Did You Catch This Huge Anachronism in the Netflix Menéndez Brothers Series?

This error is already being likened to the infamous Starbucks cup in Game of Thrones. Fans of Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menéndez, Netflix’s latest hit series, believe they’ve spotted an anachronism that could rival the GOT blunder.

Right now, it seems like everyone on Netflix is tuned into the new installment of the anthology series by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, following up on Dahmer: Monster – The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer, this time focusing on the Menéndez brothers’ case.

And the series certainly continues to generate buzz. While fans are calling it the “greatest acting performance ever,” the Menéndez family has attacked Netflix and Ryan Murphy for “outright lies” presented in the show. Meanwhile, other viewers have noticed a significant anachronism in the episodes.

As a reminder, the series covers the highly publicized 1989 case of the Menéndez brothers, who were convicted of murdering their parents. Erik and Lyle indeed shot Jose Menéndez and his wife, Mary Louise, known as “Kitty,” in their Beverly Hills home. The brothers claimed years of alleged sexual, emotional, and physical abuse as their motive, but prosecutors argued that the killings were motivated by a desire to inherit the family fortune.

In the series, the brothers are played by Cooper Koch (Erik) and Nicholas Alexander Chavez (Lyle), while Jose and Kitty are portrayed by Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny, respectively.

A Noisy Anachronism

The key point here is that the show is obviously set in the 80s-90s as it explores the events surrounding the murders and the infamous court case. With that said, viewers were a bit puzzled by an item they spotted in a scene: a special doorbell…

“Well, nothing says the 80s like a Ring doorbell. Great job,” joked a fan on X (formerly Twitter). “I’m watching something on Netflix right now set in 1989 and there was a Ring doorbell in the background!!!!! How is that possible?? Lol!!!!,” another exclaimed.

Indeed, many think they’ve spotted a bit of 21st-century technology in the form of Ring-type doorbells with small attached cameras. As another user pointed out: “Now, why is there a Ring doorbell in this scene set in the 80s?”

While some were “completely baffled” by the error, others were simply amused, comparing it to the “good old” Starbucks cup from Game of Thrones and even declaring that this mistake could be “worse than the Game of Thrones coffee cup” (via PureBreak)!

One of them continued jokingly: “I’m sure the brothers teleported 30 years into the future for that scene. Why not? It’s just as realistic as the rest of the plot.”

Although it’s a relatively minor slip-up in terms of “fiction,” Erik Menéndez has indeed accused the series of “blatant lies.”

He has published the following statement from his prison (read in full here): “I believed we had moved beyond lies and destructive character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies that abound in the series. I can only believe they were done intentionally. It is with a heavy heart that I say this: I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be so naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives to act in such a manner without malice.”

Did the series tell the truth about the Menéndez brothers? We separate fact from fiction in this article!

Regardless, accurate or not, the series is a hit: two weeks after its release, it remains number one on Netflix, where it is exclusively available.