IronWatcher’s review published on Letterboxd:
Watched on Netflix from October 1st until October 7th
Schocktober 2024 #7
As is well known, Netflix has had good experiences with true crime. New documentaries are constantly being released that report on some particularly heinous or mysterious crime. From time to time, however, there are also fictionalized adaptations with a real ensemble. These can also be very successful. Two years ago, for example, "Dahmer- Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story" about the notorious serial killer became a phenomenon. Now "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story" is back for fans of the series.
This is not a sequel. Rather, the two series creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan decided to turn the monster hit into an entire anthology series, with each season portraying different murderers. In "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story", it is the brothers mentioned in the title who killed their parents together and whose trial became a media spectacle in the 1990s. Of course, the two cases can hardly be compared. It does make a difference whether someone commits one murder after another over a period of years or "only" has to answer for a double murder. This also has an impact on the series. While the murders were staged in a big way in the first series, this is inevitably not the case here. There is simply much less to tell.
So it's all the more surprising that the second season has nine episodes. What would you want to talk about for so long? Murphy and Brennan found a trick that actually works for quite a while. For one thing, they don't talk about the crime, but about the subsequent court hearings in which the brothers have to convince the jury of their version. Above all, however, the two of them create a whole host of parallel versions, each of which is based on statements that you can't always tell whether they are true or not. Unlike the story about Dahmer, which was intended to reflect the true events, "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story" is largely about the creation of truth. The series is therefore closer to an "Anatomy of a Fall" than the usual true-crime adaptations.
However, the comparison is also flawed due to the very different tonality. Although the series deals with very serious topics, it is anything but serious itself. It's often more comedy than crime thriller. In many places it is as exaggerated and shrill as you would expect from Murphy. And he has also added his own touch in other ways, when the story is suddenly full of homoerotic moments, combined with superfluous nude scenes. Whether this is appropriate for a brutal double murder is debatable. "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story" turns the material into an uninhibited and often ironic meta-reflection that looks great and is carried by a playful ensemble. However, if you watch such productions primarily for the suspense and information content, you've come to the wrong place. And as entertaining as it all is, the excessive length does become noticeable over time.
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