When Ryan Murphy’s addictive true-crime anthology series Monster debuted on Netflix in 2022, it not only introduced viewers to Jeffrey Dahmer’s twisted and horrifyingly grotesque crimes — it was also a record-breaking success for the streamer.
It was such a hit, in fact, that the 1 billion viewing hours Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story racked up in its first 60 days of streaming availability put it in rare company. The 10-episode series is one of just four Netflix series, including Squid Game and Stranger Things, to achieve that same milestone. All of which is to say: No wonder Netflix ordered two additional installments of the anthology from Murphy, with the second coming next month (on Sept. 19) and tackling another shocking crime that riveted the US in the ’90s.
Given the new case involves two brothers, the name of the Monster anthology is also changing just slightly. Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story dramatizes the brothers’ killing of their parents in August of 1989, a crime for which they were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
They fatally shot their parents in their Beverly Hills home, with the brothers citing years of abuse during their subsequent trials. But in spite of the brothers remaining adamant to this day that their actions “stemmed out of fear from a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse,” per Netflix, prosecutors argued that the brothers simply wanted to get their hands on the family’s wealth.
As for Monsters, a teaser for which you can check out below, its stars include Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny as the brothers’ parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. Newcomers Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch portray the Menendez brothers, while Nathan Lane also plays investigative journalist Dominick Dunne, who covered the murder trials for Vanity Fair.
Murphy’s previous season of the Monster anthology is the #3 Netflix series of all time, behind only Wednesday Season 1 and Stranger Things Season 4.
