Less than three weeks after the debut of Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, Netflix delivered The Menendez brothersa two-hour documentary that is both biased and clearer on the case than the limited series.

The Ryan Murphy/Ian Brennan drama offers multiple explanations for the brothers’ motives, but the central one is consistent with what prosecutors argued: that the siblings ruthlessly blew away their parents, José and Kitty Hernandez, with a pair of high-caliber shotguns 12, so she could inherit the family fortune. The documentary, directed by Alejandro Hartmann, more clearly sides with the brothers’ version of events, alleging that years of sexual abuse by their father, who had threatened to kill them if they ever told anyone, led the pair to to commit such a heinous crime. .

While the limited series extensively explores how the boys were abused and psychologically destroyed by their father, the documentary goes a step further by suggesting that the pair should have been convicted of manslaughter rather than first-degree murder because they were victims who suffered mentally were vomiting and not cold. murderers who premeditated the crime. That perspective, based in part on 20 hours of recent jailhouse phone conversations with the Menendez brothers, will undoubtedly be embraced by supporters of the siblings, who, along with Erik Menendez himself, criticized Monsters for its inaccuracy and questioning the brothers’ claims of abuse. Prosecutors and many members of the public at the brothers’ trials believed the two had made up the abuse story, and one of those accusers, Pamela Bozanich, appears in the documentary claiming, “That whole defense was made up.” It’s artfully done, but it’s made up.”

Because Hartmann is so committed to empathizing with the brothers, the story he unfolds is simpler than that Monsters and provides useful additional context. But it also ignores crucial details about the case being raised Monstersmaking it too one-sided to qualify as the definitive examination of the brothers’ story. As the point of The Menendez brothers is to set the record straight about their case, it should address all those facts. Here’s how the two projects compare in key ways.

José Menendez was arguably worse than Monsters suggests.
In the limited series, José is depicted as emotionally and physically abusive towards his sons – he routinely berates and belittles them, in public and private. The series also alleges that he sexually abused them through emotional confessions in which Erik and Lyle, privately and on the witness stand, describe how he abused and raped them while their mother turned a blind eye. But because Monsters also provides equally compelling evidence that the brothers fabricated the abuse story; you may walk away from the last episode thinking José was bad, but maybe not That bad.

The Menendez brothers completely strips the viewer of that idea. Both Erik and Lyle maintain that their father began abusing them starting at the age of six, and both talk about the shame they had to deal with to feel comfortable talking about it. In footage of the 1993 trial, both brothers appear genuinely pained as they describe the abuse they suffered, and in one of the audio interviews, Lyle discusses his ongoing efforts to help fellow survivors of abuse in prison. All of this behavior seems at odds with people making up traumatic stories. Aside from Bozanich’s comments that their defense is “fabricated,” the documentary takes the Menendezes at their word. Monsters does so only partially.

More compelling are interviews with family members, especially niece Diane Vander Molen, who says, as she did during the 1993 trial, that Lyle told her his father was molesting him, but when Vander Molen brought Kitty Melendez into that conversation, the mother brushed it off away from himself. .

Even Bozanich is a testament to how mean the elder Menendez was. “I couldn’t find anyone who could say anything nice about José Menendez, except his secretary,” she says. “The loss of José Menendez was, in my opinion, a real plus for humanity.” And this is someone who still doesn’t believe the boys were actually abused by him.

The OJ Simpson connection is more interesting and relevant then Monsters suggests.
The limited series features several scenes referencing OJ Simpson, including one in which he is placed in a cell next to Erik shortly after he is arrested for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. But the Simpson case is also important in ways that the drama doesn’t explore as deeply. Opening statements in the Menendez brothers’ second trial, which followed an earlier mistrial, began a week after the not guilty verdict was returned in the OJ trial. In the aftermath of that verdict, the documentary claims that the legal system immediately began to crack down on suspects, especially high-profile suspects like the Menendez brothers. “This will be bad for the boys, and for everyone else,” Erik’s attorney, Leslie Abramson, said in an archival interview. “It will be a payback.”

