close
close
Skip to main content
metropolis
Menendez drama maker Ryan Murphy hits back at family criticism

Menendez drama maker Ryan Murphy hits back at family criticism

Vaseline 1 month ago

Ryan Murphy, the creator of Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, calls their family’s negative reaction to the drama, about two brothers who murdered their parents, “predictable at best.”

Members of the Menendez brothers’ family saying the couple became ‘victims’ through this grotesque shockadrama,” adding that the show is “full of untruths.”

Murphy told Variety their response was “interesting because I’d like details about what they think is shocking or not shocking. It’s not like we’re making this stuff up. It’s all been presented before.”

He added that the family “doesn’t say what the lies are, they don’t support anything”, and that his drama is the first to present the story “in one closed ecosystem”.

The family’s statement also said: “The character assassination of Erik and Lyle, our cousins, under the guise of ‘storytelling’ is abhorrent.”

They added: “We love them and are close to them to this day. We also know what happened in their home and the unimaginably turbulent lives they endured.

“Some of us were eyewitnesses to many atrocities that you should never witness.”

The brothers, aged 18 and 21 at the time of the 1989 murders, shot their wealthy parents Jose and Kitty Menendez at point-blank range in their Beverly Hills mansion.

Prosecutors argued during the high-profile trial that the young men killed their successful parents to inherit their multi-million dollar estate. But the brothers’ lawyers said it was revenge for sexual abuse, even though abuse was never proven in court.

The trial began in 1993 and resulted in two deadlocked juries in 1994, before the case was retried in 1995, when the judge excluded evidence of abuse from their defense.

A jury found them guilty and the pair were convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and they were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The brothers reunited in prison in 2018.

The show stars Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez as the brothers, and Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny as their parents.

Murphy is also the director, writer and producer behind series such as Glee, Pose, The Watcher, Feud, American Horror Story, Hollywood and Ratched, and he co-created Monsters with Ian Brennan, who co-created Glee.

The series became reportedly viewed 12.3 million times in its first weekend of release, although it is unknown how many individual viewers or households that will be as it is spread across the nine episodes.

Murphy thinks the series is “the best thing to happen to the Menendez brothers in thirty years,” Variety reports.

“It is now being talked about by millions of people around the world. A documentary about them will be released in two weeks, also on Netflix.”

He added that it “asks really difficult questions,” such as whether they should get a new trial, should they be released, whether people should be locked up for life and “is there ever a chance for rehabilitation?”

“It gives these brothers a new trial in the court of public opinion. As far as I can see, it has really opened up the possibility that this evidence that they claim to have may be a path forward for them.”

The producer added that he believes if the trial were held today, the brothers might have received a lesser charge of manslaughter and a lighter sentence.

Cooper Koch, who plays Erik, told Variety on Thursday that he spoke to him for the first time the night before Netflix released the series.

The actor also said he met with both brothers about a week later and visited prisoners with Kim Kardashian to discuss prison reform.

Kardashian already visits prisons to research information about rehabilitation programs, which she shares its programs.

But Murphy told Variety that he has “no interest” in talking to the brothers, although he thinks it’s “very good” that Koch is in a relationship with them, and he believes Kardashian is “doing God’s work.”

“I believe in everything she believes in. I don’t know what I would say to them. What would I ask them? I know what their perspective is,” he added.