Ryan Murphy, ever since season four of American Horror Story, your projects have sucked. It’s clear that you’ve ran out of ideas.
If you’re not familiar with Murphy, he is the director and creator of most seasons of American Horror Story, Glee, and most recently, Monsters. Let’s preface this by stating that this is nothing against the actors or team involved with his projects. This is solely about Ryan Murphy and his tendency to create inaccurate and quite frankly, disgusting “representations,” of real people’s life stories.
In 2022, Dahmer was released, the first season of Monsters. As most know, this show followed the upbringing and fall of serial killer Jeffery Dahmer. After the show aired, opinions on the show flooded social media. Some viewers watched, disgustingly, in awe, swooning over the actor who played the killer – Evan Peters, seemingly forgetting the real message of the show. However, other viewers, like me, argued that there was no indication of the actual message to be shown. It was moreover a glorification of Dahmer. Blaming that outcome, on none other than Ryan Murphy.
Jeffery Dahmer has no reason to be glamorized or sympathized over. At the end of the day, no matter what his story may entail, he still murdered 17 innocent victims, and hurt the lives of so many. Yet Murphy painted Dahmer as if he was just a troubled boy. He wasn’t. He was a grown, sick man.
Meanwhile, season two of Monsters concerns the lives of the Menendez brothers, who murdered their parents who both horrifically abused them. To this day, both of the brothers remain in jail due to their actions. Their season follows their trial, which is infamous within the true crime community. Opinions surrounding whether or not the brothers deserve freedom or do not have been controversial since the early ‘90s when their trial began.
Regardless of feelings about their freedom – their season denied them justice. According to Leslie Abramson, the brothers’ lawyer, the boys were and are not as monstrous as many assumed. The brothers were described as deeply traumatized individuals, who took the lives of their parents as it was self-defense.
Murphy took their story and twisted it, putting the brothers in a spotlight which did not portray them or their story correctly. Lyle and Erik were painted in a negative light, being aggressive, unsettling, and vicious in most scenes.
Why is it that Murphy picks and chooses which crime can be twisted, rather than report the stories the way they had truly happened?
It is because at the very end of the day, he is a businessman, crafting and mending his way to profit off of real people, real victims, and real stories that are not his to tell.