This is why the judge forbade the defense from bringing up Erik or Lyle’s abuse during the second trial, and, according to the film, a major reason why the brothers deserve to have their case reconsidered. Monsters certainly acknowledges this – in episode nine, one of their lawyers, Leslie Abramson, played by Ari Graynor, notes that LA County District Attorney Gil Garcetti is concerned about re-election and that’s why “they’re trying to undermine our case” – but it doesn’t connect those dots as clearly as the documentary does.

The documentary provides more cultural context for the process.
Monsters certainly touches on the idea that, by the time of their second trial, the public soured on the Menendez brothers and showed a clip of The tonight show to drive that point home. But a documentary, which relies more heavily on archival footage, can evoke a time period in a way that a scripted series can’t quite achieve. The Menendez brothers also contains footage from various talk shows Saturday evening livewhere the name became a regular punch line. (“These two arrogant brothers are going to fry,” laughs Sandra Bernhard during a conversation with David Letterman.) This context helps explain why people who lived through the 1990s might sound bewildered by the support the Menendezes have found on TikTok — their perception of The case was shaped by public opinion at the time, when society was much less sympathetic to abuse survivors, especially men.

The Menendez brothers never suggests that the boys were incestuous.
Both projects include the moment on the witness stand when Lyle apologizes to his brother for once abusing him when they were children. But The Menendez brothers provides no evidence that the two ever had a consensual, incestuous relationship Monsters features several homoerotic and downright sexual moments between the two, including scenes of provocative dancing at a party, a kiss and a sensual shared shower. Those choices seem even more baffling and distasteful after watching this documentary, which shows the real Lyle embarrassed on the witness stand over his abuse of Erik.

The documentary makes no mention of José Menendez’s will.
While Monsters makes a point of the fact that José Menendez cut the boys out of his will, the film doesn’t address this at all. It’s one of the main reasons the prosecution was able to effectively argue that Erik and Lyle were concerned about money – because their entire inheritance might not come to them. The only reason for that The Menendez brothers The omission of this information is because it does not support the film’s argument.

Their expenses after the murder are hardly discussed.
The limited series happily plays up the excess of the luxury shopathon the brothers embarked on not long after the murders. It’s mentioned in passing in the film, but neither Lyle nor Erik are asked to fully explain why they decided to spend so much money on Rolexes and new cars. Characterizing it as a coping mechanism, Lyle insists that he and his brother were in deep fear at the time, but he never felt pressured to talk about it further.

The construction of alibis by the brothers is not discussed.
Monsters follows the couple as they leave their parents’ house and go first to a movie and then to the Taste of LA festival in an attempt to convince law enforcement that they discovered their parents’ bodies after they were murdered. If there is a reasonable explanation for this, the documentary gives them no opportunity to offer it.

The Menendez brothers never discusses the fact that the brothers’ attorney, Leslie Abramson, used a similar defense in another case.
In MonstersProsecutors and trial observer Dominick Dunne (Nathan Lane) say Abramson, who mounted a defense against abuse in a previous case, simply recycled it for this case, something she denies. Although the limited series mentions this, The Menendez brothers doesn’t, missing another opportunity to shoot down a piece of the “they made it up” theory. (Abramson chose not to participate in the documentary, saying in an emailed statement that appears at the end: “I would like to leave the past in the past. No amount of media, nor teen petitions, will change the fate of these clients. Only the courts can do that, and they have ruled.”)

Allegations that José Menendez abused minors outside his family.
Neither the limited series nor the documentary mention, even on the title card, that Ray Roselló, member of the boy band Menudo, said in a Peacock documentary last year that José Menendez drugged and raped him as a teenager. At the time, Menendez was the head of RCA Records, the studio that signed Menudo.

That revelation prompted Erik and Lyle Menendez to file a petition to overturn their convictions. Last week, the LA District Attorney’s Office announced they would reopen the case to examine new evidence, including Roselló’s allegations. It’s a particularly notable mistake on Hartmann’s part, as this information only strengthens the Menendez brothers’ case. Contrary to Abramson’s comments, this development also suggests that the courts may not be done ruling after all.