You think Taylor Sheridan is prodigious? Check out Ryan Murphy’s filmography.
He’s had a hand in some of the biggest shows on broadcast (Glee, 9-1-1, 9-1-1: Lone Star), cable (American Horror Story), and streaming, including Netflix’s The Watcher and Ratched. Murphy is also listed as the co-creator of Monster, an anthology series that covered Jeffrey Dahmer in season one. The popular show will return for a second season soon, this time about Lyle and Erik Menendez, a.k.a. the Menendez brothers. Hopefully without the controversy.
Here’s everything to know about Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, including who was picked to portray the Menéndez family and release date.
Plot
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is a dramatized retelling of the crimes committed by Lyle and Erik Menéndez, who were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. The trial wasn’t an O.J. Simpson-level sensation (as covered in Murphy’s excellent The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story) but it wasn’t far behind.
As Rolling Stone‘s Brenna Ehrlich wrote in 2017, “The Menendez case, which played out in large part on TV screens across the country — and featured a cast of lively, almost garish characters — personified a shocking erosion of the American Dream to its enraptured audience. It turned real-life tragedy into live entertainment, and foreshadowed our current fascination with true-crime docuseries and reality TV.” That was seven years ago! There’s even more now.
If you want to learn all about the case, Robert Rand’s book The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menendez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation is a good place to start. As for the show, here is the official plot synopsis provided by Netflix:
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story follows Lyle and Erik Menendez, two brothers who fatally shot their parents in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. During their trials, the brothers cited years of abuse as the reason for murdering their parents. However, prosecutors argued that their motive was to get their hands on the family fortune.
There better be an entire episode about the Mark Jackson basketball card.
Cast
Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch star as brothers Lyle and Erik Menéndez, respectively, while their parents José and Kitty are portrayed by Javier Bardem (who knows a thing or two about monsters) and Chloë Sevigny.
The rest of the cast includes Nathan Lane as investigative journalist Dominick Dunne; Ari Graynor as district attorney Leslie Abramson; Dallas Roberts as therapist Dr. Jerome Oziel; Leslie Grossman as Judalon Smyth, the mistress of Dr. Oziel; Jason Butler Harner as Beverly Hills detective Les Zoeller; Enrique Murciano as Lyle and Erik’s uncle Carlos Baralt; and Gil Ozeri as Dr. William Vicary, who should not be confused with Dr. Sweetchat the Small Talk Robot.
Release Date
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story will debut on Netflix on September 19, just over 35 years after the crime took place.
Trailer
You can watch the teaser trailer for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story below.
