# Monsters (2024)

> A nine-episode dramatization of the Menéndez brothers' trial and the abuse they said drove them to kill their wealthy parents.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/144229

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 9
- Episode runtime: 55 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, crime
- Created by: Ryan Murphy, Ian Brennan
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Javier Bardem, Chloë Sevigny, Cooper Koch, Nicholas Alexander Chavez, Dallas Roberts, Jason Butler Harner, Leslie Grossman, Jeff Perry
- TMDB rating: 7.6/10

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: graphic
- Tone: harrowing, claustrophobic, morally unsettling, tense, bleak

## What critics say

Critics broadly praise the committed lead performances and the period true-crime drama, while debating its liberties with the real case and its portrayal of the abuse allegations.

## Synopsis

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (2024) is a US true crime limited series created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan for Netflix. Javier Bardem plays the imperious entertainment executive José Menendez, and Chloë Sevigny plays his wife Mary Louise 'Kitty' Menendez, while Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez play the brothers Erik and Lyle at the center of the story. Across nine episodes the drama moves between the brothers' privileged Beverly Hills household and the courtroom that followed the 1989 killings, building its engine from the question of whether the sons were predators or the abused. Its structure alternates family scenes, investigators working the case and attorneys shaping the defense, so each episode turns a new piece of evidence into a new moral reckoning. The tone is harrowing, claustrophobic and morally unsettling, with a glossy surface cracking over a long simmer of dread. Fans of The People v. O.J. Simpson and Dirty John will find resonance in its dramatization of a notorious family tragedy told as prestige television.

## Shows like Monsters

- [Law & Order True Crime (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/63214)
- [DAHMER - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/94984)
- [Untitled Murdaugh Murders Series (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/177850)
- [The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/55384)
- [The Act (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/70758)
- [Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story (2026)](https://ember.film/tv/1104986)
- [American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/188489)
- [The Staircase (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/101461)
- [Love & Death (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/103595)
- [Dirty John (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/71047)

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