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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
15
Mixed:
12
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews
Sep 26, 2017
Sep 25, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The series was created by Rene Balcer, whose writing staff does a very good job with the script to make it feel real, so much so that it may seem almost perfunctory. But that’s the point, really, and underscores the naturalism of the series. The performances are very solid overall. ... Falco, of course, is a standout.
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IndieWireSep 21, 2017
Season 1 Review:
What results is an oddly watchable combination of “Law & Order” and “American Crime Story.” The Menendez Murders borrows so heavily from both, its only identity comes from a new true crime story (that younger viewers may not know the ending to) and Lesli Linka Glatter’s tense, observant direction.
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Sep 26, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The Menendez story is not as immediately consuming as the celebrated O.J. series, perhaps because there was no dramatic car chase or fallen-celebrity scenario to kick off the story. But with a solid cast and Falco in the lead, The Menendez Murders has the potential to dominate in an otherwise crowded field of true-crime dramas.
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Sep 26, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Falco is good, but Josh Charles is doing the stuff that made me smile. Of course, smiling is not something you’re supposed to be doing while watching a show about a double homicide, but the pleasures of familiar facts presented in a lively, engaging way will not be denied.
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Sep 21, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Rene Balcer's writing and Lesli Linka Glatter's direction keep things moving, and if these two episodes don't promise anything terribly deep, they're packed with enough good performances and details (an alibi conversation revolving around a supposed meeting at the Beverly Hills Cheesecake Factory, for instance) to make us curious about what comes next.
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Sep 21, 2017
Season 1 Review:
There were reasons, other than the character of the Menendez brothers themselves, for the enduring notoriety of this case, and we’re introduced to one of the major ones early in the series (just two episodes of which NBC released for review). She’s Leslie Abramson (Edie Falco), attorney for Erik Menendez.
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Uncle BarkySep 25, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Falco is fine in this role and Jaeger brings some nice touches to the role of detective Zoeller. Josh Charles (The Good Wife) adds a little extra marquee value as the brothers’ compromised psychiatrist, Dr. Jerome Oziel. ... Just don’t expect any style points or departures from the straight ahead Wolf playbook.
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Sep 22, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The Menendez Murders lacks the multiple social themes of “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” settling instead for an occasionally pulpy story that takes a turn into purple prose when it begins to explore the role of Erik’s therapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel (Josh Charles). ... The presence of Ms. Falco, whose character gets a husband (Chris Bauer) and workaholic back story, elevates the proceedings, but she appears sparingly in the premiere.
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Sep 28, 2017
Season 1 Review:
I enjoyed [the first two episodes] in the same way I once enjoyed the original “Law & Order,” as an entertaining but not challenging way to pass some time. Also, amid all the workmanlike performances, Edie Falco is captivating as Leslie Abramson, the defense attorney with trademark blond curls, and Josh Charles is effectively creepy as the morally abhorrent therapist Dr. Jerome Oziel. But The Menendez Murders has very little of the breadth and context that distinguished “American Crime Story.”
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Sep 21, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Of the two episodes presented to critics, the first is markedly better. ... Every actor, from Falco to supporting players Reaser and Edwards, seems to be relishing the chance to ham it up a little, and at least in that arena, Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders delivers admirably. ... There is a covenant of trust with the viewer to present a case impartially, and by the second episode, that trust has mostly evaporated.
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TV Guide MagazineSep 28, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The verdict is still out after the first two chapters, which merely seem guilty of dramatic exploitation. [2-15 Oct 2017, p.15]
Sep 26, 2017
Season 1 Review:
All of this is very watchable, as with all Law & Order, but not without coating the viewer in a little true slime. ... The Menendez Murders, in comparison, simply feels like the most high-profile case that Dick Wolf, the Law & Order impresario, could grab the rights to.
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Sep 26, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Showrunner Rene Balcer, who previously drew inspiration from the Menendez murders to write a 1991 “Law & Order” episode, steers his writers to take the same dry approach here as he did sixteen years ago, walking us through the particulars of the tale with all the spark of a burned out docent on her last museum tour of the day.
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Sep 26, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The first installment of the eight-episode drama, which airs Tuesday night on NBC, is murder-reenactment-by-the-numbers, complete with black-and-white flashbacks, an oppressively ominous and omnipresent score, and a script that continually feels the need to point out the patently obvious.
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ColliderSep 26, 2017
Sep 25, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Falco is so much better than the rest of the cast that the show quickly splits itself into terrific scenes that she is in vs. ho-hum scenes that she is not. ... What you have here is a drawn-out period piece about a period and an event that aren’t worth remembering.
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Sep 26, 2017
Season 1 Review:
There’s nothing stylish or even particularly inventive about the direction, or for that matter the dialogue, the photography, or the editing. In fact, nothing feels entirely right here: not the structure, which shoehorns brief expository flashbacks into the timeline for no clear reason; not the look, a desaturated, blue-gray palette characteristic of clichéd, East Coast–based TV crime thrillers; not the script or its presentation, which fail to exploit elements of black comedy and social satire that are so innate to the tale that they seem to lunge at the camera, crying, “Notice me! Do something with me!”
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Sep 26, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Mostly, either the Menendez story was ill-suited for an eight-hour miniseries or the Law & Order approach was ill-suited to telling the story, because although there's absolutely an aspect to the case that is notable and distinctive, through the two hours sent to critics, Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders is mainly a lot of wigs and rich kids behaving badly. ... This didn't need to be an eight-hour miniseries.
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