Throughout the years Netflix has released many serial killer documentaries and series that have been wildly successful.
With the growing popularity of Netflix’s latest show, “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”, quite a stir has been created.
The style of the series is shot as a reenactment of Dahmer’s crimes and life, taking the viewer through a disturbing timeline.
For those who don’t know his gruesome story, Dahmer is an American serial killer with 17 victims, all boys and men. He is widely known for committing both acts of murder and cannibalism between the late 1970s and early 1990s.
He was finally arrested in 1991 when one of his victims escaped and the police found disturbing photographs and items in his Milwaukee apartment.
As more people have been looking into his life on social media, many of the younger generation have been influenced by his story, increasing the popularity and love for the show everyday. In fact, Dahmer was a popular Halloween costume last month.
When scrolling through social media posts on TikTok or Instagram, there’s no denying how much people enjoy this new show. This adoration runs deep enough that a fraction of its audience likes Jeffrey Dahmer as a person or sympathizes greatly with him.
This shouldn’t be a reality for audiences watching as it’s very harmful to not only the victims and their families, but also to others that are influenced easily by these opinions.
With the show’s twist on reenacting his crimes, audiences can look at him and his victims from a different perspective, which is exactly why the controversy was first created.
After seeing the show take off, many family members of Dahmer’s victims have come out stating that they aren’t comfortable with this new series, and how it has traumatized them all over again.
This highlights how the show has brought discomfort to some of the viewers as well.
Rita Isbell, the sister of one of Dahmer’s victims, and her cousin, Eric Perry, have expressed their doubts about the show via Insider and Twitter. Both are unhappy with how true crime is being portrayed nowadays and emphasize how there are real people behind these stories.
It was alleged that the producers never reached out to the people directly affected by Dahmer’s crimes. Victims’ families supposedly were never asked if they consented to the release of the series.
As soon as this news broke, attention surrounding the show did the same.
Knowing this, it’s clear that many other Netflix documentaries and series that contain reenactment scenes or footage of serial killers and their crimes is done with little to no knowledge by those still affected.
One example is the movie “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile,” which chronicledTed Bundy’s crimes with his partner at the time. The film showed how the pair came together as a couple and kept their distance apart as more evidence came out and eventually led to Bundy being convicted for the crimes.
The majority of viewers expressed their liking for this movie, just like the Dahmer series. There was no uproar in the media about this movie being a bad idea despite it reenacting many horrible crimes and decisions in the trials.
But Netflix’s show on Dahmer is bringing much of it to light. Although many people have enjoyed the series and have been wanting more from Netflix, others have chosen to refrain from watching it because of the victims’ families discomfort toward the show or lack of interest.
True crime can be interesting to learn about, but it can also remind the viewers that these stories have real people impacted by the crimes. Even if a viewer can’t imagine themselves in the scenario, there’s someone who has lived it.