Genre: Crime, Drama
Actor: Chloe Sevigny, Cooper Koch, Javier Bardem, Nathan Lane, Nicholas Alexander Chavez
Technically, Monsters is good. This miniseries about the murderous brothers benefits from Director Ryan Murphy’s decades-long expertise in TV. It’s superbly cast and decorated, and like most of Murphy’s work, it has a glossy, addictive quality that makes it hard to skip, much less put down. But also like most of Murphy’s work, it’s highly erotic, which seems wildly inappropriate in this case. There are so many aspects of this story that deserve more attention—namely parental and male abuse and how those are often dismissed—so it’s unfortunate Murphy hones in on the homoeroticism between the brothers, who are played by beautifully sculpted actors. Their relationship is played up to suggest an incestuous fantasy. But meanwhile, in real life, the incarcerated brothers are still trying to prove their abuse to people who care to listen, a group that unfortunately doesn’t include Murphy and the people behind the series.
