Ryan Murphy has responded to the Menéndez family after they described his Netflix show as “riddled with mistruths and outright falsehoods.”
In Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story, Ryan retells the case of the Menéndez brothers.
Erik and Lye shot their parents dead at their home in 1989 after years of what they claimed to be physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their father, José.
Erik recently criticized the show’s depiction of the case, describing the character representing his brother as “a caricature…rooted in horrible and blatant lies.”
Monsters creator Ryan Murphy has fired back at the Menéndez family after they criticized the crime drama as “phobic, gross, anachronistic”
Image credits: Netflix
The brothers’ relatives have since released a statement calling the series “phobic, gross, anachronistic” and “riddled with mistruths and outright falsehoods.”
“Our family has been victimized by this grotesque shockdrama,” they wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Ryan has since hit back at the Menéndez family, saying their reaction was “faux outrage.”
“Because if you look at what we do, we give those boys so much airtime to talk about what they claim as their physical abuse. We live in a sort of culture of outrage that a lot of things are knee-jerk, and that’s fine,” the 58-year-old told People Magazine on Friday (September 27).
“I’m used to being controversial. It’s not new to me.”
Ryan called their reaction “faux outrage” and said the Netflix show is “the best thing that has happened to the Menéndez brothers in 30 years”
Ryan argues that the crime series is “the best thing that has happened to the Menéndez brothers in 30 years” because it has ignited conversation about the case and led to calls for Erik and Lyle’s sentences to be reviewed.
“It’s everywhere. Their case is suddenly a water cooler conversation. A lot of people think that they were dealt a bad hand in that second trial, a lot of people think they should get a new trial, and I think having those conversations are good.
“And I know that from prison, the boys have told people in prison that they’re glad about this show because it is launching so many conversations. So, if we’re doing anything that can further a conversation about abuse and also ask the question, ‘Was that second trial fair?’ then I did my job.”
The six-time Emmy winner also responded to accusations from the Menéndez family that the show had committed a “character assassination” of the pair and lacked “an understanding of the impact of years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.”
“I don’t know what story they would want to be told. How do you assassinate the character of two people who killed their own parents? I find that an interesting choice of words, and I don’t agree with it. Also, I think maybe they don’t even think it’s true.
“And 65% of the show is dedicated to [Erik and Lyle’s] point of view that, ‘We were sexually abused and that’s why we did what we did.’ We say that over and over and over, so I don’t understand what the family can claim didn’t happen because we’re presenting everything that happened as an opinion of other people.”
Ryan clarified that he never intended to create a documentary about the brothers and their criminal behavior. Instead, he aimed to do “something about everybody involved in this case, including the parents and their perspectives.”
“I’m used to being controversial. It’s not new to me,” said the 58-year-old artist
Lyle was 18, and Erik was 21 when they took the lives of their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez, on Sunday, August 20, 1989, at their home in Beverly Hills, California.
They used 12-gauge shotguns and shot their parents a total of 14 times at close range.
Erik and Lyle stood trial twice. The first trial, in July 1993, ended with the jury unable to reach a unanimous decision on whether they should be convicted of murder or manslaughter.
Two years later, they returned to court. The brothers were found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment after the jury dismissed their claims about their father’s abuse.
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