In fall 2022, Ryan Murphy dominated the top two spots on Netflix charts with a pair of true-crime dramatizations, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and The Watcher. Both titles were horror-soaked shows, although the latter was spooky-ridiculous and very fun to watch, and the former was bingeworthy while being equally difficult to watch and look away from. Both series were also plagued with controversy, given that The Watcher ended without closure, and Dahmer upset people who didn’t agree with the show being organized under the LGBTQ tag.
That was a fair concern, and the same goes for how victims’ families called the serial-killer dramatization exploitative for profit after their loved ones’ deaths were portrayed in intense scenes, even if Murphy did offload most of the gore to being off-camera in nature. However, the show appears to be cemented in Netflix’s Global Top 10 TV shows of all time with over 1 billion hours streamed. The Watcher didn’t do so terribly either, which led to a joint announcement that both shows were somehow renewed even though they presumably both began as limited series.
Don’t expect to see Jeffrey Dahmer again in the second season. Instead, a pair of brothers who killed their parents will receive their case under a spotlight.
Plot
Hopefully, this season will not inspire Halloween costumes, but let’s get real: there might be some morbid partygoers out there.
The now-anthologized series aims to continue Netflix’s pre-announced plan of how “future installments of Monster will tell the stories of other monstrous figures who have impacted society.” Entitled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the second season follows the late 1980s-early 1990s saga of how (and why) brothers Lyle and Erik killed their parents, Jose and Kitty.
The legal case wasn’t nearly as sensational as another 1990s homicide case (the circus that revolved around the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial, although to be fair, the white Bronco really set the stage for ratings). For Lyle and Erik’s cases, their first early-’90s trials were conducted separately and both ended in mistrial. Later, a trial that tied them together as defendants ended with first-degree murder convictions, lifetime sentences, and no possibility of parole. In 2023, the brothers filed a petition citing new evidence that they claimed could exonerate them by way of alleged proof that they were sexually abused by their father. At this time, the petition has not resulted in a resolution.
Netflix has provided the following description of the show, and from the bare-bones nature of this description, surely, the streaming service wants to keep dramatization secrets under wraps:
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.
Cast
Although the series examines the Menendez Brothers themselves (and the system that arguably contributed to their acts), the headlining stars portray the Menendez parents. Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny will portray Jose and Kitty Menendez, and unlike with Jeffrey Dahmer, the title defendants will not be recognizable faces to most. Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch will step into the preppy shoes of Lyle and Erik Menendez, respectively.
Additionally, Nathan Lane will portray Vanity Fair investigative journalist Dominick Dunne; Ari Graynor will portray prominent LA defense attorney Leslie Abramson, who chiefly represents Erik Menendez in the story; Jason Butler Harner will appear as Beverly Hills PD Les Zoeller; Dallas Roberts will portray Erik Menendez’s therapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel; Leslie Grossman will play Judson Smyth, who is Oziel’s mistress and former patient with information that leads to the brothers’ arrests; and Enrique Murciano will portray Carlos Baralt, the uncle to the brothers on trial.
Release Date
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is expected to surface in 2024.
Trailer
No full trailer exists yet, but here’s a title announcement (featuring a 9-1-1 call of a brother reporting his parents’ murders) from Netflix.