Don't dream it's over

Monsters is filled with music references. The title of episode one is "Blame it On The Rain," Milli Vanilli’s 1989 hit, which is the year they were exposed for lip-syncing.

Episode three is "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?, when the brothers land in jail and can't use the payphone because they don't have coins. Though this Great Depression classic is never played, its lyrics resonate with the show's central themes:

They used to tell me I was building a dream, And so I followed the mob, When there was earth to plow, Or guns to bear, I was always there, Right on the job.

"Don't Dream It's Over" (episode 6) begins with a flashback to 1962, tracing the star-crossed origins of José and Kitty Menendez. We see them run away together, build the American dream together, and eventually, come to hate their kids together. In a pivotal and equally unproductive therapy session, just before the iconic family photo at Sears, Kitty says:

"Your father crossed an ocean, and I left behind the life of a beauty queen or I could have been a movie star like Kim Novak. And you're what I got?"

This is not the life that mommy and daddy dreamed of. How will the entrepreneurial couple fix this?

Ryan Murphy, the creator of this serious, was also behind Nip/Tuck. A reference to Kim Novak is a Hollywood in-joke: she was a cautionary tale after that 2014 Academy Awards appearance, which had everyone wondering where cosmetic surgery ends and taxonomy begins.

In L.A., self-determination comes at a price, and it seems Kitty's fate had always been sealed. If her children didn't kill her, the drugs, alcohol, or depression would; in the meantime, she subsisted on facelifts, house renovations, Christmas trees. José asks her to lose nine pounds. Later, José later gifts her a Mercedes-Benz. This is the only time we see her happy in entire series.

A violent man wearing a yellow sweater

The demo for Crowded House's massive hit was recorded on a humble cassette four track. The snare drum was Neill Finn flicking a matchbox. If it sounds complex, that's the Space Echo. The final version came with a Hammond organ solo and a much more refined sound, but it's not a major departure from the original, with its signature falsetto.

The nostalgic register and boyishly exuberant lyrics (There is freedom within / There is freedom without / Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup) make this both a car ride tear-jerker and a karaoke classic. Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande sang it wearing animal packs, then performed the same one in the same style for the One Love Manchester. That was a benefit concert in response to a terrorist bombing, so not the most obvious choice, but this track seems to work in all kinds of kumbaya settings.

For those who remember living through the Menendez case --- before Miley's time, that is --- Crowded House will likely recall another memory. And if you're American, there's a good chance that memory took place in a car.

It's hard for people outside of America to grasp just how much time Americans spend in cars, and how crucial it is for the listening experience. As the creator of This American Life says, radio is for driving. So I found it particularly brilliant to make the hereditary violence link in such a nonchalant way, by showing men leaving their vehicles to the tune of "Don't Dream It's Over".

The first car exit is José Menendez, who cannot contain his disappointment after they're arrested for robbery. The typical fatherly response in such a situation would to direct his disappointment at himself. But there are hints through the series that this sado-masochist blames himself. Recall the passage he had just recited to the boys from his (redacted for bullshit) bible from Og Mandino:

"Today I'll be master of my emotions. From this moment, I'm prepared to control whatever personality awakes in me. I will control my moods through positive action. And when I control my moods, I control my destiny."

José failed to be the master of his emotions, and so he was a failure to his sons.

But the sons, exiting the car to Crowded Room as the high pass filter is closed, shows Lyle and Erik in total (sociopathic) control of their emotions, wearing pastels, about to kill their parents.

"It's up to us now, right? And they would be proud of us."