He is indeed a monster. A controversial TV series landed on Netflix last September 21, 2022. In the first week of its release, it maintains its number 1 spot on Netflix. Netflix also announced that this is the 9th most popular English-language TV show on their platform of all time. It was about Serial Killer Jeffrey Dahmer and his murder of 17 men between the years 1978 and 1991.
It was starred by Emmy Award-winning Evan Peters and directed by another Emmy Awardee Director Ryan Murphy. If you think this is all about Dahmer and his gruesome killing of several people, you’re probably wrong. It’s a story of the perpetrator and the victims. The series also showed the issues that the characters faced during the conflict.
It was disturbing yet anticipating to watch. Every episode has its own story that will help you to connect all the dots; why the protagonist resorted to that behavior, why this happened, who’s to blame, etc.
Jeffrey Dahmer is a guy who had a deranged family and had an interest in dissecting dead animals. Because of his nerd and weird nature he had grown lonely and isolated from his peers. When Jeffrey’s mother left him after getting divorced from his father, Jeffrey became an alcoholic and problematic with his academics. The one who’s excelling in science is now an expelled student. Also at this time, Jeffrey started to explore his sexuality which will explain why most of his victims are male. Lionel Dahmer, Jeffrey’s father tried to mitigate his son’s falling life by sending him to another school. It became unsuccessful so he decided to send his son to the army which will have a big contribution to Jeff's monstrous acts toward his victims. A series of killings will be committed by Jeffrey Dahmer but no one will notice it, not until one of his victims flees from him. This is where the justice will start and the murders would come to an end.
After watching the 10 episodes of the Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, I got impressed by how they delivered the story. In contrast to the typical plot of every series where the earlier episodes will only revolve around the introduction of characters and the settings, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story successfully delivered it in a way that you don’t need to watch all the way to the last episode just to have a context of the story. They managed to include important details that make each episode interesting and vividly clear to you to understand the following episodes. Despite the hints in the early parts, they are still able to follow the proper building of the tension, up to the climax and then to the ending.
I want to commend the actors especially Evan Peters and Niecy Nash for carrying the whole film. For me, these two actors effectively portrayed their roles which made me sit on the edge of my seat and occasionally teary-eyed during some episodes.
Also as I mentioned earlier, this is not just a story of Jeffrey Dahmer, but also the story of the family of the victims and how they faced the emotional and mental struggles of losing someone. Hearing both sides of the story, the viewers can freely choose their own biases and conclude their opinions.
Various issues were also shown in the series — lack of child support, racism, lack of police security, the poor justice system, poor mental healthcare, the problem with drug and alcohol regulation, and pornography. Probably there’s more if you will watch the entire series. It’s sad to think that several lives are lost before the faults in the system were revealed. If everything was okay at first, I think the heinous acts committed by Dahmer should’ve been prevented.
However, there are parts that seem irrelevant, and removing these won’t have a significant effect on the series. Maybe they add it to make it exactly 10 episodes? But since it was created for the purpose of entertainment I still understand why they need to put some metaphors and other creative ideas.
At around Episode 7, I was impressed at the sound technicality used to let the viewers experience the point of view of the character. SPOILER ALERT — one of Dahmer’s victims is deaf. And in this episode every time the deaf character communicates with another character, the background music/sounds go muted. Only the time when the viewers can feel or hear something is when a loud sound occurs.
If you’re a person who’s a fan of crime fiction, I will suggest you watch this. Personally, I am not a fan of this kind of genre but due to the buzz it created on social media, I became intrigued to watch it. What I really like about this series is the way they shared all of the
factors that may have contributed to the twisted mind of Jeff Dahmer. In the end, you will see a gray area which will make you think if he's just the only one to blame. Also, look out for the last episode! There’s a line there that gives you an idea that people have different perceptions about religion and Christian beliefs. Overall, I’ll give this series a 9/10.
