There is a dissonance between the subject and the storyteller in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story — the second instalment of co-creator Ryan Murphy’s wildly popular Netflix series, which began with a divisive first run that re-litigated the crimes of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. The new season, across nine episodes of varying length, recounts the shocking true story of the Menendez brothers, who sauntered into the parlour of their Beverly Hills mansion one evening in 1989, and seemingly for no reason, murdered their mother and father with a shotgun. The ‘blood brothers’, as they came to be described in the media, claimed in their defence that they’d been subjected to years of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their wealthy parents, and felt that their lives were being threatened.
It’s a story that needed to be told with a degree of nuance, considering its grave themes. But as anybody familiar with Murphy’s brand of television would know, the mogul probably recoils at the mere mention of that world, as if he is Dracula being confronted with a clove of garlic. In addition to overlapping era-wise with the excellent first season of his American Crime Story anthology — the one about OJ Simpson — Monsters also shares with that show a knowingly campy tone. Murphy is a master of this kind of pulp storytelling — his writing is at once grandiose and intimate — but his sensibilities seem to be at odds with the sensitivity that a show about the Menendez brothers required.
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Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez, Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez in Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story.
This conflict between creator and creation can be felt most acutely in the show’s outstanding fifth episode. It would’ve been regarded as one of the greatest achievements in television had it belonged to practically any other programme. But plonked in the middle of Monsters, it comes across as positively vile. It is in this episode that Erik Menendez, the quieter younger brother, narrates in graphic detail the abuse that he suffered at the hands of his father, the psychopathic José Menendez. Directed by TV veteran Michael Uppendahl, the episode is filmed in an unbroken 33-minute shot of actor Cooper Koch, who sits across from his lawyer and tells a story so heartbreaking that you’re bound to be moved, almost in spite of yourself. The camera creeps up on him quietly, beginning in a mid-shot, and concluding, over half-an-hour later, on a searing close-up.
If Koch isn’t nominated for an Emmy for his performance in this episode — The Hurt Man is what it is called — it will be a tremendous travesty. The only scenario in which he could be overlooked is if it is decided that the show, as a whole, is too underwhelming to warrant awards recognition. It feels exploitative and self-serving of Murphy to suddenly unleash absolute earnestness after roughly three hours of high grotesquerie. To be clear, Monsters is the kind of show in which Nathan Lane plays an over-the-top journalist who hosts regular dinner parties purely to provide gossip to his guests and exposition to us, the audience. It’s the kind of show that can’t help but insert OJ Simpson into the narrative, almost like it’s some sort of Marvel cameo.
Murphy and his co-writer Ian Brennan struggle to examine the psychology of the two murderers, settling instead for very basic observations about privilege and pain, retribution and rage. Like the equally exploitative film Sector 36, the show has the audacity to make sweeping statements about the cycle of abuse, which it condenses into literally one scene in which José calls up his mother and accuses her of abusing him as a child. It’s all too convenient, and potentially disrespectful. Because otherwise, the show doesn’t appear to be interested in painting José as a layered person. Played by an outstanding Javier Bardem, he’s the biggest monster here.
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Javier Bardem as Jose Menendez in Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story.
José isn’t the only character who’s given ‘motivation’ for his actions, horrid as they may be. The journalist Dominick Dunne — that’s the Nathan Lane character — gets an entire episode to himself, in which it is revealed why he holds the Menendez brothers in such poor regard. Dunne’s own daughter was murdered by a man who got away with it, and he will settle for nothing less than a death sentence for the Mendendez brothers. It all builds towards courtroom shenanigans that feel entirely rushed, and therefore curiously lacking in drama. If you remember, these were the best parts of The People vs OJ Simpson. Perhaps there was some reluctance on Murphy and Brennan’s part about centering the entire season on the trial, but as things stand, reducing this part of the story to essentially the third act doesn’t quite work.
Fractured but flamboyant, fragile yet frivolous, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is a dissatisfying experience. It is a show whose primary objective is to entertain, without bothering to examine the cost attached to such sort of entertainment. Having mined the tragedy for thrills, the show goes a step further and suggests that the brothers shared an incestuous relationship. This is depicted not with a degree of sensitivity, but a sleaziness that borders on titillation. There is no telling what Murphy means by all this; he did, after all, once attempt to redeem a vicious predator in his first Netflix show, Hollywood. Like that series, Monsters is a mess — the cinematic equivalent of ogling at a road accident instead of rushing to check for any casualties.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Creators – Ryan Murphy, Ian Brennan
Cast – Nicholas Chavez, Cooper Koch, Javier Bardem, Chloë Sevigny, Nathan Lane, Ari Graynor
Rating – 2/5
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