Season 1 of this Netflix series horrified subscribers: the sequel comes out this week, and it promises to be frightening once again.
Netflix has been specializing in “true crime” for many years now, often documentary productions that tell the story of true crime, involving the protagonists of the case. Building on the success of these programs, the streaming platform began to develop fiction inspired by real sordid crimes to trace the psychology of their perpetrators. After Mindhunter Or The Serpentit’s the anthology series Monsters which was a real hit with its first season released in 2022, focusing on the troubled psyche of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
Created by Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story) and Ian Brennan, Monster: Dahmer had been such a success (with 115 million views, it ranks third among the most popular English-language series produced by Netflix on the platform) that a sequel was ordered. But season 2 will focus on another, equally sordid true story that has made headlines in the United States: that of Lyle and Erik Menendez.
These two brothers were accused, on August 20, 1989, of having murdered their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. Their trial was highly publicized across the Atlantic, as it was broadcast by the Court TV channel, fourteen years after the events. The question of the motive for this double murder is also at the center of the legal battle, since the two brothers accuse their father of having committed incestuous abuse against them, while the question of the financial motive (their parents’ fortune amounted to 15 million dollars) is also raised. At the end of the trial, Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole.
This is the whole affair that season 2 of the anthology series was born with Dahmerrenamed Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendezwill dissect. In the cast, Javier Bardem (No country for old men, Dune) lends his features to the father of the two criminals and gives the reply to Chloë Sevigny (American Psycho) in that of Kitty Menendez.
The two protagonists of the case are played by two young American actors who are little known in France, Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch. The 9 episodes of season 2 of Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez are released on Netflix on September 19, 2024.