Monsters director refuses to meet with Menendez brothers amid series backlash

Despite receiving a ton of backlash for Monsters Season 2, director Ryan Murphy sees no point in meeting the subject of the series aka the Menendez brothers.

The landscape of true crime just got a bit more controversial as Murphy‘s Netflix series Monsters has been met with a lot of criticism since it debuted.

Season 2 focused on Lyle and Erik Menendez, two brothers who killed their parents, Jose and Kitty, in the family’s Beverly Hills home in 1989.

Murphy’s show has been slammed as “pure evil” by members of the Menendez family, including the brothers themselves, but the director isn’t looking for a face to face meeting, telling Variety, “I have no interest in talking to them. What would I ask them? I know what their perspective is.”

The director gave the straightforward response when the outlet inquired if he was planning on visiting both brothers at the the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego like actor Cooper Koch, who played Erik, did.

Erik Menendez released a statement through his wife, Tammi, on September 21, in which he blasted Murphy and Netflix for spreading “horrible and blatant lies” about the brothers.

“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,” he wrote.

Menendez also pointed out how the show invalidated sexual abuse survivors, as the brothers have alleged that their suffering of that kind of abuse attributed to their crime.

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In response to this, Murphy told the outlet, “The family’s response is predictable at best. find it interesting because I would like specifics about what they think is shocking or not shocking. It’s not like we’re making any of this stuff up. It’s all been presented before. What we’re doing is we’re the first to present it in one contained ecosystem. What’s grotesque about it?

“Tammi [and] the family, they have always done this and they did this recently — they say, ‘lies after lies’ — but then they don’t say what the lies are. They don’t back up anything.”

The director went so far as to state that he believes the series is “the best thing that has happened to the Menendez brothers in 30 years.” 

He added, “They are now being talked about by millions of people all over the world. There’s a documentary coming out into two weeks about them, also on Netflix. And I think the interesting thing about it is it’s asking people to answer the questions, ‘Should they get a new trial? Should they be let out of jail? What happens in our society? Should people be locked away for life? Is there no chance ever at rehabilitation?’ I’m interested in that, and a lot of people are talking about it.”

Although Murphy’s show may stir up the idea that the brothers’ case should be reviewed, the showrunner has no plans to become an advocate on either Erik or Lyle’s behalf as he doesn’t “believe in being a part of that machine.”

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is streaming on Netflix now. There’s also a new documentary about the case coming to Netflix on October 7. Until then, learn more about the case with our guides to the Monsters’ toupee and where Dr. Jerome Oziel is now.