Ryan Murphy Hate Account
And the mess of "True Crime"
**CONTENT WARNING: sexual abuse, murder*
Okay listen, I know I’m behind on SATC episodes but I have to take a moment to express my hatred of Ryan Murphy and equally, my confusion????
Here’s the thing, I did watch Glee (Rachel wishes she had what they had!!!!). You really had to be there at the time. I also watched Scream Queens, which was funny until it wasn’t but it did introduce me to Glen Powell’s comedic chops (and his unmatched chemistry with Niecy Nash—need them back together immediately). I’ve seen the American Crime Story shows, and of course, despite his involvement I’ve watched Pose….so I’ve put in the hours!!!!
I refuse to watch anything American Horror Story or anything where Kim Kardashian is involved. I also did not watch1 Dahmer because you know, the families of those murdered by Dahmer said they were hurt by the show and did not want people to support it. And also, frankly, I am sick of these shows that just give more air time to really bad men. We already KNOW the deal with Jeffrey Dahmer, like, hello????????????????? The jury is back (literally) and we didn’t need yet another show about it. Now lest I be a hypocrite, famously I have dabbled in the True Crime world. I grew up watching Cold Case Files episodes, calmed by dulcet tones of Bill Kurtis. I’ve read the books and listened to the podcasts2 and watched the shows and watched the documentaries on a whole host of sickos and devastating stories.
But for many years I’ve also had my limits with this sort of content. I think that often people who make this media are not approaching it in an way that attends to any sort of ethical or political commitments. Somebody like Erin Lee Carr, a documentarian and director, approaches her material in a way that always fascinates me and is clearly rooted in a compassion toward victims and an ability to show all the facets of a situation without pretending that there is necessarily two sides to every single story. There isn’t. I’ve written about the blurring lines between True Crime non-fiction and fictionalized versions of the same stories elsewhere, and my feelings have not changed. Those blurring lines are dangerous.
What I find confusing here is that Ryan Murphy said in the past that the American Crime Story anthology would never touch the story of The Menendez Brothers (or JonBenet). American Crime Story was interesting and relatively well done (with exception of season 2). Season 1 tackled the OJ Simpson trial for the murder of Nicole Brown (he did it). I actually think the show did a relatively good job of showing how and why things went the way they did, and the role that the LAPD’s violence played in the outcome of that trial. Season 2 was Versace and it was bad. Season 3 was Impeachment, which was about Bill Clinton’s abuse of Monica Lewinsky. Again, I think it was relatively well done in terms of exposing the insidiousness of political and media organizations and the ways that they manipulate victims. Do I think that Ryan Murphy is a genius, or that he even has a set of politics that resemble mine or that these shows could only be made by him? No, but I watch things!
However, this isn’t an American Crime Story Story (which was an FX production). This new show, like Dahmer, is for Netflix. And there seems to be a different tone for these Netflix “True Crime” shows than other outlets. Now not to tie my tinfoil hat too tight but it seems suspicious to *me* that he got around his previous statement by making this show part of a different anthology.
This new show, part of his “Monsters” anthology (???), is Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. The trailer reminds the viewer in VERY BIG FONT that this is from the creator of Dahmer (the first instalment of the Monsters anthology). MIND YOU, Jeffrey Dahmer was a serial murderer, rapist, cannibal, and necrophile. The Menendez Brothers were victims of rape and sexual abuse at the hands of their father (while their mother chose to enable this abuse) who then killed said parents. Personally, I would liken them more to Gypsy Rose Blanchard3 than to a prolific serial killer.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the synopsis of this show is:
“While the prosecution argued they were seeking to inherit their family fortune, the brothers claimed — and remain adamant to this day, as they serve life sentences without the possibility of parole — that their actions stemmed out of fear from a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents. Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story dives into the historic case that took the world by storm, paved the way for audiences’ modern-day fascination with true crime and in return asks those audiences: Who are the real monsters?”
Woof…I mean…to what end? The Menendez Brothers killed their parents and they don’t dispute that. The basis of this show seems to drag up the ole debate: do we believe people who speak out against sexual abuse or not? Mind you, the brothers are not the only people to accuse their father, Jose Menendez, of sexual abuse. I am not saying that murder is okay or that the Menendez Brothers are Good People. I really don’t care whether they are or are not. They were abused. They also did murder. Those are both true. The trailer also has, for some inexplicable reason, Erik and Lyle hug shirtless in a way that has some very strange undertones. Some classic Ryan Murphy homoerotic nonsense, if you will. Again: these are victims of incest sexual abuse.
Ultimately, my concern with shows like this is that people assume they are fact. They are not. Shows like this can be well researched and well acted, but they are not documentaries. Documentaries are also not entirely facts—they are facts with a point of view, and they are still up to the discretion of the creative team. But these lines have become so messy that people use these fictional programs as their source of knowledge. The fact that the original OJ Simpson trial was televised, in my opinion, was a problem—and the fact that Court TV exists at the same time as a plethora of fictional and/or dramatized approaches to real stories, is a fucking mess. People watch real trials and real victims on a screen like they’re characters in a TV show—so when they become characters in a TV show the boundaries are beyond repair.
The argument could be made—and has been made—that this show is shedding light on the abuse that Erik and Lyle experienced. And that’s always possible. As I’ve said, my concern or worry is the way in which people binge these shows, eat up these stories, as if they are not real people. As if these stories, these devastating stories, are purely for entertainment. I don’t know why Ryan Murphy keeps getting the money and leeway to do projects (I mean, I obviously do—he makes money and wins awards) but I wish that money went elsewhere. I don’t know why he insists on excavating real-life horrors and honestly I don’t know why actors sign on for them. With your one wild and precious life on earth, with your craft, you want to get inside the mind of a real-life predator? To what end? For what art? And why do people need a Ryan Murphy show—or any dramatized version of “True Crime” (i.e. ‘True’ Crime) to convince them that abuse is real or that something we know happened did indeed happen.4
I know the tone of this newsletter is often facetious and we have a good laugh around here, and yes it is a bit absurd to write a hate letter about some fucking Hollywood guy, but at the same time I really believe in being critical about what we watch, why we watch it, and who makes it. I’ve been writing to write something long-form about that very thing—what our consumption means, if anything—and what I always come back to is that being a hater is always the right thing to do (see I can be facetious and serious at the same time). What I mean is this: discernment is important (in all facets of our lives!). Most of the things that I love I can also critique and I believe I should critique them. Which is why I ended up here in the first place, writing fervently about Carrie Bradshaw.
If none of this was interesting to you…that’s okay! There are lots of other reasons to hate Ryan Murphy:
He treated Angelica Ross like shit and allowed others to be racist and transphobic on the set of Pose
He’s a scab enthusiast, a loser, a narc!!!!
Making Kim Kardashian an “actor”………..
Glee the later years and also the early years
The first one was enough
But Darby you literally just mentioned Niecy Nash and you didn’t watch the show that won her an Emmy? That’s correct. She’s incredible. I also didn’t watch. Two things can be true!! She has an extensive body of work!!!
Yes I need to get that SSDGM part of my tattoo covered
Leave Gyspy alone!!!!!!
I understand the perspective that many these shows expose people who might not have known about these people/subjects to them, but I don’t think that legitimates the need for them in the first place—or the excess of them that we have.