A television series about one of the worst serial killers in history was always going to divide, shock and compel a global audience.
The 10-part series about the Milwaukee Cannibal, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, quietly dropped on Netflix last week without the usual fanfare and pre-publicity.
No episodes were available to screen before the first episode on September 21 and no stars were interviewed, including the hugely popular Evan Peters (X-Men, WandaVision, Mare of Easttown, American Horror Story) who plays Dahmer.
There was no premiere, and no red-carpet or usual launch party.
So, it was social media that made Netflix the most talked about streaming service for the week from September 19 to 25, thanks to its debut.
According to Variety magazine’s Trending TV chart, the series attracted more than 918,000 engagements (calculated by a combination of audience interactions including tweets, retweets, likes and hashtags) on Twitter between September 19 to 25.
A distant second was the Emmys broadcast and Abbott Elementary with fewer than 400,000 engagements.
Predictably, the show was pushing No.1 on the streamer’s most-watched list in several countries around the world when its weekly count was in.
But, as many were reminded – or learned more – about the story of the real-life serial killer through Peters’ portrayal, some fans pleaded with viewers not to fantasise about him or romanticise the killer simply because of the actor’s popularity.
Others chose to remember the horror the serial sex offender and necrophiliac inflicted on his victims. He was eventually convicted of 15 murders after killing 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991.
Series an ‘eye-opener’ on police neglect
Directed by Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story: Cult, Monster) opens with what was Dahmer’s MO, picking up a young, gay, Black man from a bar and taking him back to his squalid, one-bedroom flat.
The official Netflix synopsis reads that it is a series “centred around the underserved victims and their communities impacted by the systemic racism and institutional failures of the police that allowed one of America’s most notorious serial killers to continue his murderous spree in plain sight for over a decade”.
It is hard to watch, so be warned about the graphic violence, the blood and the reminder of the constant smell of death that neighbours in the apartment block regularly complained about to authorities.
Although this first episode ends with his arrest, the next six episodes detail his psychological profile and murders.
The three remaining turn to the aftermath of his arrest and the anger his horrific crimes triggered in people, especially the police incompetence and apathy that allowed the Wisconsin native to go on a multi-year killing spree.
Rodney Burford plays victim Tony Hughes, a Black, gay, deaf dancer. Photo: Netflix
That lingering anger spilled onto Twitter after the first episode: “Jeff Dahmer could’ve been caught multiple times if the police just listened and did their JOB.”
“He didn’t get away with 17+ murders because he was smart, he got away with the murders because of the privilege he had as a white male.
“He knew how to use it it to his advantage,” wrote one viewer.
And this: “The jeff dahmer sh-t is so crazy because this lady called the police over how many times?? and they never came ! why bc it was in a predominantly BLACK neighborhood [sic]! which this white man decided to make his hunting grounds!”
Variety acknowledges Murphy’s “many attempts at underlining exactly how Dahmer could get away with so many astonishing crimes while the marginalised communities he trafficked in – particularly queer, Black spaces – protested the obvious unease surrounding him”.
“If there was a story worth telling here – and that’s a big if, given the onslaught of true crime overwhelming television these days — it was this.”
Evan Peters as Dahmer was arrested by police after his last victim managed to escape. Photo: Netflix
Evan Peters says role was ‘challenging’
Some fans have argued that Peters, a long-time part of Murphy’s American Horror Story anthology series (Peters admits he saw Hellraiser when he was four years old), embodies just how sinister Dahmer really was, and hasn’t glorified him.
“Evan Peters portrayal of Jeff Dahmer is just hands-down brilliant. Hope he copes with the darkness of the character he delved into,” said one watcher.
And this: “[This] series should remind everyone that Jeff Dahmer was a monster that was overlooked time and time again. Evan Peters embodied how sinister Dahmer was and not glorifying him.
“Remember the reality of the crimes, racism, injustice of the system, victims.”
In an April Q&A last year, Peters spoke about how he handled the role, and said it was challenging to portray Dahmer in an authentic way.
“I’ve read so much, I’ve watched so much, I’ve seen so much, and at a certain point, you’ve got to say, ‘All right, that’s enough’.
“It’s more about maintaining the idea and the through line of why you’re telling the story, and always having that as your guiding light. But there’s so much material for Dahmer that I think it’s incredibly important to make it really authentic,” he told Variety.
Adds Cinemablend: “He is known somewhat as an actor in how he can shift between high and low brow art with what looks like ease.”
“[His] reputation in the horror genre is highly respectable, so Netflix’s Monster could really be something his career has prepared him for, no matter how he goes about doing it.”
Either way, fans are ready for it.
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