Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

Synopsis

On August 20, 1989, in Beverly Hills, brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez killed their wealthy parents, José and Kitty Menendez. While the prosecution argued they were seeking to inherit their family fortune, the brothers claimed that their actions stemmed out of fear from a lifetime of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse.

Cast and characters

Main

Javier Bardem as José Menendez:Lyle and Erik's father. Born in Cuba, he was a wealthy and powerful businessman in the entertainment industry, serving as an executive at RCA Records and the CEO of Live Entertainment. He is portrayed as an ambitious and controlling father who imposes high expectations on his sons. Lyle and Erik allege that they killed José in self-defense after years of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. This marks the first series regular role for Bardem, who has primarily worked in major films. He described José as "this commanding man [who] really thinks and feels that he's absolutely right all the time, and that has to be obeyed by others." Speaking to TheWrap, he admitted that he was initially unfamiliar with the case, but after "digging in and informing [himself]", he was alarmed by the extent of the alleged sexual abuse. Bardem also serves as an executive producer.

Chloë Sevigny as Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez:Lyle and Erik's mother who struggled with mental health issues, including depression, alcoholism, and substance abuse. Lyle and Erik claim that Kitty had been complicit in the alleged abuse they suffered from their father. In describing Kitty, Sevigny expressed doubt about whether Kitty intentionally ignored the sexual abuse the brothers claim they endured from their father. She connected with a director whose wife was friends with Kitty, stating, "I'm trying to get in touch with her to hear her personal accounts, which I generally don't like to do, but there's so much negative stuff about Kitty that I feel like it could be really beneficial to hear from someone that did know her."

Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez:The younger Menendez brother, who, along with his older brother Lyle, killed their parents in 1989. An 18-year-old tennis prodigy, he is portrayed as the more sensitive brother grappling with guilt, depression, and emotional trauma. Koch previously auditioned for the role of Erik Menendez in the NBC limited series Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders and the Lifetime television film Menendez: Blood Brothers (both 2017). Prior to the season premiere, Koch had a phone call with Lyle and Erik, and they later met at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility for Kim Kardashian's project on prison reform. On his dedication to the role, Koch explained, "I just really wanted to do as much research and dig really deep into myself to really portray [Erik] with integrity and just be as authentic as possible to support him, and also to support his family and all the people who stand with him." He has publicly advocated for their release and remains in contact with both brothers.

Recurring

Dallas Roberts as Dr. Jerome Oziel, Erik's therapist to whom Erik confesses the murders

Jason Butler Harner as Det. Les Zoeller, a Beverly Hills Police detective assigned to investigate the deaths of José and Kitty

Leslie Grossman as Judalon Smyth, Dr. Oziel's mistress who becomes entangled in Lyle and Erik's case

Marlene Forte as Marta Cano, José's sister

Larry Clarke as Brian Andersen, Kitty's brother

Charlie Hall as Craig Cignarelli, Erik's best friend who, along with Erik, co-wrote a screenplay about a kid who kills his wealthy parents for the inheritance

Guest

Jeff Perry as Peter Hoffman, an executive at Live Entertainment and José's business acquaintance

Jade Pettyjohn as Jamie Pisarcik, Lyle's girlfriend at the time of the murders

Tanner Stine as Perry Berman, Lyle and Erik's friend

Enrique Murciano as Carlos Baralt, José's brother-in-law and the executor of the Menendez family's estate

Anthony Turpel as Donovan Goodreau, Lyle's friend whose driver's license was used to purchase the shotguns

Drew Powell as Det. Tom Linehan, a Beverly Hills Police detective and Det. Zoeller's partner

Michael Gladis as Tim Rutten, Leslie's husband who is a journalist for the Los Angeles Times

Gil Ozeri as Dr. William Vicary, a therapist who examines Erik for the trials

Salvator Xuereb as Robert Shapiro, Erik and Lyle's first criminal defense attorney

Brandon Santana as Tony, an inmate at LA County Jail who becomes sexually involved with Erik

