Netflix’s new series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has divided opinion since it premiered on the platform, but there is no denying the popularity of the Ryan Murphy-created series that tells the story of the cannibalistic serial killer. Just over a week after its release, figures have revealed that the series is Netflix’s second-highest series premiere of the year behind Stranger Things season 4 and is also the fifth most-watched debut of all time, with 196.2 million people tuning in over the first seven days.
While the true-crime-based series is likely to see continued high viewership thanks to a wave of media attention and an award-worthy performance by Evan Peters in the title role, the show has already brought a lot of controversies Netflix’s way, not least for once again tapping into a story that has been told many times and one that those affected by would much rather forget, including the families of Dahmer’s victims.
Monster attempts to tell the story of Dahmer, his victims, and the botched police investigation that allowed his killings to continue much longer than they should have gone on. One of the moments recounted in the series is when Rita Isbell, the sister of one of Dahmer’s victims, was overcome with emotion while in the witness box. This is just one of the traumatic events of the Dahmer story that has been slammed by the families of the victims.
However, there is always huge interest in true crime dramas and this has been proven once again by the really high viewer numbers Monster has pulled in on its first week, and that could lead to a whole new wave of similar series that will bring their own baggage by way of the families of those who were actually part of the story in the worst possible way.
Evan Peters Proves Himself as a Great Actor as Jeffrey Dahmer
While Evan Peters has appeared in many movies and TV shows, his diversity as an actor has been further proven by his captivating performance in the title role of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Across the ten episode limited series, Peters gives the performance of his career so far as the man the tabloids called “The Milwauee Cannibal,” whose horrifying crimes expanded beyond cannibalism of his victims also to include necrophilia and the preservation of body parts.
Peters has previously worked with Ryan Murphy on his American Horror Story series, and although Murphy has chosen to take this latest venture down a more psychological route rather than down the same campy gore-filled route of his other well-known hits, that hasn’t quelled the wave of controversy about why the story needed to be told again at all. As the viewer numbers continue to grow, it seems that even with many of Dahmer’s victims’ families speaking out against the series, Netflix will still be soon releasing their new docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes, which premieres on October 7.