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Netflix viewers are warning on social media about some violent content in the streaming service’s latest hit series, “Monsters: The Lyle & Erik Menendez Story.”
The series is a sequel to Ryan Murphy’s 2022 hit crime drama, Dahmer: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and tells the story of brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez, who murdered their parents in 1989 in Beverly Hills.
Nicholas Alexander Chavez (General Hospital) and Cooper Koch (They/Them) star as the two brothers, while Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny play the parents.
Viewers took to social media to express their shock at the depiction of the murder scene, with many describing it as “extremely graphic”.
“Family, I’m watching Monsters: The Lyle & Erik Menendez Story… They didn’t need to make the scene where his parents were murdered so graphic. It’s awful,” one person wrote.
“The graphic nature of the murder scenes really scared me,” said another. “I know I shouldn’t be scared because it’s Ryan Murphy, but it was horrifying to watch. Both boys are so amazing.”
Someone else simply wrote: “Gahlee, Monsters is so graphic.”
The series has topped Netflix’s most-watched TV shows charts, overtaking the streaming service’s most recent hit, The Perfect Couple.
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Javier Bardem “Monsters” (Miles Crist/NETFLIX)
In her three-star review of the series for The Independent, Katie Roceinski wrote, “It’s easy to see why Ryan Murphy was drawn to the case at the heart of his new Netflix film, Monsters: The Lyle & Erik Menendez Story: In 1996, the brothers were convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1989. They gunned down the multimillionaire couple as they watched TV in their Beverly Hills mansion.”
“The guilty verdicts came after two high-profile trials, the first of which was broadcast live on the relatively new channel, Court TV. America was enthralled by this story, which had all the elements necessary for a Murphy film adaptation. A brutal crime? A whirlwind of press coverage? A display of enormous wealth? Tick-tock, tick-tock.”
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New subscribers only. ยฃ8.99/month after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
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She continued: “Thankfully, this latest installment in the monster series is free of the brutal excesses of Dahmer, but it also feels like a jumble of the best and worst of Murphy’s work, which will please his legions of fans but may be a bit jarring for his detractors.”
Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez is currently streaming on Netflix.