Tessa Auberjonois as Dr. Laurel Oziel, Dr. Oziel's wife

Jess Weixler as Jill Lansing, Lyle's lead defense attorney in the first trial

Milana Vayntrub as Pam Bozanich, a prosecutor in the first trial

Paul Adelstein as David Conn, a prosecutor in the second trial

Production

Development

Monster was initially ordered as a limited series based on the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. On November 7, 2022, Netflix announced that it had been renewed as an anthology series based on famous convicted killers. On May 1, 2023, it was confirmed the second season, titled Monsters, would focus on Lyle and Erik Menendez, brothers convicted of the 1989 murders of their parents in Beverly Hills, California. Creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan revealed that the project was inspired by the popularity of the case on TikTok and Instagram, where content creators have sparked a movement in support of the brothers. Murphy, who had personally followed the trials since moving to Los Angeles in 1989 at the same age as the brothers, noted his initial skepticism toward their abuse allegations but emphasized the series' intent to spark dialogue on male sexual abuse and societal biases at the time. Brennan echoed this, stating that the topic was relevant due to a modern "vernacular" for discussing trauma and mental health that was absent during the trials.

Writing

The season was co-written by Murphy, Brennan, David McMillan, Reilly Smith, and Todd Kubrak.

Through a Rashomon-style narrative structure, the series presents the murders of José and Kitty Menendez and the brothers' allegations of sexual abuse from multiple conflicting perspectives. It alternates between the viewpoints of multiple characters, including the Menendez family, defense attorney Leslie Abramson, and journalist Dominick Dunne, among others. Murphy described the approach as a deliberate choice to avoid a singular "truth," emphasizing ambiguity in the brothers' abuse claims and the parents' behavior. Brennan elaborated on the format's inspiration from Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon, noting its utility in true crime storytelling where evidence is contested. He highlighted how the format challenges viewers to question media portrayals of the Menendez case.

The season's fifth episode, titled "The Hurt Man", was written by Brennan and directed by Michael Uppendahl. According to Murphy, it was not initially planned as a one-shot episode, but during the writing process, he realized that "the most powerful way to do it would be [...] in one shot so that [viewers] could not look away", as his goal was "to give Erik Menendez his day in court, to talk about what had happened to him uninterrupted, with no bias". He stated that the dialogue was based on Erik's documented statements, transcripts, and writings to maintain authenticity. Three days prior to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, Brennan completed the 34-page screenplay of the episode in one sitting for three hours. Koch received the screenplay in June that year, nine months before they filmed the episode in March 2024. He stated, "The script became the backbone of my [preparation for the role] because it was the backstory that I didn't have to write for myself, for the character." Brennan shared the full screenplay to Deadline in June 2025.

Casting

Casting directors Tiffany Little Canfield and Josh Einsohn conducted an extensive search for the roles of Lyle and Erik Menendez through an open casting call and by reaching out to colleges and theater programs. According to Einsohn, it was essential to find actors capable of portraying both the "sympathetic and monstrous sides" of the characters, given the plot's shifting perspective. Canfield and Einsohn reviewed thousands of auditions during the process. In June 2023, Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez were cast as Erik and Lyle, respectively. Koch previously auditioned for the same role in the NBC limited series Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders and the Lifetime television film Menendez: Blood Brothers (both 2017).

In January 2024, Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny joined the cast as José and Kitty Menendez, respectively, with Nathan Lane being cast as journalist Dominick Dunne. All three had previously worked with Murphy: Bardem starred in the 2010 film Eat Pray Love, Sevigny appeared in two seasons of American Horror Story, and Lane portrayed F. Lee Bailey in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016). In February, Ari Graynor joined as Erik's defense attorney, Leslie Abramson. Leslie Grossman, who has worked with Murphy in multiple seasons of American Horror Story, was added that same month as Judalon Smyth.

Principal photography

Production was initially set for September 2023, but was postponed due to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes. Principal photography took place from January to July 2024 in Los Angeles. Jason McCormick, a frequent collaborator of Murphy, served as the cinematographer for six out of nine episodes, while Baz Idoine served as the cinematographer for the remaining three. The episodic directors were Michael Uppendahl, Ian Brennan, Carl Franklin, Paris Barclay, and Max Winkler.

