'Law & Order' Tackled Menendez Murders 7 Years Before Netflix's 'Monsters'

'Law & Order True Crime' told a dramatized version of the Menendez murders in 2017.

By Megan Behnke

Ryan Murphy's Monsters centers on the infamous Menendez murders in 1989, but Law & Order actually tackled it seven years ago. In 2017, the long-running Dick Wolf franchise went the true crime route with the appropriately titled anthology Law & Order True Crime. The first and only season, subtitled Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, was a dramatization of the trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez, brothers convicted in 1996 for the murder of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez.

Edie Falco, Gus Halper, and Mile Gaston Villanueva starred in the series alongside Anthony Edwards, Julianne Nicholson, Constance Marie, Josh Charles, Sterling Beaumon, Chris Bauer, and Jenny Cooper, among others. The season was just eight episodes long and received a 64% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Falco, who portrayed Kitty Menendez, spoke to Global News in 2017 while the season was airing. She gave her thoughts on the case and how her opinion changed while she was filming it. She admitted she started doing research and reading the script as she agreed to do it. "Little by little, my opinion changed," Falco shared. "A compassion grew on me like a fungus. [Laughs] To think what these boys went through growing up, you know, which is torture. It really is torture. They were supposed to lead somewhat of a normal life after that kind of thing. And to know what was happening to them, first of all, wasn't normal, and second of all, wasn't OK… and these were supposed to be their caretakers! Yes, I started to feel very passionate about it, what they'd been through and what they'd done."

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"Of course, there is a lot of grey area because you can't kill people," she continued. "At the same time, there should be different punishments for different crimes." Law & Order True Crime actually focused more on the child abuse that Lyle and Erik endured by their parents, which gave viewers a different perspective than what the media was doing at the time of the trial. Meanwhile, Monsters will take a look at the case as a whole and the events surrounding the murder.

It's hard to predict what Monsters will or won't be including, as Monster: The Jeffery Dahmer Story faced some controversy. The Ryan Murphy series will certainly be interesting, but fans won't have to wait long to find out how it will compare to Law & Order True Crime. Monsters drops on Sept. 19 on Netflix.

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