Ryan Murphy Slammed For 'Betraying' Lyle Menéndez With Netflix Project

Ryan Murphy's newest true crime drama, "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story," centers around The Menéndez brothers, Lyle and Erik, who murdered their parents in 1986.

Lyle and Erik became infamous in the early 1990s for the shocking murder of their wealthy parents, Jose and Mary Louise Menéndez, in their Beverly Hills home.

Their story was told in the drama "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story," but ever since it premiered on Netflix, Ryan Murphy has received a lot of backlash, from both fans and Erik Menéndez himself.

In the wake of Ryan Murphy's new project gaining popularity, fans took to social media in droves to share their opinions on the depiction of Lyle and Erik, as well as the dramatization of the case.

One user, in particular, discovered a video clip of Lyle Menéndez's testimony from one of the two trials and shared it on TikTok to highlight the emotion he displayed while on the stand.

"This is Lyle Menéndez taking the stand, revealing the dark twisted secrets within his household," the TikToker wrote in the caption of the video. "His testimony broke my heart. The way Ryan Murphy has betrayed Lyle is nothing to what he’s like in real life."

"The pain in his eyes as the questions kept coming. He was only a child. No one protected him. Not even his mother," the social media user continued, before calling what the Menéndez brothers went through as "sad" and "heartbreaking."

"They deserve a chance at life and a fair chance of freedom," they added. "They’ve not experienced real freedom ever. I hope this new evidence brings them to Justice and they can be with their families."

Social media users aren't the only ones to speak out regarding the latest "Monsters" season.

Before its official premiere, Erik issued a statement regarding the "Monsters" series, expressing his dissatisfaction with the portrayal of both himself and his brother Lyle. He emphasized that their assertions of childhood abuse and the justification of self-defense in their parents' murders have been severely misrepresented.

“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show," Erik said in a statement.

"I can only believe they were done so on purpose," he added. "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.”

In a statement shared on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, the Menéndez family called the show "a phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare that is not only riddled with mistruths and outright falsehoods but ignores the most recent exculpatory revelations."

But Murphy defended it, telling Variety that it is "the best thing that has happened to the Menéndez brothers in 30 years."

Raised in a privileged environment, the brothers reportedly faced emotional and physical abuse from their father. On August 20, 1989, they shot their parents to death, initially claiming to be at a movie theater at the time of the murders.

However, their seemingly calm demeanor after the incident raised suspicions, and they eventually confessed during therapy sessions, revealing that they acted out of fear of their father.

Their case went to trial, with the first trial in 1993 ending in a mistrial due to a hung jury. During the second trial in 1994, the defense argued that the brothers were victims of abuse, while the prosecution claimed the murders were premeditated.

In 1996, both were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case became a media sensation, sparking discussions about wealth, family dynamics, and abuse, and has since been revisited in various documentaries and true crime discussions, keeping their story alive in the public consciousness.

As of today, Lyle and Erik Menéndez continue to serve their sentences, but their notorious story is experiencing a revival with "Netflix's Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story," which has led Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón to reevaluate the evidence.