In August 1989, news broke out about the brutal killings of Kitty and José Menendez in their Beverly Hills mansion, shocking the neighbourhood to its core.
Their sons, Lyle and Erik Menendez were on trial for around three years. Their trial ended in March of 1996, and they faced a sentence of life in prison without parole, charged with first degree murder.
Fast forward to the release of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Netflix, almost 30 years later — the second season in Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Monster anthology — public and media attention has been reignited on the case. Despite being a well-produced, well-cast and cinematic series, it has faced significant backlash for dramatisation of the Menendez brothers’ trauma, as we see a fictionalised representation of their tumultuous domestic situation. Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, the show’s creators, have received criticism for inaccurately illustrating how things were, purely for entertainment purposes.
It was implied that the brothers shared a borderline incestuous relationship, and that Erik was doubtful about his sexuality, having homoerotic experiences in prison. Perhaps most notably, Lyle was portrayed as unpleasant, spoiled and arrogant, often aggressively shouting at his parents. The brothers’ first cousin Anamaria Baralt expressed her dismay about these misrepresentations, specifically Lyle’s, stating that “the portrayal of Lyle as this rage-fuelled, fly-off-the-handle, aggressive personality is so far off the mark of his personality. When I spoke to Lyle the other night, I said ‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard you raise your voice.’ And he agreed”. Furthermore, in June 1996, Erik was asked in an interview if he was gay, to which he said he was not. Including fictionalised elements in true crime dramas like this can be problematic as it distorts not only the crime itself but also the individuals involved.
However, Murphy has stated that “the audience is in for a real roller-coaster ride because every episode shifts perspective to a certain degree”, to mirror contrasting public opinions surrounding the case, and to highlight its ambiguity since, as Brennan expressed, “the truth of what happened is not knowable to anybody else, other than two people who are sitting in prison right now.” This explains why we see the brothers kill their parents multiple times, in the slightly different ways that people believed them to have done. Also each member of the family are presented in varying lights in order for, as Murphy went on to say, “the audience to make [their own] decision about what really happened”.
Moreover, we increasingly see the romanticisation of serial killers nowadays. For instance, Jeffrey Dahmer was played by the popular and conventionally attractive Evan Peters, and likewise, the notorious Ted Bundy was played by heart throb Zac Efron, which has led to the sexualisation of these heinous criminals, (and not least desensitisation to the trauma they bestowed upon the victims and their loved ones). The Menendez brothers have been subject to this too, as they were played by two handsome men (Cooper Koch and Nicholas Chavez), and this perhaps fosters a detachment between the viewer and the real subjects of the ‘story’. Alongside this, these intense and morally complex roles create challenges for the actors taking them on as they can substantially impact their mental health. For example, Evan Peters reported struggles after playing Dahmer as such a role required an immersion into a dark headspace, which can have long-lasting psychological effects. As true crime roles grow more popular, the need for psychological support and mental health resources on set becomes increasingly important. Without appropriate support, the risks to actors’ wellbeing can make roles in true crime projects ethically problematic
The release of this series has led to conversations about the role of true crime stories as a form of entertainment, and whether or not they raise the correct type of awareness which has raised questions about how far poetic license can be utilised. True crime needs to balance its narrative appeal with a responsibility toward truth, especially when real people and ongoing legal battles are involved.
JESSICA WARREN
Featured image courtesy of thom masat on Unsplash. Image use license found here . No changes were made to this image
