‘Dahmer’ presents the horror of 31 years in 10 episodes
True crime continues to be a trending and growing genre of entertainment. With this being said, Netflix is using its popularity as a streaming service wisely by revisiting Jefferey Dahmer’s story. Though there have been many films on different platforms over the years, Netflix was the first to produce a television show with an unbiased opinion. Everyone knows about the Netflix show “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” The show brought out strong opinions from people all over the internet from people loving it to many hating it and saying it was insensitive to the families of Dahmer’s victims. The show falls short in presenting new content and had an extremely slow start. Episode four is when it starts to pick up, which if you do the math, is about five hours of screen time before it gets interesting. The show was produced well from the scenes to music, to costume; yet failed to produce anything worthy of “sweeping the nation”.
Ryan Murphy’s “Dahmer – Monster: The Jefferey Dahmer Story” started streaming on Netflix Sept. 21, 2022. Netflix classifies the show as: “Crime TV show, social issue TV drama, TV horror, ominous and dark.” Once on streaming, it became one of the most watched Netflix shows. This large audience allowed room for more criticism from all over the world. Talks of the show were trending on social media and critics on Rotten Tomatoes had strong opinions. The TV show was being called disrespectful and inconsiderate. Murphy was accused of not only bringing to light what a city, state and victims’ families are trying to forget, but having no consideration for the ones affected by Jeffery Dahmer’s acts of violence.
Murphy is well known for his other works including Glee, Nip/Tuck, American Horror Story, and many more. Murphy does not disappoint in his latest contribution to television. Murphy chose actor, Evan Peters, who Murphy was already familiar and successful within American Horror Story to play the role of Jeffery Dahmer. Peters did an outstanding job of alluring the viewers in, keeping them watching and wanting more. Even with a slow start, it keeps you engaged. When interviewed, Peters stated Murphy had ultimately one “guiding rule” that swayed him in the end to take this role. This rule was “the show would never be told from Dahmer’s point of view.” The performance Peters gives as Jefferey Dahmer is not only superb but extremely believable.
Dahmer killed 17 people between 1978 and 1991. The majority of his victims were African American and gay. This left many to speculate Dahmer was able to commit these crimes unbeknownst to the general public because of the way these communities were viewed by law enforcement during this time period. Murphy portrays this extremely well and seamlessly weaves the decades throughout the entire series. He is successful in this by taking into account the scenery, costume, music and societal norms from the ’60s to the ’90s. This includes when there are flashbacks to Dahmer’s childhood which are perfectly placed in the timeline of the show. Murphy seems to reveal just enough information about the different phases, ages and influences in Dahmer’s life effortlessly shaping the story piece by piece, building momentum.
A review by Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair on Rotten Tomatoes states, “While the series respectfully mourns and inveighs all the loss that surrounds him, it also turns Dahmer into a hideously immortal thing: an icon.”
Only half of this statement is true. The film does not “turn Dahmer into a hideously immortal thing: an icon”. Anybody can be an icon in the right light. Dahmer was also murdered in prison by another inmate for his crimes. This literally shows his mortality and that he was not idolized by his peers.
Another review by Jen Chaney of New York Magazine/Vulture on Rotten Tomatoes states, “Murphy and his collaborators are obviously aware of how exploitative it can be when the stories of serial killers are sold to a murder-obsessed public… but the show never figures out a way to avoid committing the same crime.”
However, the only crime here is the 17 murders Dahmer committed. The series simply showed everything that was already known and previously stated on every other podcast, show, or movie about Dahmer. The only real difference was how Murphy and Peters presented the information. A podcast or documentary tells the story. Murphy and Peters brought you into the room with Dahmer.
