- The family of Lyle and Erik Menéndez have criticized Ryan Murphy for his depiction of the brothers in the new Monsters series
- The brothers are currently serving life in prison for murdering their mother and father in 1989
- Actor Cooper Koch – who plays Erik in the show – visited him in jail, alongside Kim Kardashian
It’s currently the number one show on Netflix.
But the second season of Ryan Murphy’s show Monsters has come under fire – from the family of the subjects.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is a biographical crime series, which focuses on the 1989 murders of José and Kitty Menéndez (played by Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny), who were killed by their sons Lyle and Erik.
The men, who were 21 and 18 at the time of the crime, were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
While Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch have been praised for their performances as the siblings, the show has been heavily criticized for the depiction of the Menéndez brothers.
Now, the family has spoken out about the show.
A statement from their aunt, Joan VanderMolen read, “We are virtually the entire extended family of Erik and Lyle Menéndez. We are 24 strong and today we want the world to know we support Erik and Lyle.
“Ryan Murphy’s ‘Monsters, the Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story’ is a phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare that is not only riddled with mistruths and outright falsehoods but ignores the most recent exculpatory revelations. Our family has been victimized by this grotesque shockadrama.”
It continued, “The character assassination of Erik and Lyle, who are our nephews and cousins, under the guise of a ‘story telling narrative’ is repulsive. We know these men. We grew up with them since they were boys. We love them and to this very day we are close to them.
“It is sad that Ryan Murphy, Netflix, and all others involved in this series, do not have an understanding of the impact of years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Perhaps, after all, Monsters is all about Ryan Murphy.”
‘I believed we had moved beyond the lies’
This isn’t the first statement from the Menéndez family – as the first came from Erik himself on September 19.
“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,” he said. “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.”
He added that the show was a “dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime.”
Meanwhile, Koch visited the brothers in prison this week.
The actor reportedly attended the meeting with Kim Kardashian, her sister Khloé, and her mother Kris.
The brothers were among inmates listening to Kardashian speak about prison reform at San Diego County’s Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility, according to US entertainment outlet TMZ.