To recreate late-1980s Los Angeles, production designer Matthew Flood Ferguson and set decorator Melissa Licth utilized both location shooting and soundstage builds. The interior of the Menendez family home in Beverly Hills was constructed on a soundstage to allow for historical accuracy. Key architectural details from the actual family room where the crime took place were meticulously recreated, including the vaulted beamed ceilings, the specific distance from the French doors to the furniture, and the oversized built-in bookcase. The exterior was a composite of three separate locations: one for the front of the property, a second for the pool and guest house, and a third for the tennis court. Ferguson noted that finding a period-appropriate tennis court was difficult because the United States Tennis Association had changed court colors from green to blue in the years since the murders, eventually leading the production to locate a private court that still featured the original green surface.

Other iconic Los Angeles settings were also featured; the restaurant Spago and the Directors Guild of America building were shot on location, while the interior of Dominick Dunne's Chateau Marmont suite was reconstructed on a soundstage. To ensure accuracy, Ferguson and supervising art director Helen Harwell surveyed an actual suite at the Chateau Marmont to replicate details such as the casement doors and the wrap-around balcony.

For the fifth episode, "The Hurt Man", which was filmed in a single continuous take, Ferguson designed an interview room set with removable walls to accommodate the camera crane's movement. He incorporated an interior casement window on a hinge to serve as a visual element that could also open to allow for specific camera placements during the unbroken shot.

Uppendahl opted minimal rehearsal for "The Hurt Man" to preserve authenticity, with Koch and Graynor only rehearsing once on set before filming. McCormick began with a static shot and gradually zoomed in on Koch's face, while Graynor's face remained unseen as she slowly disappeared from the shot. A total of eight takes were filmed over two days; the eighth and final take was selected for the final broadcast. Koch described the process as emotionally draining and "super nerve-wracking," citing that his performance in the first two takes felt dry because he was nervous around Murphy.

Editing

According to editor Peggy Tachdjian, the first episode, "Blame It on the Rain", was structured to introduce the Menendez family, depict the murder of José and Kitty Menendez, and portray the aftermath and funeral sequence, while balancing dramatic elements with moments of dark comedy. Tachdjian stated that Murphy sought to depict the severity of the crime early in the season in order to establish it as the central event. As a result, the murder sequence was carefully storyboarded and rehearsed, with production recreating elements of the reported crime scene. Tachdjian's initial edit leaned toward a serious tone, but director Carl Franklin encouraged incorporating elements of dark humor, particularly in the funeral scene featuring the Milli Vanilli song "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You", which was extended in post‑production to emphasize its "awkwardness".

Music

Thomas Newman co-composed the original score alongside his daughter, Julia Newman. The official soundtrack album, titled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (Soundtrack from the Netflix Series), was released by Netflix Music on September 13, 2024, featuring 37 tracks of original music.

The soundtrack also features a selection of licensed songs: "Blame It on the Rain", "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You", and "Girl You Know It's True" by Milli Vanilli, as well as "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House, "Dirty Cash (Money Talks)" by The Adventures of Stevie V, "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice, "The Power" by Snap!, "Little Lies" by Fleetwood Mac, "Santa Baby" by Eartha Kitt, and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee.

Release

The red carpet premiere was held at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles on September 17, 2024. All nine episodes were released on Netflix on September 19, 2024.

Reception

Audience viewership

The season debuted at the number-one spot on Netflix worldwide, garnering 12.3 million views (or 97.5 million hours viewed) within four days of its release. On its second week, it remained the most-watched series on the platform after earning 19.5 million views (or 153.8 million hours viewed). It received 13.1 million views (or 103.6 million hours viewed) on its third week and 8.7 million views (or 68.6 million hours viewed) on its fourth week, demonstrating a modest week-to-week decline and sustained viewer engagement. The season remained in Netflix's global Top 10 chart for seven weeks, matching the record set by Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. According to Netflix's Engagement Report for the second half of 2024 (July–December), Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story ranked as the third most-watched television series and the most-watched limited series on the platform, accumulating 69.7 million views within three months.

