The latest episode of Ryan Murphy’s Monster Series, Monster: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendezimmediately shot to the top of the streamer’s most-watched list following its release last week. However, the true-crime series was also quickly criticized for suggesting that the two convicted murderers had more than just a bond and developed a sexual relationship.

The backlash against the series – which came just as a new Netflix docuseries from the Menendez brothers was announced, in which the two co-starred – came on Friday, a day after the nine-part fictionalization of the 1989 murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez and its aftermath premiered on the streamer. First, a wave of comments from the Menendez supporter community, which has grown recently on TikTok and Instagram, flooded social media as viewers took issue with suggestions in the script by Murphy and co-creator Ian Brennan that the brothers were also lovers. Then Erik Menendez himself spoke out, condemning the series as “lies and ruinous character portrayals.”

Murphy’s show alludes to possible incest at several points, and is as much about the journey of generational trauma as it is about the American obsession with material wealth and poking fun at the more questionable trends of early 1990s Los Angeles (the show’s soundtrack is steeped in Milli Vanilli).

In the second episode, the brothers kiss briefly after Lyle puts his hands on Erik’s neck. Later in the same sequence, Lyle is seen interrupting Erik as he dances with a woman at a party in her room at the Hotel Bel-Air, then wiping cocaine from his nose and putting his thumb in his brother’s mouth. Later, in a sixth episode sequence that is pretty clearly implied to be a moment of fantasy, mother Kitty Menendez climbs a staircase to find her sons showering together.

Lyle testified at their second joint trial that he had never had a sexual relationship with his brother. Robert Rand, who wrote the definitive book about the brothers’ crimes in 2018, The Menendez Murderswhich represents the culmination of my intensive reporting as a reporter since the day after the murders, said The Hollywood Reporter He said the same thing on the phone this weekend, describing the brothers as traditional athletes who do not use drugs.

Rand stated that the portrayal of the brothers’ relationship as likely incestuous was incorrect and that the series only portrayed the idea of ​​the brothers’ relationship that existed in the minds of the people around them.

“I don’t think Erik and Lyle Menendez were ever lovers. I think that’s a fantasy that Dominick Dunne (the reporter played by Nathan Lane in the series) had in his head,” Rand explained. “During the trial, rumors circulated that there may have been some strange relationship between Erik and Lyle himself. But I think the only physical contact they may have had is what Lyle testified, which is that when Lyle was 8 years old, he took Erik out into the woods and played with him with a toothbrush – which (their father) José had done with him. And so I certainly wouldn’t call that a sexual relationship of any kind. It’s a reaction to trauma.”

Lyle Menendez’s testimony in court was just as explosive in the courtroom as it was in the series, Rand said. The experienced journalist said THR that in the courtroom that day, both reporters and jurors burst into tears as the man accused of murder described how he subsequently passed on the abuse he had suffered at the hands of his father to Erik.

In the series, Lyle, played by Nicholas Alexander Chavez, confesses this in a private conversation with his lawyer Leslie Abramson, played by Ari Graynor, and describes the abuse he and his brother suffered at the hands of their father José.

The Menendez brothers are currently incarcerated at the Donovan Correctional Facility in California and do not have Netflix access while in prison. Erik Menendez likely received a description of the show’s portrayal of him and Lyle from his wife. And while he did not mention the decision to include the incestuous reference in his statement Friday, he seemed appalled by the overall portrayal of him and his brother. While the show portrays the brothers as victims of abuse, he believes it also condemns them in the same way the justice system did when they were found guilty by a jury of premeditated premeditated murder with the special circumstances of lying in wait and multiple counts of murder.

In his statement, posted on social media by his wife Tammi Menendez, Erik said, “I thought we had moved beyond the lies and devastating character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle based on horrific and blatant likes that were rampant on the show. I can only believe they were done on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I must say that I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be so naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives to do this without malicious intent.”

“It saddens me to know that Netflix, with its dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime, has pushed the painful truths back several steps – back to an era when prosecutors built a narrative on the belief system that men were not sexually assaulted and that men experienced rape trauma differently than women,” Erik Menendez continued. “These horrific lies have been refuted and exposed over the past two decades by countless brave victims who have overcome their personal shame and courageously spoken out about it. And now Murphy is shaping his horrific narrative through vile and horrifying character portrayals of Lyle and me and disheartening slanders.”

Neither Murphy nor Netflix have yet publicly responded to Menendez’s statement on Friday about the series, all episodes of which are now being streamed and which is the No. 1 series in the US on the platform. The Hollywood Reporter When asked for comment on Monday, he received no response from Murphy or Netflix.