The first season of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s anthology series Monsters saw Evan Peters deliver a stunning performance as notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. While this second season is never quite as explosive as the one that preceded it, there are still some moments of excellent television here…
In 1996, two wealthy brothers were arrested for the murder of their parents. The boys claimed that they had been physically and sexually abused for years prior to the incident and that the murders were actually committed in an act of desperate self-defence. While Cooper Koch and Nicholas Chavez are excellent as Erik and Lyle Menendez respectively, it is Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny who steal the show as their parents. Bardem particularly is utterly terrifying and the episodes in which he doesn’t feature much are the least accomplished of the series.
While there is still the faint whiff of exploitation about both seasons of Monsters, there is no doubt that Murphy and Brennan know how to tell a story. Despite being perhaps two episodes too long, this second season still had me hooked from the very first episode and I flew through the final three episodes in one gruesome flurry.
While both seasons of Monsters play on society’s worst impulses they are also captivating and pulsating television. Another success.
