Writer/showrunner Ryan Murphy has confirmed “Monster‘s” second season will focus on Lyle and Erik Menendez. The Menendez brothers were convicted of murdering their parents in 1996. This will be a follow-up to the anthology series’ first season which focused on serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” will focus onJosé and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez being shot and killed in their Beverly Hills mansion on August 20th, 1989. Their sons, Lyle and Erik, initially weren’t suspects in the murders, until the police began to look at the brothers’ financial motives. The investigation soon revealed the sons extravagant spending after their parents’ deaths.
Erik eventually confessed to his involvement in the murder of his parents to his psychologist Jerome Oziel. Oziel then turned around and told his mistress Judalon Smyth, who became a key witness in the Menendez brothers’ trial. The brothers say they committed the murders out of fear after a lifetime of abuse at the hands of their parents. Including sexual abuse at the hands of their father.
The Menendez brothers’ trial was thrust into the national spotlight and was broadcast on Court TV. After being tried separately and two deadlocked juries. The siblings were retried and both were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
For this title announcement, Netflix released a teaser trailer featuring the 911 call placed by Lyle that night. He tearfully tells the operator that his parents have been shot. The comments sections on the video are already filled with people concerned about the upcoming season. Mostly questioning why they are being called “Monsters” and pleading to portray them as victims of abuse, not the cold-blooded killers the media often shows them as. So it seems like season 2 is shaping up to be just as controversial as the first.
It will be the first of two installments ordered by Netflix after the success of “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” Which was as popular as it was controversial after many felt it romanticized the serial killer.
“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” is expected to hit Netflix sometime in 2024. You can check out the teaser below:
