Monsters on Netflix: The most controversial aspect of the series is pure fiction, says a forensic expert

Even though it’s number one on Netflix, Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story is controversial. The second season of the anthology series Monster, based on the real-life murders of Jose and Keith Menendez, was quickly criticized upon its release.

The insinuations made in the series about the nature of the relationship between the two brothers are discussed. Indeed, it is implied several times that Lyle and Eric had more of a brotherly bond and that their relationship was sexual in nature.

reaction

The backlash against the series — which comes after the announcement of a new Netflix documentary about Lyle and Eric Menendez, featuring both brothers — came the day after the series debuted.

First, a wave of community comments from Menendez’s defenders quickly grew on TikTok and Instagram and flooded social media.

Subscribers protest the liberties Ryan Murphy and co-creator Ian Brennan’s script took, suggesting the brothers were also lovers. Then, Eric Menendez himself stepped in to condemn the series: “Lies and damaging portrayals of character.“

Fantastic incest?

The series makes several references to possible incest and deals with intergenerational trauma, as well as America’s obsession with wealth, while parodying the more dubious trends of early 1990s Los Angeles.

In the second episode, the brothers share a brief kiss after Lyle (Nicolas Alexander Chavez) wraps her arms around Eric’s (Cooper Koch) neck. Later in the same sequence, Lyle is seen interrupting Eric as he dances with a woman at a party in their room at the Bel-Air Hotel, then wipes cocaine on her nose and thumbs her brother’s mouth.

In the script for episode 6, which is very clearly presented as a fantasy sequence, mom Kitty Menendez (Chloe Sevigny) comes up the stairs to find her sons showering together.

The expert will answer

Lyle testified at trial that she never had sex with her brother. Robert Rand, who wrote a reference work on the crime of the brothers in 2018, The Menendez Brothers: Murders in Beverly HillsFrom the day after the murder, which is the culmination of their close coverage as journalists, they told The Hollywood ReporterThe brothers portrayed traditional athletes who did not use drugs.

Randy explains that the perception of the brothers’ relationship as supposedly incestuous is false, and that this idea of ​​their relationship lived in the minds of those around them.

“I can’t believe Eric and Lyle Menendez were ever in love. I think it was a fantasy that crossed Dominic Dunne’s mind “, explains Robert Rand.

“Rumors swirled around the trial that Eric and Lyle might be having some kind of strange relationship. But I believe the only physical contact they may have had is what Lyle testified to, which is that when Lyle was 8 years old, she took Eric to the woods and played with him with a toothbrush – something their father Jose did with him.

So I wouldn’t really call it a sexual relationship of any kind. It is a response to trauma.“

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is currently available on Netflix