Last week, two series about sensationalized true-crime cases, produced by Hollywood mogul Ryan Murphy, premiered: American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez on FX and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Netflix. While the two shows—the former about the rise and fall of an NFL star convicted for murder and the latter about the killings of José and Kitty Menendez by their sons—don’t have many similarities, they do share several hallmarks. Murphy is an executive producer on both series, each a spinoff of his true-crime franchises, and there’s a significant focus on the titular subjects’ sexualities—particularly pertaining to homosexuality and childhood abuse.
In Monsters (and real life) Lyle and Erik’s defense hinged on their claims that they killed their parents as an act of self-defense, after years of alleged sexual abuse. And before Hernandez was pushed over the edge by the hyper-masculine football industrial complex, he had closeted homosexual experiences and was allegedly molested in his youth—though none of those details were brought to light until years after he stood trial. While at first it seems Murphy intends to paint a full picture of his subjects in these shows (and others like 2018’s American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace) by looking into their private lives, it quickly veers into salaciousness territory by including speculative information. But Monsters and American Sports Story could have gone (and arguably would’ve been better shows) without dissecting the sexuality of each of its subjects. In many ways, it feels unnecessary and repugnant, as these shows only further scandalize sensitive and true stories that have already been tabloid fodder for years.
