The treatment of criminals has long been something discussed within society. A common question has been if anyone, despite committing heinous crimes, should face the death penalty. However, a very important point usually omitted from these conversations regards what happens after they are allowed to live and the rights they retain. For example, do criminals serving life without parole have a say in the image projected of them by the media onto the rest of society? That is the key question that has finally been brought to light, following the historical case of Lyle and Erik Menendez, otherwise known as the Menendez Brothers.
You may be hearing more about this case and wondering, “Why now? Why are the Menendez brothers trending once again?” The answer to that question is both simple and complex. It is not due to the fact that they are considered for a retrial, as it should be, but because Ryan Murphy is obsessed with the social and financial gains he has made from “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” on Netflix.
Let’s start with the facts of the trial: the Menendez brothers killed their parents due to the ostensible claim that they were emotionally, psychologically and sexually abused growing up. The brothers were arrested eight months later for first-degree murder because Erik confessed to his therapist. They were separately put on trial, and both juries ended in a deadlock, causing a mistrial. They were retried together, and most of the sexual abuse evidence was excluded. This trial ended in a guilty conviction, with the outcome of both sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Now let’s examine Murphy’s version of the story. The second season of “Monsters,” a follow-up to the first season about Jeffrey Dahmer, begins with the confession, and works its way both backwards and forwards, showing the events leading up and following to give the most dramatic retelling. It’s obvious that Murphy is attempting to hook people onto his show, but it is in more ways than just the generic storytelling energy given to the season. Throughout the show, there are multiple instances of blatant disregard and disrespect on Murphy’s part to the fact that the story is something that happened in two actual, living and breathing, people’s lives.
The first is Murphy’s over-sexualization of the brothers, which is mainly due to the overload of images showing the brothers wearing only Speedos. Murphy claims to take this from their history in competitive swimming, but in almost every shot of them in pools, they are just lounging around. One can’t help but wonder about the timeline of the making of this show; it seems like the idea of it came up around the time in 2022 when the internet was going crazy over the “sex appeal” and “attractiveness” of the two brothers, with fans even going so far as to make edits of them from their trial footage. Some parts of the show, specifically the aforementioned Speedo scenes, feel oddly similar to the edits made of them only a few years ago. Some could argue that during the original trial, they had a pretty significant fan base who were also sexualizing them; however, this craze calmed down before the second trial. It seems suspicious that Netflix would renew Murphy’s show around the same time.
The second is the undercurrents of incestuous relations between the brothers, outside of Lyle’s molestation of Erik when they were kids. While these were rumors during the original trial, Murphy adds to them by including scenes of Erik and Lyle kissing and even showering together. This is yet another dramatization and exaggeration of facts within the trial, as it is shot in the film style usually reserved for dramas, not docuseries. What is Murphy’s directorial reasoning for this?
The third has to do with the association now present between the Menendez brothers and Dahmer. Before this show was released, if someone asked you if the Menendez brothers and Dahmer were on the same level of killer, you would say, “Absolutely not.” And let’s not forget the name of the show, because that is another very important factor in this. Now, directly because of Murphy, these two very different situations have a commonality; they are viewed as “Monsters.” Are two boys who were acting in self-defense on the same level as a serial murderer who ate other men to satiate his internalized homophobia? Are two boys who were abused and raped deserving of the title “Monsters”?
The answer would be a profound, “No.” Additionally, these brothers are being called this name while they are still alive. Dahmer faced trial and received the death penalty; the Menendez brothers received life without parole, which is a legal way of saying they weren’t and never will be on the same plane as Dahmer.
There is a word for what Murphy has done by producing and directing this show: defamation. Defamation of the Menendez name affects not only the brothers but also the rest of their family. As human beings, the Menendez brothers and family should be protected from defamation. By making this show and defaming the Menendez name in this way, Murphy has made a statement; because of an act of self-defense, the Menendez brothers are not human beings in his eyes.
As human beings, they deserve better.
