“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” as retold by the perpetrators’ family friend, is chilling. Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, the creators, present the second part of their project called ‘Monster’, this time featuring Lyle (played wonderfully by Nicholas Alexander Chavez) and Erik (wonderfully played by Cooper Koch). Enduring physical, emotional and sexually abusive relationships throughout their childhood with their father (José, portrayed by Javier Bardem) and mother Mary Louise aka Kitty (Chloë Sevigny), the brothers slay their parents mercilessly. Narrating the orderly growth of the siblings, the series also shows the murders which were committed by them. As time goes on, the series becomes draggy and tiresome. The show has tried to dissect the eventual crime’s context and also focused on Erik and Lyle even psychoanalyzing their psychological state. However, it turns out the plot is quite absurd and for nothing
The documentary film Menendez starts in 1989, October two months since the untimely demise of Kitty and José. After which, encapsulated in a limousine with Kenny G’s ‘Songbird’ playing with the radio, Lyle and Erik are on their way towards a memorial of their parents. Lyle seems to be the older brother who is still in control but quite composed until Erik bursts into tears without any hints of an emotional buildup. They make you see with clarity from the outset how these men are. One of them feels more emotional and more of a free spirit when the second one is more aggressive.
It sheds light on the tumultuous conditions that existed in the Menendez family that forced the brothers to commit patricide. José is terrifying and repulsive in the role of the father while Sevigny plays a heartless and pathetic woman who is also a mother. Erik and Lyle on their part are a horrific combination of being entitled and being victims.
The murders are depicted in a very graphic and gory manner, the plot follows how the police made some blunders which first allowed the brothers to ‘fly under the radar’. Erik, after killing his father and mother and feeling deeply disturbed and suicidal, told his therapist Dr. Jerome Ozie (Dallas Roberts), which was the cause of both his and Lyle’s arrests. Centering on the events of the brothers’ arrest and the 1993 trial as well, Juda Lon Smyth (Leslie Grossman is perfectly cast) is impressive in her role as Dr. Ozie’s ex-patient and mistress. The series introduces the character of defense attorney Leslie Abramson (Ari Gaynor) and gives her probably the best lines after Leslie’s and her struggle against the Toad misogyny of the legal world and the court as well as Erik’s affection for Leslie.
Although sexual violence is never graphically visualized, Erik goes off on a lyrical rage describing a lifetime of rape and abuse at the hands of his father, while in consultation with his lawyer Leslie. The sequence is a nice exercise for the cast, accomplishing with but one extended shot in which the camera progressively focuses on his face.
Sadly, after its fifth episode, the series plummets the depths. The clashing tone which veers between dark and silly (there is a ridiculous wig and homoeroticism taken too far) is its own worst enemy, and the rest of the episodes are a mind numbing repetition of the same thing over and over again.
The sixth episode titled “Don’t Dream It’s Over” presents the history between José and Kitty, starting with their courtships to their stormy marriages. This chapter depicts their childhoods which were both plagued with battered pasts, allowing Bardem and Sevigny to display their strong performances which, however, does not add anything to the suspense or the texture to the plot overall. The hour long distance episode should have been cut completely, putting them into the second hour wherein these flashbacks were added in the first half.
The final chapters are no different in their tiring pattern. Apart from the Menendez family, as they did in Dahmer Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Murphy and Brennan provide platforms for significant people surrounding the brothers and the trials. This case is quite interesting for Vanity Fair’s journalist Dominick Dunne played by Nathan Lane. Having lost a daughter in such a way, makes this man obsessed with the idea of vengeance and ensures that Erik and Lyle pay for what they have done, wherever possible even in the courtroom.
It is through Dominick’s eyes that episodes 7, “Showtime”, and 9, “Hang Man,” present the killers of Kitty and José. He also narrates the prison experience and their family ties inside prison and outside. Lane is good and his character but contributes very little to the narrative overall.
In the series, much like in real life, there were two trials over a seven year period for the brothers and the ‘Menendez’ courtroom sequences are also annoying and drag on forever. And so it is, given the tone is already so displaced, these segments are a puzzling, never ending show of countless witnesses, legal strategizing and brief questioning and testimony.
Los Angeles in the late 1980s and early 1990s was embraced in Los Angeles riots arising from Rodney King beating, California’s death row executions, and O. J. Simpson being charged and acquitted was all during the brother’s era under public eye. But instead of gently bring these plot elements into play, Murphy and Brennan bluntly hit the heads of the audience with such facts. For instance, at one point, Erik talks to the former American football icon Simpson sitting in the adjacent cell and advises him to plea bargain.
“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” is full of powerful performances and strong topics, yet somehow does not understand what it wants to be. And as we will see, that means nothing at all, just a retelling of horrendous violence and horrific crime. But more profound than the specific joes and places are the algorithms and the positions of the society where we are.
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