After facing backlash from viewers, non-viewers, and the real-life people the series focuses on, creator Ryan Murphy has finally spoken out to defend his new and highly controversial Netflix show Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. "I have many things to say about that," said Murphy in an interview with Entertainment Weekly when asked what he thinks of the recent statement put out by the real Erik Menendez. "I think it's interesting that he’s issued a statement without having seen the show.
I know he hasn't seen the show in prison." Erik released the statement on his Facebook page on September 20, saying, "It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward. It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent.
" Starring Cooper Koch as Erik and Nicholas Chavez as Lyle, Monsters shows how the brothers murdered their parents José Menendez and Mary Louise ‘Kitty’ Menendez. But while the prosecution argued they were seeking to inherit their family fortune, the brothers claimed that their actions stemmed from a lifetime of emotional and sexual abuse from their parents. Erik went on to defend his brother, claiming that Lyle Menendez was portrayed unfairly in the show.
Fans online have been echoing this view, claiming that the show puts the brothers in a bad lig.