Ryan Murphy has defended his Monsters television show from subject Erik Menendez’s criticism saying, “I know he hasn’t watched the show.”
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It comes in response to Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story being criticised by Erik who has called the show a “dishonest portrayal”.
The Netflix series, which came out last Thursday, stars Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch as the Menéndez brothers, who murdered their parents, José and Kitty, with a shotgun at their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989.
Speaking to E! News in a new interview, Murphy responded to the criticism saying: “I think that’s interesting because I know he hasn’t watched the show. So I find that curious. I hope he does watch it. I think if he did watch it he would be incredibly proud of Cooper Koch who plays him.”
The show also recently attracted criticism for depicting an incestuous relationship between the brothers, with scenes depicting them kissing. One scene involved their mother, played by Chloë Sevigny, walking in on them kissing in the shower.
During his retrial in 1995, Lyle testified that he had molested Erik while they were children. In the series, the brothers both discuss this as adults with their lawyer Leslie Abramson, (Ari Graynor), while recalling the abuse they suffered at the hands of their father, José (Javier Bardem).
Speaking about this to E!, Murphy added: “It’s a 35-, 30-year-old case. We show many, many, many perspectives. That’s what the show does in every episode. You are given a new theory based on people who were either involved or covered the case. Some of the controversy seems to be people thinking for example, that the brothers are having an incestuous relationship. There are people who say that never happened. There were people who said it did happen.
“We know how it ended,” Murphy continued. “We know two people were brutally shot. Our view and what we wanted to do was present you all the facts and have you do two things: make up your own mind about who’s innocent, who’s guilty, and who’s the monster, and also have a conversation about something that’s never talked about in our culture, which is male sexual abuse, which we do responsibly.”
“60 to 65 per cent [of the show] centres around Eric and Lyle Menendez talking about their abuse, talking about their victimisation, talking about what it emotionally put them through, those two boys in our show get their moment in court. In fact, we have a 30-minute episode that Cooper Koch [who plays Erik] does so brilliantly. Just Erik’s words about what happened to him and why he did what he did.”
The official synopsis of Monsters says that the show “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?”
Meanwhile, the Menéndez brothers are now involved with a new Netflix documentary on their story which will arrive on the streaming platform on October 7.
For help, advice or more information regarding sexual harassment, assault and rape in the UK, visit the Rape Crisis charity website. In the US, visit RAINN.
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