Law & Order True Crime

Law & Order True Crime is an American true crime anthology series that premiered on September 26, 2017 on NBC. The series was ordered by NBC on July 15, 2016, and is part of the Law & Order franchise. Created by René Balcer, the eight-episode first season, titled Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, is a dramatization of the trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted in 1996 for the murder of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez., the series is on hiatus.

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Cast and characters

Main

Edie Falco as Leslie Abramson, the defense attorney who represented Lyle and Erik Menendez.
Gus Halper as Erik Menendez, the younger brother
Miles Gaston Villanueva as Lyle Menendez, the older brother

Recurring

Anthony Edwards as Judge Stanley Weisberg who oversaw Lyle and Erik's trial.
Julianne Nicholson as Jill Lansing, Abramson's partner on the defense team for the first trial.
Harry Hamlin as Barry Levin, Abramson's co-counsel on the second trial of Erik Menendez.
Constance Marie as Marta Cano, José's sister.
Carlos Gómez as José Menendez, Lyle and Erik's father.
Sam Jaeger as Detective Les Zoeller, the Beverly Hills Police Department detective who investigated the murders of José and Kitty Menendez.
Josh Charles as Dr. Jerome Oziel, Lyle and Erik's psychiatrist.
Sterling Beaumon as Glenn Stevens, Lyle's friend from Princeton University.
Ben Winchell as Donovan Goodreau.
Molly Hagan as Joan Vandermolen, Kitty's older sister.
Dominic Flores as Henry Llano, Lyle and Erik's cousin.
Lolita Davidovich as Kitty Menendez, Lyle and Erik's mother.
Chris Bauer as Tim Rutten, Leslie's husband and a Los Angeles Times journalist.
Heather Graham as Judalon Smyth, Oziel's emotionally fragile mistress.
Elizabeth Reaser as Deputy District Attorney Pam Bozanich, who was assigned to the murders of José and Kitty Menendez.
Larry Cedar as Milton Andersen, Kitty's older brother.
Ezra Buzzington as Deputy District Attorney Elliott Alhadeff, first prosecutor in case.
Raphael Sbarge as Jon Conte.
Taylor Kalupa as Anna Eriksson, Lyle’s fiancé & eventual wife.
Jenny Cooper as Megan Lang.
Irene DeBari as Maria Menendez, Lyle and Erik's grandmother.

Guest starring

Douglas Olsson as Robert Shapiro, Erik's lawyer who arranged his surrender from Israel.

Cameo appearance

Dominic Daniel as O. J. Simpson, who is accused of murdering his ex-wife and her friend. He is shown to be jailed beside Erik, but only a voice is present during the conversations. He made an appearance in episode 8 when the news showed his actual verdict.

Production

In April 2016, Dick Wolf and NBC announced they were working on the series, with the first season being based on the Menendez brothers' murder case. In February 2017, it was announced that Edie Falco will portray defense attorney Leslie Abramson. Gus Halper and Miles Gaston Villanueva joined the cast in May 2017 as Erik and Lyle Menendez, respectively. Among those who auditioned for Erik is Cooper Koch, who would later be cast in the same role in the 2024 limited series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. Filming for the series began on June 26, 2017 for an eight-episode first season.

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 64% based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Law & Order: True Crime: The Menendez Murders benefits from a standout performance from Edie Falco that proves captivating enough to compensate for a staid approach to potentially drama-rich material." On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In his series of reviews of each episode, Austin Considine of the New York Times wrote that this mini-series succeeded in bringing something new and compelling to the well-known Menéndez case.

Ratings

The series ranked 41st in the key demographic of 18–49 age range with an average of 1.7 rating during the 2017–18 television season. The series also had an average of 6.73 million viewers, and was the 62nd most watched TV show of the season.

No.	Title	Air date	Ratings/share	Viewers	DVR 18–49	DVR viewers	Total 18–49	Total viewers
1	"Episode 1"		1.6/6	6.06	1.0	2.70	2.6	8.76
2	"Episode 2"		1.1/5	4.82	0.9	2.49	2.0	7.31
3	"Episode 3"		1.1/4	4.72	0.6	2.14	1.7	6.86
4	"Episode 4"		1.0/4	4.36	0.6	2.18	1.6	6.54
5	"Episode 5"		1.0/4	4.61	0.6	2.03	1.6	6.64
6	"Episode 6"		0.7/3	3.53	0.6	2.05	1.3	5.58
7	"Episode 7"		0.9/4	4.08	0.6	2.06	1.5	6.14
8	"Episode 8"		0.9/4	4.16	0.6	1.85	1.5	6.01

Future

A second season is yet to be confirmed, but Dick Wolf mentioned he has plenty of ideas for the show and a possible storyline if there is a second season. "This is unique for me, after 27 years of Law & Order," Wolf told TV critics at TCA in an interview. "This is taken from the headlines; we've made some great shows ripped from the headlines, but this is on a different level." An idea for a second season storyline includes the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995. "Just before the, I had mentioned to him the Tim McVeigh case, and his eyes lit up," René Balcer says of Wolf's reaction. "Because Dick and I were together, we were in the same office when the bomb went off in Oklahoma."