Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (Netflix series)

Six episodes in and enjoying it so far, although seems a bit overlong.

Ep5 is a statement in making a TV episode - You'll see what I mean

I finished it off the other day and thought it was quite good.

Not as good as the previous series on Dahmer, which was structurally more sound and wasn't so mired in unreliable narrators, so-to-speak, but at the same time the lack of easy answers is part of the mystery of the case.

There's a documentary about the case coming next month, also.

Lots of interesting angles and points of view, although there's certain things that I'd say kinda blow the case wide open for really believing much of what they said (or at the very least one of them) ... not that the numpties of TikTok will care, mind you. Half-read a couple of aspects of a multi-faceted case? Sure, you know everything, don't you?  

Anyway - very good series, albeit not quite as bang-on as the Dahmer one was. Excellent performances all-round, especially from the two lads playing the brothers - superb stuff.

Side note: I was watching a documentary about the making of Fright Night and, so it goes, the sequel didn't get much of a release (unlike what was anticipated) because Jose Menendez was murdered, and him and Live Entertainment were the distributors IIRC.

Assume you noticed how clever ep5 was?

"There's a documentary about the case coming next month, also." - I'll keep an eye out for that.

Neil wrote:Assume you noticed how clever ep5 was?

Aye, you bet I did.

Was a statement bit of TV making wasn't it - I wonder how many takes they did? Imagine if 20 mins in, if someone fluffed a line, or a fly came and landed on someone.

Neil wrote:Was a statement bit of TV making wasn't it - I wonder how many takes they did? Imagine if 20 mins in, if someone fluffed a line, or a fly came and landed on someone.

I wonder if those actors had any stage training - if so, then the odds would be they'd be able to manage it better than an actor who hasn't been treading the boards.

Then again, if you're worth your salt and can memorise all of that (and there was a lot of it for the guy in particular), then yeah ... or imagine if they're both nailing it but then there's a camera fault or a light blows right near the end?  

That episode has definitely made a splash and been getting plaudits on the interwebz, for sure.

Just watched the documentary about them on Netflix (came out today, Oct 7th) ... well ... it's not what you'd call 'balanced', seemingly only interested in the defense side and paying only the most cursory glances towards the prosecution.

And the bulk of its angle seems based on the recent telephone conversations with the brothers themselves ... hmmmm.

Oh... That doesn't sound good. Do you think it was trying to push the most dramatic side of the story for viewing figures, rather than the most balanced?

Neil wrote:Oh... That doesn't sound good. Do you think it was trying to push the most dramatic side of the story for viewing figures, rather than the most balanced?

The primary interest seemed to be the child abuse part. Anything that cast serious doubt over the brothers was either skipped over, only touched upon briefly, or taken from a different angle to shift blame elsewhere - e.g. Lyle's conversations over the phone where he's boasting about making it all up or playing the jury like a fiddle etc? This doc basically slags off the woman who wrote that book, painting her as some loser in her fifties who was sore that Lyle wasn't interested in her ... on the basis of??? Not sure, exactly - it was very vague in its dismissing of her and, indeed, what Lyle was saying on those tapes - but a dismissal nonetheless.

Things like that made it a disappointing watch and made it seem very one-sided and not really interested in exploring all the angles. Even the selection of family photos is all skewed towards making a picture that could very well be totally inocuous seem creepy or hiding some obvious truth or something.

I'll think on the back of your comments then I'll skip it? Yeh?

Neil wrote:I'll think on the back of your comments then I'll skip it? Yeh?

Yeah, I don't think you're really missing much. The show covered much more ground, and this doc doesn't really add anything new you haven't already heard from the show.