2022’s Monster: Dahmer drew not only true crime junkies but enough curious Netflix subscribers to qualify as a true Ryan Murphy anthology series with more to come. That first season still sits at #3 on Netflix’s Top 10 English-speaking TV series of all time, which is higher than every single Bridgerton season out there. Although the season also proved to be controversial, awards clout followed Evan Peters, who received a Golden Globe win, an Emmy nomination, and an Ariana Grande video role as a chaser.
That is to say, as upsetting as Dahmer was to watch, Ryan Murphy knows how to hook the masses with his executive producing wizardry, and a second season, Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story, will soon (probably) rise on the streaming charts, too. The above teaser trailer replicates an unsettling photo of the brothers (convicted in 1996 for the murdering their parents) shown standing behind the grinning Kitty and Lyle Menendez, and an inner dialogue suggests that things are not right with this family.
So, get ready for Javier Bardem to rival his terrifying onscreen presence as Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men as José Menendez with Chloë Sevigny as Kitty. Erik and Lyle will be portrayed by Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez, and rounding out the cast will be Ari Graynor as defense attorney Leslie Abramson and Nathan Lane as investigative journalist Dominick Dunne. From the Netflix series description:
While the prosecution argued they were seeking to inherit their family fortune, the brothers claimed – and remain adamant to this day, as they serve life sentences without the possibility of parole – that their actions stemmed out of fear from a lifetime of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story dives into the historic case that took the world by storm, paved the way for audiences’ modern-day fascination with true crime, and in return asks those audiences: Who are the real monsters?
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story streams on September 19.