Spoiler Warning: This article includes spoilers for “Dahmer.”

“Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” the newly released limited series created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, exploring the life of infamous Milwaukee serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (Evan Peters) has taken Netflix and the internet by storm. The highly anticipated series sought to bring to life a relatively unexplored account of the Dahmer story, examining the police incompetency and racially biased systems that allowed his string of murders to occur for as long as it did.  

“We had one rule going into this from Ryan [Murphy],” Peters said in an interview for Netflix’s Queue, “That it would never be told from Dahmer’s point of view.” This promise however, does not hold true as the bulk of the series is made up of scenes flashing back and forth to different periods of Dahmer’s life from his perspective. 

The series flashes moments that address the exploitative nature of Dahmer’s murders, which predominantly targeted gay, Black and Latino men. However, in its unvirtuous recreation of brutal murders marketed on Netflix, the series is exploitative by nature. Remarks about the victims are made here and there, but the series never articulately offers their perspective.

The opening episode immediately primes the audience for what to expect and establishes the tone for the rest of the series. We witness Dahmer in 1991 luring his next prospective victim, Tracy Edwards. The show offers an intimate portrait of the way Dahmer lures and prepares his victim with handcuffs, a knife to the throat, sexual advances and a forced sit-down screening of “The Exorcist.” Thankfully, the audience sees Edwards manage to escape and bring police officers back to the scene. The police arrest Dahmer and uncover his extensive collection of human bones, body parts he kept as trophies, and gruesome photos taken to log each victim. 

Throughout the remaining nine episodes, the audience is taken on a rather heavy-handed account of Dahmer’s twisted path. Scenes of a young Dahmer examining roadkill are interspersed with similar scenes of him dismembering his victims as an adult.

In addition to the fastidious dramatization of gruesome murders, which many audiences were strangely clamoring for, another significant factor contributing to the series’ success is Peters’ transformation into the role of Dahmer. Peters, who has frequently collaborated with Murphy in the past, delivers a subtle, yet spine-chilling performance as he embodies the soft-spoken midwesterner, holding a quiet and commanding presence on screen. 

Unfortunately, the collective hive of internet culture and social media iconization wasted no time in professing sympathy and even adoration for Peters’ rendition of Dahmer. The internet quickly responded with fancams and the perception of Peters’ Dahmer as a well-meaning outcast who simply strayed off the beaten path. 

It’s a necessary reminder to some audiences that an established actor delivering a strong performance as a fictional character can be praiseworthy, but a convicted serial killer guilty of carrying out the murder, grisly mutilation and eventual consumption of his victims, cannot. Perhaps even more upsetting and ignorant to the victims’ families are the reactions from audiences who viewed the show as hardly violent enough for their tastes.

The show has been widely criticized for its humanization of a killer into a relatable figure, paired with weak representation of the victims and families affected by the killings. The stories of the victims are scarcely developed beyond Konerak Sinthasomphone, a 14 year-old boy who Dahmer told police was his boyfriend when the young boy managed to escape after a botched lobotomy. Dahmer brings him back to his apartment and kills him shortly thereafter. Despite Murphy’s claim to center the victims, these scenes are all developed with Dahmer as the leading presence on screen. By all accounts, these scenes are framed and recreated with Dahmer as the main subject. 

The series also inserts scenes from the Sinthasomphone family as well as their testimony in court in the context of their status as immigrants, but these accounts feel strictly superficial as they are only ever small portions of each episode. It’s not until the final episodes that the series finally brings in the voices from the victims’ families. Even so, the series showcases its negligence to the real-life figures affected. They make a word-for-word recreation of the court statement from Rita Isbell, sister of Errol Lindsey, one of Dahmer’s victims. However, Isbell was never contacted or asked about her sentiments about being represented in the show.  

The closest person the audience gets to a hero is Dahmer’s neighbor, Glenda Cleveland (Niecy Nash), who repeatedly contacts the police in reference to her growing suspicions of her neighbor’s activities. After Dahmer is finally brought to light, Cleveland’s story is cheapened to an “I told you so” narrative. 

The series treats Cleveland and the Sinthasomphone family as a catch-all in terms of the victims’ representation. This remains true for its depiction of the inept policing that let Dahmer’s crimes go unpunished for as long as they did. The police incompetence speaks upon a larger issue regarding the negligence toward non-white, marginalized communities. For instance, one of the investigators asks Dahmer whether his decision to move into a predominantly Black neighborhood with infrequent policing was a strategic move to bring him closer to prospective victims. Questions of this nature are raised, but never given more than a first glance — and, that’s how the show mainly handles greater questions on Dahmer’s motives.      

Murphy and Brennan’s limited series falls short of its mission to provide an account of the Dahmer story separate from the murderer’s perspective. Its representation of the victims and their families takes a backseat to Dahmer’s upbringing and family life. Likewise, the examination of the systemic elements that allowed Dahmer’s violent crimes stops short of any major revelations. 

As a show marketed to serve the wishes of the victims’ families, none of the show’s earnings have been reported to have gone to any of the families affected. “Dahmer” adds little insight into their experience, the exploitative nature of the murders, and the justice system in place that allowed such crimes against humanity to go undetected.

Contact David Melean at [email protected].