Ryan Murphy’s latest series offering is a TV series that fictionalizes the true-to-life story of two brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez’s killing of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989, titled “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”.
The story revolves around the defense of the brothers who claimed that they had been victims of sexual abuse from their father during their childhood. The show depicts the crime as well as the subsequent trial of the brothers played by Nicholas Chavez (Lyle) and Cooper Koch (Erik).
While the show has received the usual amount of flack for sensationalizing and over-dramatizing some aspects of the murders and the trials, as usual to what most fictionalized shows/movies usually get, Ryan Murphy is currently the subject of scrutiny on social media for his “fetishistic” and “exploitative” illustration of the relationship of the two brothers.
In the show, Lyle is seen kissing Erik goodbye, showering naked together, dancing together, kissing each other on the neck, and putting their fingers in each other’s mouths.
Further, Erik is seen flirting with an inmate while naked, and during the trial, the prosecutor noted that Erik was gay and was having sex with inmates.
It is noted that neither of the brothers have identified as gay.
