Twenty-eight years after their conviction by the courts, the Menéndez brothers will be entitled to a new hearing. A legal case that fascinates Netflix subscribers, but also a certain Kim Kardashian.
Undisputed master of horror, Ryan Murphy has the gift of telling stories that obsess us. After having imagined the cult horror anthology American Horror Story, the filmmaker created the Event with Monsters, a Netflix series that focuses on the "monstrous criminals who have marked our society".
Since its arrival on the catalog on September 19, the second season has been in the Top 10 of the most-viewed series on the platform. A dazzling success, which could have repercussions in the very real case that occurred in 1989.
Serial controversies
This second chapter focuses on Erik and Lyle Menéndez, two brothers tried in 1996 for having killed their parents, seven years earlier. Sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole, the latter had admitted their crimes but justified their actions by the abuse committed by their parents for years.
Now aged 53 and 56, the Menéndez brothers maintain their version, and claim to have been sexually assaulted by their father. Their mother, aware of the situation, apparently chose not to intervene.
Monsters therefore focuses on the life of this family, and paints an ambiguous portrait of the two murderers, while addressing the issue of sexual assault. Outraged by the first episodes of the series, Erik Menéndez expressed his discontent from the Richard J. Donovan detention center, where he is incarcerated. He claims that this show "riddled with lies" paints a "disastrous" and "caricatured" portrait of his brother.