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Ryan Murphy has defended his latest Netflix crime drama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” Here’s a timeline of the controversy.

Ryan Murphy has defended his latest Netflix crime drama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” Here’s a timeline of the controversy.Lyle Menendez in court and Ryan Murphy at the premiere of “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”

Ted Soqui/Sygma/Getty Images/Steve Granitz/Film Magic/Getty Images

  • “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” is about two brothers who killed their parents in the 80s.
  • The series faced backlash because it implied that the brothers had an incestuous relationship.
  • Here’s a timeline of the controversy surrounding the Netflix true-crime drama.

“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” has stirred controversy since it was released on Sept. 19 and reignited interest in the case of two brothers who killed their parents in 1989.

Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted in 1996 of murdering José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. They claimed they turned on their parents because their father sexually abused them.

The series is creator Ryan Murphy’s follow-up to “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” which also sparked controversy over its portrayal of the serial killer’s victims and their family members.

Here’s a timeline of the drama surrounding “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”

September 11, 2024: Tammi Menendez calls “Monsters” a “complete train wreck.”
An image of a woman in a white jacket and trousers, holding a bag of money.Erik Menendez’s wife Tammi Menendez in 1999.

Chris Morton / Online USA, Inc.

A week before “Monsters” arrived on Netflix, Erik Menendez’s wife Tammi Menendez wrote on X that the series “missed the mark.” It was unclear if he saw the show before the release or if he responded to the trailer.

She described it as a “train wreck” and “exaggerated and untrue”.

The Netflix drama Menendez is a complete wreck! The depiction of events is so exaggerated and untrue, it feels more like a dark soap opera than a drama. They really missed the mark of the facts! #MenendezNetflixFail #MenendezBrothers #notevenclose

– Tammi Menendez (@TammiMenendez1) September 11, 2024

September 19, 2024: Viewers complain that the show suggests the Menendez brothers had an incestuous relationship.
Two young men with dark hair standing in a shower, covered in soap.Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez and Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez.

Netflix

On September 19, the day “Monsters” premiered, viewers shared their frustrations with the show, particularly episode seven.

In the series, journalist Dominick Dunne (Nathan Lane) suggests that Kitty Menendez discovered that Lyle Menendez and Erik Menendez had an incestuous relationship by walking into them showering together, and the brothers killed their parents to hide the secret.

Some subscribers called Murphy out on the story because there is no substantial evidence that it is true.

creating fanfiction that involves incest between real-life siblings, especially when they were the victims of the abuse and the incest itself is absolutely vile and insane. I am literally speechless #monstersnetflix https://t.co/Lva3mhgGV0

— ً (@tayhimejoshi) September 19, 2024

i just finished ryan murphy’s series about the menendez brothers and i need that man to STOP writing series based on true eventspic.twitter.com/Z0okd64lK9

— ellie-wan kenobi 🌺 (@fakehappymeal) September 20, 2024

To make a show about two victims of incestuous abuse by a parent and then not only brush off their father’s abuse but fabricate an incestuous relationship between siblings is a bit much even for Ryan Murphy lol https://t.co/Q0tdVJKzTD

— amanda (@jailedamanda) September 19, 2024

September 19, 2024: A Facebook account that appears to be run by the family of Lyle Menendez calls “monsters” “pure evil.”
A man with dark hair in a white shirt and a red tie sits in a courtroom.Lyle Menendez in court.

Kim Kulish/Sygma/Getty Images

On the day of release, a Facebook account that appeared to be run by Lyle Menendez’s family also criticized the incest scenes.

The person who handles the account wrote: “They had a lot of material to draw from, and this is what they chose to do????? It’s laughable. It’s pathetic. And it is re-victimizing. It is imaginary. It is fiction, and to put into the world the absurd idea that the brothers were lovers is the height of pure evil.”

In another post later that day, the account claimed that Lyle Menendez had not seen the series.

“Just so everyone is clear, as the pinned post says, this is not Lyle’s post. Thankfully, Lyle doesn’t have Netflix in prison and can’t watch this abject garbage,” they said.

