‘Monster’ Season 2 Sets Menendez Brothers as Killer Subjects of Ryan Murphy Anthology (VIDEO)
Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan have announced that the Menendez brothers will be the subjects of Monster Season 2.
The season will be titled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. It’s set to debut in 2024 on Netflix. The streamer also has exclusive access to Lyle Menendez and Erik Menendez for an upcoming documentary film. Season 1 was titled Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and starred Evan Peters as the titular serial killer.
The Menendez brothers are each currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, on August 20, 1989. Lyle was 21 at the time; Erik was 18. The crime was committed in their family’s Beverly Hills mansion with shotguns they had bought just days before. In the title announcement video above, audio from Lyle’s infamous 9-1-1 call is played. “Somebody killed my parents!” he cries.
The brothers weren’t suspects in the case at first. They were arrested in March 1990 after Erik confessed to the murders during a session with psychotherapist Dr. L. Jerome Oziel. Oziel taped the sessions and played them for his mistress, Judalon Smyth, who then took the information to the police, resulting in the arrests.
Smyth became a key witness in their 1993 trial, during which the brothers said they killed their parents out of self-defense after a lifetime of abuse. Their first trial became a televised sensation, contributing to the American obsession with true-crime. After a mistrial was declared on their first trial, cameras were not permitted in the court room for the second, which resulted in convictions for both of the brothers. They began their sentences in 1996 and were originally kept in separate jails. They were reunited at San Diego’s Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in April 2018.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story reached 1 billion view hours in its first 60 days on Netflix, making it only one of four series to achieve the milestone, according to the streamer. Niecy Nash-Betts won the Critics Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series, the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Limited Series, and received both SAG and Golden Globe nominations for her performance in Season 1. Peters won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series and received a SAG nomination for his performance, and Richard Jenkins and the series received Golden Globe nominations.
Following the success of Season 1, Netflix ordered two more installments of the anthology series. While it did draw critical acclaim, Monster Season 1 also drew in criticism from the families of Dahmer’s victims.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, 2024, Netflix
