The Menendez family slams Ryan Murphy and Netflix’s true-crime drama ‘Monsters’: ‘Gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare’

On September 19, the day the series was released, Tammi Menendez also shared a statement on X from Erik Menendez, in which he criticized how the show portrayed Lyle Menendez. It is unclear if the brothers have seen the show.

Erik Menedez wrote: “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.”

Erik Menendez also criticized how the series portrayed the sexual abuse the brothers claim their father, José Menendez, inflicted upon them.

Erik Menendez wrote: “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 disrupted 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.”

Ryan Murphy said it’s ‘hard’ to see your life up on screen

A Facebook page that appeared to be run by a family member of Lyle Menendez, which has been cited widely by news outlets, also slammed the series, sharing their thoughts on each episode before telling followers to stop watching the show.

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

In one post, the user wrote: “They had a plethora 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 out into the world the absurd notion that the brothers were lovers is the height of pure evil.”

The last line refers to multiple scenes in the series where the brothers kiss or are implied to be secret lovers.

In 1995, the Los Angeles Times reported that Erik Menendez testified during a retrial that Lyle Menendez molested him when they were children. But there was no evidence or testimonies during any trial that the pair had a secret relationship. The only theory appears to have come from Dunne’s reports.

Other viewers criticized a kiss between the brothers on the show, writing on X that it was wrong to include a fake incest storyline when the brothers alleged they were victims of abuse.

The first season of “Monsters” was also criticized when it was released in 2022. Multiple family members of Dahmer’s victims said Murphy and Netflix were profiting from their pain, and claimed neither contacted them to ask for their approval to tell their stories.

The Hollywood Reporter reported in October 2022 that Murphy said at a Directors Guild of America event in Los Angeles that they contacted 20 of the victims’ families and friends and received no responses.

A representative for Netflix did not immediately respond to a comment request from Business Insider.