Is Ryan Murphy the Real Monster?

Illustration by Jenna Tibby

Ryan Murphy has always been labeled one of Hollywood’s most polarizing and thought-provoking television writers and directors. Murphy has been praised for his innovative work, specifically his hit show American Horror Story. Murphy uses the horror genre as a mask but at their core, his projects always incorporate social commentary.

Despite this, some claim that Murphy’s work has zero thought behind it and only consists of torture porn and graphic sex scenes. Even though critics and audiences don’t always understand Murphy, it always seemed like the writer had a core audience that would eat up anything he served, until now.

Netflix released the sequel series to Murphy’s hit show Monster, which was based on the infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. The sequel is titled Monsters and based on Lyle and Erik Menendez, two brothers who were convicted of killing their parents, José and Kitty Menendez.

This won’t be the first time Murphy encounters criticism. Just two years ago, he was accused of exploiting the victims of Dahmer. Even the victims’ families spoke out against Murphy, accusing him of using their stories without permission and retraumatizing them with the release of the show. The writer refuted these claims and stated that he contacted 20 of the victims’ loved ones and not one responded. Despite the negative response that Dahmer got backlash for, the reaction to The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story seems even greater.

Unlike Dahmer, there is a large crowd that believes the Menendez brothers are not cold-blooded killers, but victims. The Menendez brothers spent seven years in jail and endured two trials and a mistrial before they were convicted for murdering their parents and sent to prison for life without parole. Throughout the trial, both brothers claimed their father had sexually abused them and remain adamant about the abuse to this day.

The sexual abuse claims made by the Menendez brothers are a consistent theme throughout the series. Despite Murphy attempting to show the multiple layers of the brothers, many viewers were still displeased with the way Murphy handled their sexual abuse claims. One X (formerly Twitter) user wrote, “Murphy’s insistence on portraying Lyle and Erik Menendiz as evil completely overshadows the important issue of SA.”

In a shocking turn of events, Erik Menendez’s wife shared a statement from him in which  he addresses Murphy and the telling of his story, stating “I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent… It is sad for me that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward – back through time to 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 woman.”

Murphy responded to Menendez’s statement in an interview with Entertainment Tonight (ET), saying “I think it’s interesting that he issued a statement without having seen the show… The thing that I find interesting that he doesn’t mention in his quote and that nobody from that side of the aisle is talking about is that, if you watch the show, I would say 60 to 65% of our show and the scripts and film form (a) center around the abuse and what they claim happened to them.”

Murphy isn’t only being criticized for his “mishandling” of sexual abuse victims stories but also for addressing alleged incest rumors revolving the brothers. This outrage was sparked when a user on X screen-grabbed a scene from the show of the brothers, played by Cooper Coch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez, kissing on the lips with the caption, “Of course, it’s a Ryan Murphy production.” The tweet caused an outrage of tweets with one user on X posting, “Creating some sort of incest storyline between two brothers that suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their father for 20 years is so beyond sick and twisted it makes me want to throw up.”

Murphy addressed the backlash to this particular scene in his interview with ET, stating, “If you watched the show, what the show is doing is presenting the points of view and theories from so many people involved in the case.” In spite of this, the internet has continued to condemn Murphy and the series.

The backlash has almost become bigger than the show and has shifted into the questioning of Murphy’s character. In one post on X, a user said “Ryan Murphy is an evil man and he needs to stop making shows about people with trauma.” Another user stated, “The Menendez brothers were victims of sexual abuse who finally retaliated against their abusers and this disgusting piece of trash has turned their story into an incestuous fanfic. Hell is not hot enough for Ryan Murphy.”

Although the backlash is loud, it has not stopped casual audiences from watching the show. Variety reported that Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story was the number-one most-watched series on Netflix and hit 12.3 million views in its first four days; still, it didn’t surpass the opening numbers of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. 

The negative response from social media has not deterred Murphy from tackling these stories. He’ll be coming together with Netflix for the third installment of the Monsters series where he’ll be covering the Ed Gein murders.