When the first season of Monster took on the Jeffrey Dahmer case, it was not without controversy. Did the true crime drama make people sympathize a little too much with the multiple murderer? In season 2, the case is even more complicated, because Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) and Erik Menendez (Cooper Koch) are not serial killers – the brothers killed their own parents after years of abuse.
We took a look: What do the first reviews say about Monster: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez? Can the true case once again cast its spell as a true crime series from Netflix?
First reactions to Monster Season 2 on Netflix: This is how critics receive the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez
Joel Keller from Decider initially wondered whether another Ryan Murphy-style series was necessary after so many documentaries and film adaptations of the double murder case. In his positive review, he comes to the following conclusion:
Monster: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez takes a fairly well-known story and makes it through slight shifts in the narrative and some excellent performances captivating.
Most others had more mixed feelings, including Katie Rosseinsky of the Independent. She writes:
Thankfully, this latest installment in the monster series lacks the gruesome excesses of Dahmer. But it also feels like a muddled Mixture of the best and the worst of Murphy’s oeuvre It will likely please his legions of fans, but may leave his critics a little uneasy.
Nick Schager of The Daily Beast also joins the ranks of critical voices, saying that Murphy fans in particular will get their money’s worth:
Monster: The story of Lyle and Erik Menendez is often accompanied by the sounds of Milli Vanilli, Lyle’s favorite band, and is typical Murphy, both profound and superficialconcise and unusual.
Aramide Tinubu, like many others, praised the performances, but otherwise had a little less love for the second monster season in her rather negative Variety review. The series falls apart, especially after the fifth episode (which is often cited as a highlight):
The awkward sound that between menace and light camp falters (there’s a shocking toupee and over-the-top homoeroticism), implodes in on itself, and the remaining episodes are a repetitive slog.
Anyone who wants to see for themselves has since 19 September 2024 the opportunity to do so. All nine episodes from the second Monster season, aka Monster: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, have gone online at once. And the topic of the third season has already been decided: It will deal with the notorious serial killer Ed Gein, who inspired films such as Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.