Business Insider reached out to the account to verify if it is run by a relative of Lyle Menendez.

September 20, 2024: Erik Menendez calls the portrayal of him and his brother “vile and appalling.”
A man with brown hair wearing a blue prison shirt with a white t-shirt underneath.Erik Menendez in Los Angeles in 1994.

Ted Soqui/Sygma/Getty Images

Tammi Menendez shared a statement from her husband, in which he described the show’s portrayal of his brother as a “caricature.”

He also criticized Murphy and the way he “shapes his horrible narrative through lurid portrayals of Lyle’s characters and mine and chilling slander”.

It is unclear whether Erik Menendez watched the show.

Erik’s response to the Netflix series.#NetflixMonsters #Netflix #RyanMurphy pic.twitter.com/Xz1waxA2u3

– Tammi Menendez (@TammiMenendez1) September 20, 2024

September 23, 2024: Ryan Murphy defends “Monsters.”
A man with short gray hair in a dark red suit.Ryan Murphy at the premiere of “Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story.”

Steve Granitz/Film Magic/Getty Images

Commenting on Erik Menendez’s statement, Murphy told Entertainment Tonight on September 23, “I think it’s interesting that he issued a statement without having seen the show. It’s very, very hard – if it’s your life – to see your life on screen.

He added: “If you look at the show, I’d say 60 to 65 percent of the scripts and the shape of the film is centered around the abuse and what they claim happened to them. And we do it very carefully and give them their day. in court and I talk openly about it.

Referring to a 1950s Japanese crime thriller that tells the story of a crime from different perspectives, Murphy added: “It’s kind of a ‘Rashomon’ approach, with four people involved. Two of them are dead. But the parents. We had an obligation as storytellers to try and put their perspective on our research, which we did.”

When asked about the romantic relationship between the brothers on the show, Murphy said, “If you watch the show, what the show does is present the viewpoints and theories of so many people who were involved in the case.”

September 23, 2024: Netflix announces a new documentary called “The Menendez Brothers.”
A composite of images of Lyle and Erik Menendez in blue prison garb taken during their 1994 trial.Lyle and Erik Menendez during their 1994 trial.

Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty Images

On September 23rd, Netflix announced that a new documentary in which the brothers tell their story will arrive on the streamer on October 7th.

In the first trailer for “The Menendez Brothers,” the pair say “not that much has been said” about their lives, the Menendez family and the murders.

September 25, 2024: Cooper Koch says he doesn’t believe the incest theory.
Composite image of two smiling young men with dark hair wearing dark blue suits and red ties.Erik Menendez and Cooper Koch in “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”

48 Hours/YouTube/Netflix

Cooper Koch, who plays Erik Menendez on “Monsters,” told Variety on Sept. 25 that he “absolutely does not” think the brothers had a secret physical relationship. “I don’t think that’s true,” he said.

He added: “And I don’t think the show set out to make or break that truth. I think that was just a theory that one person had that was brought into the show because that person was a character in the show. .

“I stand with Eric and everything he says in his testimony I believe is his truth and I believe it.”

September 26, 2024: The extended Menendez family calls the show “disgusting.”
A black and white image of Lyle and Eric Menendez in 1989Lyle and Eric Menendez in 1989, the year they killed their parents.

Ronald L. Soble / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Tammi Menendez posted a statement from Joan VanderMolen, the brothers’ aunt, and the rest of the Menendez family on September 26.

In it, the family called the Netflix series “repulsive” and accused Murphy of committing a “character assassination” of the siblings.

This is the official response from Joan VanderMolen (Erik’s aunt) and the Menendez family to the Netflix series “Monsters, the Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and to Ryan Murphy.#Menendez #NetflixMonsters #RyanMurphy pic.twitter.com/o7KEOEoYwr

– Tammi Menendez (@TammiMenendez1) September 26, 2024

The family ended the statement by accusing Murphy and Netflix of failing to understand the ramifications of the abuse and said, “Maybe, after all, ‘Monsters’ is all about Ryan Murphy.”

Read the original article on Business Insider

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