Ryan Murphy just gave his first response to Monsters: Lyle and Erik Menendez Story backlash

Ryan Murphy has been long under fire for his handling of true crime series, and his sequel to Dahmer with Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Story on Netflix has received similar backlash and condemnation from those involved. Erik Menendez on Friday released a statement via his wife from prison calling out how Ryan Murphy chose to portray the brothers in the show – and for the first time Ryan Murphy has addressed the backlash head on with a blunt statement defending Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and his methods of portraying the narrative.

In a video for ET, Ryan Murphy was asked directly about the backlash to Monsters and in a statement said “I have many things to say about [the backlash]. I think it’s interesting that he’s issued a statement without having seen the show. It’s really, really hard if it’s your life to see your life up on screen. The thing that I find interesting is that he doesn’t mention in his quote that if you watch the show, I would say that 60 – 65 per cent of our show in the scripts and in the film form centre around the abuse, and what they claim happened to them. And we do it very carefully, and we give them their day in court and they talk openly about it in this age where people can talk about sexual abuse.

“Talking about it and writing about it and writing about all points of view can be controversial. It’s a Rashoman kind of approach, where there were four people involved, two of them are dead. What about the parents? We had an obligation as storytellers to also try and put in their perspective based on our research, which we did.”

The ET interviewer then asks Ryan Murphy about the Monsters backlash regarding the incestuous implied relationship between Lyle and Erik in the show, to which Ryan’s statement response is “If you watch the show, what the show is doing is presenting the points of view and theories from so many people who were involved in the case. Dominick Dunne wrote several articles talking about that theory. We are presenting his point of view just as we did Leslie Abramson’s point of view. We had an obligation to show all of that. And we did.”

The response comes in the wake of Erik Menendez saying the following regarding Monsters. Erik shared “I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show. I can only believe they were done so on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say, 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 to know 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 women. Those awful lies have been disputed and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out. So now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander.

“Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth. How demoralizing to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma. Violence is never an answer, never a solution, and is always tragic. As such, I hope it is never forgotten that violence against a child creates a hundred horrendous and silent crime scenes darkly shadowed behind glitter and glamor and rarely exposed until tragedy penetrates everyone involved. To all those who have reached out and supported me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

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• Cooper Koch ‘cares immensely’ about Menendez brothers and ‘stands with them’ amid Monsters backlash

• Um, Kim Kardashian just visited Erik and Lyle Menendez in prison after Monsters backlash

• Wait, did Erik Menendez actually meet OJ Simpson in prison or was it made up for Monsters?

Featured image by Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.