyers, and other important players. However, the core Menendez family is what the story here is about. I have to say that Erik comes across as a freaking moron, and I do wonder if they could have gotten away with this if it were not for him.
Final Thoughts on the Series
I certainly would not say that Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is bad, but it just goes on way, way too long. By the end, I felt like we were just retreading the same things over and over again, just said slightly differently. As I said in the beginning, you could have cut this down, let’s say, five episodes, and I think that it would have been all the better for it. Still, if you like true crime stories, this is well worth a watch, but the other two seasons are much better and far more brutal too!
