Many people know the famous case of Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez, two brothers who murdered their parents at their home in 1989. In the documentary, however, the brothers murdered their abusive parents, Jose Menendez and Kitty Menendez in their Beverly Hills home. Once “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” was released on Netflix, Thursday Sept. 19, the popularity of the case skyrocketed due to people calling it “fake” and “misleading.”

Immediately, viewers familiar with the case were drawn into the documentary. The show starts fast, including an aspect of the real case where the brothers got caught due to Erik’s confession of their crime to his therapist Jerome Oziel, played by Dallas Roberts. After the confession, the show starts to make flashbacks of the Menendez brothers’ lives before they got caught, showing how they acted and what they did. 

Later in the story, the boys had to go to court where the truth about the Menedez’ home finally came out. The boys admitted their father had been sexually, physically, and mentally abusing them throughout their whole childhood. The boys claimed that they killed their parents due to the fact they feared their parents were going to kill them. The abuse started when Lyle was six and Erik was only three. 

However, the documentary portrayed Lyle as a completely different person than he is. In the documentary, he was shown to be verbally aggressive to his brother and other people.  In reality, Lyle is a caring man, who loves his brother and family. Not one person who testified said anything negative about Lyle and he was ultimately described positively. 

Another false view of the brothers throughout the documentary was that they were in an “incestuous relationship.” There are many scenes where people get the idea that the boys are in love or where the boys are being oddly physical with each other. Because of this portrayal, Erik’s character was portrayed as gay. In the scenes when Erik is in jail, there are multiple instances where he is shown having sexual interactions with a man. But in reality, Erik is married to his wife Tammi Menendez, and has a 26-year-old daughter named Talia Menendez.

The new documentary dramatized and spread false information about what happened to the Menendez brothers and their parents. The show claims to be a different view on the situation, in reality, it unjustly victimizes the parents. The brothers have been in prison for almost 35 years, all because they wanted their abuse to stop. Interestingly, a contrasting production was released on Netflix, on Monday. Oct. 7. This movie is from the Menendez brothers’ point of view, revealing their true story. It uses interviews that were taken of the Menendez brothers while in jail and their real attorneys. With the making of this movie, there is hope that all the false accusations of the brothers will be cleared up.