House Full of Monsters
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Netflix (2024).
Sometimes abuse creates murderers.
I have vague memories from my childhood of the Lyle and Erik Menendez murder trial. From what I could recall, I knew they were two brothers who murdered their parents, that there was an accusation of abuse from their father that led to the acts, and that they were found guilty. In my mind as a kid, this outcome seemed like the right thing, like justice had been served for these gruesome murders.
Last year, around October, some friends and I booked a Hollywood murders and deaths tour as our annual Halloween event. One of the stops was the former Menendez mansion. As our tour car sat idling outside the gates, and we gazed at the large home, the driver went over the details of what happened on that bloody night.
Even then, I thought that it was still fitting that these two brothers were behind bars for killing their mom and dad. But now, after watching Ryan Murphy’s miniseries Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, I wonder if these two men, who were only 21 and 18 at the time of their crime, still deserve to be behind bars.
Obviously, a TV show is going to dramatize, and embellish the real-life events that took place. Murphey can sometimes hit off the mark with his true crime mini-series, but I feel like he did an excellent job at telling this story. The audience gets to see life in the Menendez home from both the brothers’ perspectives, as well as what we can only assume is Jose and Kitty’s (the parents) life with their spoiled and reckless children. Some episodes made me feel incredibly sad and disturbed at what Lyle and Erik endured, while some episodes made me think they were out of control rich kids who went over the edge.
Lyle, played by Nicholas Alexander Chavez, the elder of the brothers, did such a good job at fleshing out a character that the audience both loathed and felt heartbroken for. His bursts of anger at his father and mother, even sometimes at his brother, coupled with his unending love and need to protect Erik, made me feel stunned; Chavez’s delivery was incredible.
Younger brother Erik was portrayed by Cooper Koch. Koch gave a performance that I found to be remarkable, more remarkable than (no offense) Chavez’s. He’s less hatable than his onscreen brother, and has a more sensitive soul, but that’s because Erik suffered the most out of the two. Koch’s empathy to what these brothers went through shows in his depiction of this traumatic story.
I want to give applause to Ari Graynor, who I’ve only ever seen in more comedic roles. She played the defense attorney, Leslie Abramson. I was totally impressed that she could pull off this dramatic role. Javier Bardem as Jose Menendez, and Chloe Sevigney as Kitty Menendez rounded out the cast. As with any role they fill, they were fantastic.
As for the real story of this family, I have mixed feelings. Lyle and Erik went through some truly atrocious abuse at the hands of both their father and their mother. The real question is should they remain in jail? That’s a tough one because on the one hand they planned out these murders, and then lied repeatedly about what happened, which means they knew exactly what they were doing, and it wasn’t a spur of the moment decision. Was murder their only option? I don’t know, but I do know that when people get desperate enough, they will make dire decisions that can change the course of many peoples’ lives. Either way, this mini-series gave a grim look into this infamous chain of events.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Netflix (2024). Image by FFP.