Here's What Is Missing From 'Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Mendez Story' on Netflix

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story continues Netflix's tradition of taking true crime cases and dramatizing them for audiences' viewing pleasure.

The show's four main characters: the Menendez brothers played by Cooper Koch and Alexander Chavez and their parents, portrayed by Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny, follows a unique narrative approach.

Showrunner Ryan Murphy has the perspectives of both the Menendez brothers and their parents covered in the series, but what does Monsters leave out?

According to Menendez trial expert and author Robert Rand, there are actually some things added into the show which he calls "falsities." Chief among them is the "incest" story line he says was included the show but wasn't steeped in any type of truth, which he spoke about with People.

Robert said: "I don’t believe that Erik and Lyle Menendez were ever lovers. I think that’s a fantasy that was in the mind of Dominick Dunne [the reporter in the series portrayed by Nathan Lane]."

The author continued, "Rumors were going around the trial that maybe there was some sort of weird relationship between Erik and Lyle themselves, but I believe the only physical contact they might have had is what Lyle testified."

Robert continued, "When Lyle was 8 years old, he took Erik out in the woods and played with him with a toothbrush — which is what [their father] José had done with him." He concluded by stating that this was the extent to which they had any physical contact with one another.

Erik Menendez also slammed this portrayal of his relationship with his brother on social media, criticizing Ryan Murphy for erroneously airing this speculation about the nature of their dynamic as fact in the series.

"I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant [lies] rampant in the show," Erik stated.

He added, "I can only believe they were done so on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent."

Erik said that Netflix's decision to run this storyline was a blow to the social progress that has been made in recent years as it pertains to men dealing with the trauma of sexual abuse.

"It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward — back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women," he penned.

Erik penned, "Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth. How demoralizing is it to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma."

According to Time, one of the biggest controversies and criticisms surrounding the show is that the series takes more salacious, but contested and not veritably true aspects of the case and gives more attention to that than actual proven facts.

Such as the gruesome nature of the Menendez brothers' crime and the trauma they said they endured at the hands of their father.

However, as the outlet states: "One standout episode sees Koch command a 37-minute single-shot scene where he plainly speaks about the grimness of his childhood, with the constant sexual abuse treated as a kind of banality of evil under harsh fluorescent lights."

Time went on to state, however, that this was "undermined by the series' predilection for smut...when Chavez and Koch are seen soaping each other up in suds in a vanity shot, it’s hard to conclude that the show is prioritizing respect over low-hanging thrills."