On the Nielsen Streaming Chart, it debuted as the top one streaming content (both for films and television series) with 1.72 billion minutes watched, and had a 40% rise on its second week with 2.4 billion minutes watched, the highest since Bridgerton in June 2024.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 45% of 31 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.0/10. The website's consensus reads: "Well-acted but off-puttingly sordid, Monsters leaves viewers feeling guilty without enough pleasure to compensate." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 47 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Critics praised the one-shot episode "The Hurt Man" for its emotional depth and Cooper Koch's performance, but expressed mixed reactions to the season's overall tone and its use of the Rashomon effect, a narrative technique that presents events through conflicting perspectives. In his review for Vanity Fair, Richard Lawson praised the episode as "a formal wonder, bold in its simplicity", and described Koch's performance as "[blazing] with ache and fury, wholly selling a story of how trauma has unmoored one young man from both himself and reality." However, Lawson critiques the season's overall inconsistency, observing that while "The Hurt Man" evokes empathy, subsequent episodes cast doubt on Erik's credibility and portray the brothers more cynically. This tonal shift, according to Lawson, undermines the impact of the episode and makes it disconnected from the rest of the season. Inkoo Kang of The New Yorker also highlighted "The Hurt Man" as "some of Murphy's most moving and startling work in ages", but critiqued that the remaining episodes "attempt to reconcile the horror of abuse with the horror of the brothers' retributive violence".

Aramide Tinubu of Variety praised the first half of the season, highlighting "The Hurt Man" as a standout, and commended the cast's performances. However, she ultimately described the season as "overlong and exhausting", calling its narrative "futile and bizarre". Daniel Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter similarly described the season as "unjustifiably long", but praised "The Hurt Man" for its writing and Koch's performance. He further commended Javier Bardem's performance, calling him "terrifying in a performance that's wildly outsized but offers enough subtlety to position his howling patriarch as both a chilling villain and as a victim himself". The Guardian's Jesse Hassenger also offered a mixed review, noting that "high class acting can't save an overlong and repetitive relitigation", as the season failed to balance its complex subject matter with a compelling narrative. He added that Koch's emotional performance contrasts with that of Nicholas Alexander Chavez, whom Hassenger described as "doing a coked-up impression of Tom Cruise." Similarly, The Hindu's Pallavi Keswani criticized it as "a sensational mess, so occupied with the ornamentation of facts that it loses the plot halfway through".

Controversy

The season received widespread criticism for implying an incestuous relationship between the Menendez brothers. Kevin Dolak of The Hollywood Reporter specified some of the scenes with incest innuendos: "In the second episode, this includes the brothers briefly kissing after Lyle has placed his hands on Erik's neck; later in the same sequence, Lyle is seen cutting in on Erik while he's dancing with a woman at a party in their room at the Hotel Bel-Air, then wiping cocaine from his nose and sticking his thumb in his brother's mouth. Later, in an episode seven sequence that is pretty clearly telegraphed as a moment of fantasy, mother Kitty Menendez ascends a staircase to find her sons showering together."

Nicole Vassell from Glamour described the incestuous portrayal as "a jarring addition to a story that is already tough to stomach". Writing for TheWrap, Kayleigh Donaldson stated that the brothers' "co-dependency stemming from their father's molestations [...] are spun into a forbidden romance of sorts". Viewers have also accused it of sensationalizing the brothers' abuse and turning it into a "fictitious relationship".

Trial expert and journalist Robert Rand, author of the 2018 book The Menendez Murders, labeled the incest allegations as "fantasy" and pointed out that there was no credible evidence to support such claims. He explained that while some rumors circulated during the trial, they were baseless, and the series distorted the brothers' relationship for dramatic effect. Rand claimed that Lyle Menendez testified he had never had a sexual relationship with his brother.

In response, Murphy defended the incestuous depiction as an "obligation for storytellers", stating, "What the show is doing is presenting the points of view and theories from so many people who were involved in the case. Dominick Dunne wrote several articles talking about that theory." Vanity Fair clarified that Dunne never suggested such a theory in his reporting for the publication.

Responses from Lyle and Erik Menendez

On September 20, 2024, Erik Menendez released a statement through his wife's, Tammi Menendez, X account, stating:

I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show. I can only believe they were done so on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent.

It is sad for me to know that Netflix's dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward – back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women. Those awful lies have been disputed and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out. So now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander.

Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth. How demoralizing to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma. Violence is never an answer, never a solution, and is always tragic. As such, I hope it is never forgotten that violence against a child creates a hundred horrendous and silent crime scenes darkly shadowed behind glitter and glamor and rarely exposed until tragedy penetrates everyone involved. To all those who have reached out and supported me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Addressing Erik's response, Murphy stated, "If you watch the show, I would say 60 to 65 percent of our show in the scripts and in the film form center around the abuse and what they claim happened to them. [...] And we do it very carefully and we give them their day in court and they talk openly about it." He added, "There were four people involved in that— two of them are dead, and two of them are alive with their point of view. But what about the parents? We had an obligation as storytellers to also try and put in their perspective based on our research, which we did." In a different interview, he further explained that the season incorporated the Rashomon effect to "[talk] about countless perspectives, and a perspective is not a lie. A perspective is an opinion." Bardem, Sevigny, Chavez, and Lane similarly defended that the series does not endorse a single interpretation of the case.

Responses from other depicted individuals

On September 25, 2024, Lyle and Erik Menendez's family and relatives issued a statement, describing the season as "a phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare". They added, "Our family has been victimized by this grotesque shockadrama. [...] Perhaps, after all, Monsters is all about Ryan Murphy." Murphy described their response as "faux outrage" and predictable, claiming that Monsters is "the best thing that's happened to [the Menendez brothers] in 30 years", referring to the renewed public interest in their case following the season's commercial success.

Erik's lead defense attorney, Leslie Abramson, who has since retired, was approached by a paparazzo in October 2024 and asked about the series. She responded, "That piece of shit I heard about? No. I don't watch any of those," referring to the series and other dramatizations of the case.

Impact

The series is widely credited with reigniting public interest in the Menendez case. Following its premiere, then-Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón stated in October 2024 that his office had received "an influx of calls" regarding Lyle and Erik Menendez. He later announced that his office would review a habeas corpus petition submitted in 2023 by attorneys for the brothers. Later that year, he formally recommended that the brothers be resentenced, stating that although they had committed murder, they had "paid their debt to society". In May 2025, the brothers' sentences were reduced from life without parole to 50 years to life, making them eligible for parole due to their ages at the time of the crime. In August of the same year, they were denied parole and are scheduled to be reconsidered at a later hearing, set at the earliest 18 months thereafter. Legal experts interviewed by Business Insider noted that while the series did not constitute new evidence, it functioned as a "catalyst" that increased public attention and may have accelerated legal review processes.

Online discussion surrounding the series included the emergence of fan communities that focused on the brothers' physical appearance, which prompted questions about the ethical implications of true crime media and its potential to encourage phenomena such as hybristophilia. Writing for Forbes, branding expert Jeetendr Sehdev characterized it as part of a recurring pattern in American media involving fascination with notorious criminal figures. Relatedly, media coverage observed a resurgence of interest in 1980s and early 1990s "old money" and preppy fashion styles inspired by the series' costume design, including half-zip sweaters, knitwear, and tennis-inspired attire. Some of the outfits were also recreated as Halloween costumes. In October 2024, Saturday Night Live produced a cut-for-time Halloween-themed sketch featuring Michael Longfellow and Marcello Hernandez as Lyle and Erik Menendez.

The Menendez family's former residence in Beverly Hills, where the 1989 murders took place, was reported to have experienced an influx of tourists and visitors, including some traveling from outside the United States. Residents in the surrounding area expressed concerns about increased foot traffic, and the Beverly Hills Police Department reportedly received calls regarding trespassing, including incidents where visitors attempted to climb or approach restricted areas of the property in order to recreate photographs of the brothers taken at the residence. A covered barricade and fencing were installed around the property, both to deter trespassing and due to ongoing renovations.

Future

At the season's Los Angeles premiere, Murphy announced that the third season of the anthology series will center on Ed Gein, with Charlie Hunnam starring as the serial killer. On October 4, it was confirmed that the season would be titled The Original Monster, exploring Ed Gein's life as the first "celebrity serial killer" and examining how true crime evolved into a pop culture phenomenon. The title was later reworked to Monster: The Ed Gein Story, and the season was released on October 3, 2025. A fourth season centering on murder suspect Lizzie Borden is currently in production.

Murphy expressed his interest in extending the season with "one or two episodes". He stated, "It's been discussed. [...] Everyone has been interested in that. I think everyone wants to see how this story ends because this story is not over." However, he noted that this would depend on whether Koch and Chavez, who portrayed Erik and Lyle, respectively, agree to reprise their roles. When asked whether he would return, Koch replied, "I don't know, I don't think so. I think we told the story and [...] I think it's good where it is now."