Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed

Who the hell thought this was a great idea?

The whole time I am reading and sometimes even then the words go by to fast to read! I certainly cannot do anything while watching this! The least they could have done was talk the words to us in English for Roy and his friends! It's almost a disrespect to Roy to get this story out and then people not get it all because they missed important parts or they skimmed over! It got to the point in the second episode that I realized I am just reading and unable to focus on what is happening. Sometimes there would be scenes or photos and I had to rewind a lot because I was reading and couldn't pay attention to the background. I am sorry to Roy that they made his story not as impactful as it is! I hope he gets another chance to tell it again.

This information is all worthy of a documentary, but the wrong people made it. So much of this is staged and it really undercuts the power of the truth. Having real people obviously reenact conversations was not the way to go. Too many scenes seem to have been directed for maximum effect which was completely unnecessary. There's also the constant teasing of information which is kind of an odd decision for a documentary about pedophilia. Of course it's not necessary, but the teasing of it felt distasteful. But like I said, this is an important exploration of what happened. I just wish it was done by more experienced documentary filmmakers.

The documentary is excellent and my heart truly goes out to the boys whose childhoods were stolen by these monsters. Unfortunately, (as of the 1st and 2nd episodes anyway) almost all of it is captioned due to the primary narrator speaking Spanish or by telephone. That is problematic enough but someone made the poor decision to utilize a white font against a lot of light colored backgrounds. The resultant eyestrain is terrible and some important content is completely lost due to being unreadable against a white background. I can't believe this made it out of post-production like this. Very disappointing.

The first two episodes of this documentary series focus heavily on members of Menudo. As a result a LOT of the dialogue is in Spanish. It really got exhausting having to read so much. I would have preferred translators speaking the dialogue if only to save me all that reading. Sometimes I couldn't keep up because they spoke very fast. I felt like I ended up missing so much of what was being said as a result.

It's so sad what happened to these boys and I truly hope this Edguardo guy gets what he deserves. Hopefully the Menendez brothers can also get some justice for what they went through. What they did was horrible, of course, but you have ti wonder what choice they had, or if they even felt they had any other choices.

Such a sad, tragic story.

Like I said it is too scripted and self serving for the Executive Producers IE Nery. Too many repetitive scenes. I understand and sympathize but have doubts about the motives of the Main Players. I would have liked more focus on what the point actually is: Charge someone, or this is just a attempt to capitalize on someone's pain. Really makes Los Angeles Police Station an embarrassment in episode 3. Really needed this to be a completed DocuStory to have impact. Who will get the rights to a book if the Melendez Brothers are released. Again sad the Roy had to endure what he allegedly went through as a member of Menudo.