Ryan Murphy, the man behind the controversial Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story has responded to the backlash over the depiction of the Menendez brothers in the second season of Monsters, particularly after Erik Menendez released a statement condemning his portrayal in the show. Murphy spoke about it during an interview for his upcoming show Grotesquerie, which is set to air on FX.
“Erik Menendez has spoken out about the show. I think that’s interesting because I know he hasn’t watched the show,” Murphy told EOnline. Menendez and his brother are both serving life sentences for the murder of their parents, as depicted in the show. “I hope he does watch it,” he added. “I think if he did, he would be incredibly proud of Cooper Koch who plays him.”
“What the show is doing is presenting the points of view and theories from so many people who were involved in the case,” Murphy added in a different interview, this time to ET. “The show presents over 10 points of view of different events. So when people see that, that is somebody in our show having a narrative statement about ‘This is what I believe really happened.’ And we had an obligation to show all of that.”
“Our view and what we wanted to do was present you all the facts, and at the end of it 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.” Murphy also told EOnline about the show’s intent.
Netflix recently announced that they would release a documentary called The Menendez Brothers which will feature interviews with both Lyle and Erik Menendez. That documentary is set to be released on October 7th.