The first trailer for Netflix and Ryan Murphy's second season Monster explores the claims of real-life brothers Lyle and Eric Menendez that they suffered years of sexual abuse at the hands of their father, José Menendez.
The teaser for Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez opens with a family photo shoot and a smiling Kitty Menendez, played by Chloë Sevigny, asking her husband José (Javier Bardem) in a hushed tone, “I need to know what's going on with you and the boys.”
Newcomers Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch, who play brothers Lyle and Erik, respectively, stand silently and smilingly on their parents’ shoulders in the background. “It’s over. Stop. I’m going to fix this family,” José replies before he and his wife stand and leave the photo session.
During the original 1993 trial for the murder of their parents, the Menendez brothers claimed they shot José and Kitty Menendez in self-defense after years of sexual abuse at the hands of their father and with their mother's knowledge. The trailer ends with the Menendez brothers embracing.
“It's just us now,” one brother says to the other.
The second season of the monsters The series has a synopsis that reads: “While prosecutors claimed they were trying to inherit the family fortune, the brothers claimed — and remain adamant to this day, as they serve life sentences without the possibility of parole — that their actions stemmed from fear of a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse from their parents. Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez dives into the historic case that took the world by storm, pioneered the public's modern fascination with true crime, and in return asks that public: Who are the real monsters?”
The second season cast includes Nathan Lane, who plays investigative journalist Dominick Dunne, and Ari Graynor as criminal attorney Leslie Abramson. The Menendez case was a media sensation in the early 1990s, and monsters he is the last to have adapted the story for the big screen.
Fox and CBS aired TV movies about the murders in 1994, Lifetime aired Menendez: Blood Brothers in 2017 and Law & Order: True Crime on NBC also focused on the case, with Edie Falco playing Abramson. Peacock's 2023 documentary Menendez + Menudo: Betrayed Boys It starred Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo, who claimed he was sexually assaulted by José Menendez when he was a teenager.