Netflix is out with its latest weekly snapshot of the biggest TV shows on the platform, and once again the #1 series worldwide is showrunner Ryan Murphy’s latest project. It’s a continuation of his Monsters anthology, this time focused on the real-life 1989 murders of José and Kitty Menéndez by their two sons, Erik and Lyle.
I, for one, don’t usually go for murder mysteries, and I have to confess: I’ll take almost anything over a Ryan Murphy project, as his shows and movies tend to be some of the darkest and most twisted stuff you’ll find on Netflix. Murphy’s projects, almost as a rule, tend to be seriously unpleasant and extremely disturbing (“Seriously Unpleasant and Extremely Disturbing” — that actually sounds like it could be the title of a future Murphy project), but I’m obviously in the minority compared to all you heathens out there.
Netflix Top 10 shows (Sept. 23-Sept. 29)
Here’s a look at this week’s complete list of the Top 10 English-language shows on Netflix.
- Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story — 19.5 million views
- Nobody Wants This (Season 1) — 10.3 million views
- The Perfect Couple — 6 million views
- Mr. McMahon — 4.9 million views
- Emily in Paris (Season 4) — 4.2 million views
- The Resident (Season 1) — 3.3 million views
- Prison Break (Season 1) — 2.8 million views
- Prison Break (Season 2) — 2.4 million views
- Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval — 2.4 million views
- Prison Break (Season 3) — 2.1 million views
To learn more about some of this week’s other most-watched series, you can go deeper by checking out our previous coverage of several of the Netflix originals on this list — including Emily in Paris, as well as the murder mystery drama The Perfect Couple.
One additional note: It will be interesting to watch whether the new romantic comedy Nobody Wants This — which has a 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes — improves its viewership next week, since the current viewing window only captured four days of viewing. For now, though, let’s focus on the biggest Netflix TV series in the world at the moment.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story — #1 on Netflix
Our previous coverage of the new Monsters installment is available right here. In short, the show (which is a Top 10 Netflix series this week in 89 countries) stars Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny as Jose and Kitty Menendez, while Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez play Erik and Lyle, respectively.
Throughout the season, we learn what may have driven them to commit the heinous act of killing their parents, in addition to watching the trial unfold that followed their arrest and imprisonment.
Here’s what Netflix says about the new installment of Monsters: “Following the massive success of Dahmer, Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology series returns with Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, chronicling the case of the real-life brothers who were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, José and Mary Louise ‘Kitty’ Menendez.”
The prosecution argued that the brothers were doing what it took to inherit their family fortune, while the brothers claimed that their actions were the result of a lifetime of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse perpetrated by their parents — a claim that the brothers, who are serving life sentences with no possibility of parole, adamantly maintain to this day. Erik, I should add, has released a statement from prison criticizing the Netflix series, saying it promotes “vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander.”
Murphy, asked about that comment while on a New York red carpet for the premiere of another show he’s launching (Grotesquerie on FX), is the kind of showrunner who basically shoots back that Erik doesn’t know what he’s talking about, bless his heart — they don’t get Netflix in prison.
