‘He’s issued a statement without having seen the show’: Ryan Murphy claps back at Erik Menendez’s ‘Monsters’ assessment

Ryan Murphy has already proven himself a success with true-crime-inspired dramas, but his latest offering, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (the Netflix follow-up to the successful Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story), has already attracted criticism – and it came from none other than Erik Menendez himself!

The Menendez brothers are infamous for the 1989 killing of their parents José and Kitty, but the case is much more complicated than it may seem at face value. The brothers have alleged physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at the hands of their parentsand have claimed their actions were carried out in self-defense. Erik, who has been imprisoned without the possibility of parole since 1996, made a statement after the release of the show, suggesting that the “ruinous” portrayal of himself and his brother Lyle was done deliberately.

His wife, Tammi Menendez, shared the statement on X:

“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant likes rampant in the show. I can only believe they were done so on purpose. 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.”

Later in the statement, Erik expressed how the portrayal of himself and his brother harmed victims of abuse. He reflected how, at the time of their trial, it was “an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women.” Erik stressed that the truth should have been enough; however, Murphy created a narrative that he viewed as “disheartening slander.”

Ryan Murphy reacts to the claims made by Erik Menendez

But what does Murphy have to say about these claims? He was asked about Erik’s comments in an interview with ET, to which he replied, “I think it’s interesting that [Erik] issued a statement without having seen the show. I know he hasn’t seen the show in prison. I hope he does see the show. I think he sees the work that Cooper Koch [the actor who plays him] did.”

Murphy expressed compassion for Erik, noting how seeing his life portrayed onscreen must be difficult. He also confirmed that Koch and Kim Kardashian had met with Erik. Later in the interview, Murphy defended his portrayal of the abuse the Menendez brothers allege occurred. “If you watch the show, I would say 60 to 65 percent” of the narrative centers “around the abuse and what they claim happened to them,” he said. “And we do it very carefully, and we give them their day in court, and they talk openly about it. We present their facts from their point of view.”

There has already been hype surrounding the show, released last week, but the feedback appears to be mixed: the consensus of reviews from The Guardian, The Hollywood Reporter, and Variety suggest that the acting is brilliant but there are failings with the retelling of the story.