By Clarke Anderson
The Commuter
A Netflix original about one of America’s most known serial killers leaves some fans to satisfy their morbid curiosities and some fans queasy.
“Dahmer- Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” was just released on Netflix on Sept. 21. The limited-run series is a single season with 10 episodes, each being around 50 minutes in length. The show focuses on Jeffery Dahmer and his life, showing flashbacks to his childhood and graphic details of his murders.
The recently released show has a 50% critic rating and an 89% audience rating, yet despite that, there seems to be a lot of controversy surrounding the show.
For starters, before its release, Netflix did not advertise the show. There is no clear reason why there were no ads. Did Netflix do this to show that the corporation doesn’t think will do well, or show that they wish to cover it up?
This could not be the case, but at this time there is no clear answer.
What have fans stirring, is the show’s primary focus. Most shows surrounding true crime make it a point to give the victim’s life. The audience learns about the victim before the murder to make them more than a name and a crime scene to people; however, this is not the case for “Dahmer.”
For those interested in the twisted minds of serial killers, this show is for you. The show’s primary focus is Jeffery Dahmer (played by Evan Peters). This has sparked a lot of controversies, for both the audience and the victim’s families.
This show is not meant to reclaim the lives of the victims, nor is meant to give these victims a legacy. This show is meant to be a graphic, horrific retelling of the actions of a serial killer.
This stomach-churner of a show is worth the watch if that’s what you’re into.
The show does seem to have some inaccuracies when compared to the actual case; however, they do not seem detrimental to the storytelling.
Glenda Cleveland (played by Niecy Nash) was one of the first people to expose Dahmer as a killer. She had called the police multiple times, and all of her calls went unanswered.
In the show, she is portrayed as Jeffery Dahmer’s neighbor. In actuality, she lived in the building next to Dahmer’s. This was likely to eliminate Pamela Bass, Dahmer’s real neighbor, who had little to do with his case.
Another inaccuracy was the number of locks on Dahmer’s door. Now, this might seem unimportant, but it’s an interesting detail. In the show, Dahmer had an excessive amount of locks, but in real life, he only had two.
This could have been confused with varying reports from Tracy Edwards (played by Shaun Brown), a man who escaped Dahmer’s apartment and later flagged down the police and led them to the killer.
Edwards’ story changed throughout Dahmer’s arrest and after. He talked about the numerous locks along the killer’s door, but evidence photos only show two.
Despite the inaccuracies and focusses, the show is worth watching. If you have a morbid curiosity for the twisted and gory this show is for you.
