From ‘Monsters: Menendez Brothers’ to ‘Making a murderer’: Why is true crime so successful?

‘We want to know what that thing is that makes us freak out’, says Javier Bardem in an interview with g1. Cheaper and ‘addictive’, this genre is a favorite among studios and the public. Cast of ‘Monsters: Menendez Brothers’ talks about true crime Since it premiered on the 19th, “Monsters: Menendez Brothers: Parents’ Killers” has been a good example of the fascination that the true crime genre has on the public. Despite the exaggerated use of colons in a single title, the series was the most watched in the week of its release on Netflix in the United States – thanks to its version starring Javier Bardem (“Dune 2”) of the true story of one of the most shocking murders of the 1980s. “Why do we like watching things like this so much?” asks the actor, Oscar winner for “No Country for Old Men” (2007). He responds himself. “We want to know more about ourselves. What that thing is that makes us freak out. How we deal with our own fears and ghosts and trauma and pain.” In the series, the Spaniard plays the father of a rich and influential family who was murdered, along with his wife (Chloë Sevigny), by his own children (Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez) in 1989. The crime dominated the American news at the time – at least least until the trial of former American football player OJ Simpson (1947-2024), suspected of killing his ex-wife. Nicholas Alexander Chavez, Chloë Sevigny, Javier Bardem and Cooper Koch in a scene from ‘Monsters: Menendez Brothers: Parents’ Killers’ Disclosure There’s Nowhere to Run “True crime has been around for a long time. People are fascinated by why these things happen, and why people commit these crimes”, recalls Nathan Lane, who plays a journalist who covered the case. The actor is a good example of true crime’s big moment. In addition to being part of the cast of the season of “American Crime Story” that covered the OJ case (a series also created by Ryan Murphy, as well as “Monsters”), he was in the early years of “Only murders in the building”, a comedy that parodies the genre. “On every streaming platform you turn on there are at least three or four of these types of shows. (Like a) true crime documentary about whatever happened in a small town in Ohio. But, yeah, it seems like it’s here for to stay.” He links the recent boom to the success of “Making a murderer”, a documentary series that won over viewers around the world in 2015, but it is possible to go back a little further. In 2014, the podcast “Serial” became a phenomenon when it told the story of a young man convicted of murdering his girlfriend, despite several doubts about his guilt. It was so successful that, in 2020, the New York Times newspaper bought the production company responsible for US$25 million. Two years later, a judge overturned the conviction of the boy, Adnan Syed. Chloë Sevigny, Javier Bardem, Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch in a scene from ‘Monsters: Menendez Brothers: Parents’ Killers’ Disclosure The mystery of the mystery But it’s not just the curiosity for the macabre that motivates the enchantment for true crime. A 2010 study from the University of Illinois indicates that women are more attracted to the genre than men – interested in stories that show how victims (especially female victims) fled and what leads killers to act that way. There is also a highly addictive content to the mysteries, which keeps the public engaged in a time of “marathonable” series. Even when the criminal is already known, there is the challenge of finding out how, or why. Furthermore, productions of this type tend to be considerably cheaper than those of other genres – especially, of course, documentaries. And productions can still rely on investigations already carried out in trials to save even more. Studios still take advantage of the interest generated by one work to launch another. On October 7th, Netflix also releases the documentary “The Case of the Menendez Brothers”. “It’s also a good story. It keeps you hooked when you’re trying to figure something out and want to know more. It keeps you hooked, which is why, of course, the studios know what people want. So they keep doing it,” says Ari Graynor (“Lakers: Time to Win”). In the series, she plays the defense lawyer who fell in love with the youngest of the accused brothers. “It is revealing of the deepest parts of humanity, about which we have the least amount of understanding.” Nicholas Alexander Chavez, Ari Graynor and Cooper Koch in a scene from ‘Monsters: Menendez Brothers: Parents’ Killers’ Disclosure ‘We are all accomplices’ Just like the previous season, which portrayed the murders of Jeffrey Dahmer (1960-1994), “Menendez Brothers ” has been the target of criticism. Erik Menendez, for example, complained about the way his story was portrayed. “I thought that the lies and biased representations that recreated Lyle were a thing of the past, that they had created a caricature of Lyle based on horrible and blatant lies and that they now abound again in the series,” he said on social media. He is currently serving a life sentence without parole for the death of his parents. “It is saddening to me that Netflix’s dishonest depiction of the tragedies surrounding our crime has moved the painful truths several steps back in time, to a time when the prosecution constructed a narrative based on a belief system that men were not sexually abused and that men experienced the trauma of rape differently than women.” The cast, of course, defends the work, which shows different points of view of the episode. Among them, the defendants’ defense that they had suffered sexual abuse from their father since childhood. “I actually wanted the end of ‘Monsters’ to have a question mark, because that’s kind of the point. We’re asking the audience to be the jury,” says Koch (“They/them: Camp”), performer of the youngest. “I think the series wants to present many different realities. Many different perspectives on the murders, the events that led to them and the repercussions that came after,” says Chavez (“General Hospital”), who plays the older man. Sevigny (Oscar nominee for “Boys Don’t Cry”) is more categorical about who the real “monsters” in the series are – and the role of fans of the genre. “I think parents are monsters. Kids are monsters. Kids are victims. Parents are victims. The media is a monster. It’s like we’re all complicit, in a way.” Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch in a scene from ‘Monsters: Menendez Brothers: Killers of Their Parents’



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