Netflix‘s latest offering related to serial killers is ‘Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story‘. The series was released on 21st September and has been doing big numbers, even better than what was expected considering the numbers of other similar shows. This is, in a sense, both surprising and worrying in equal measure.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is a take on the crimes of the American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer who went on a killing spree and committed numerous murders before he was captured. The series has reignited the curiosity around the killer after all these years. The series is raking in big numbers and clocked almost 200 million hours in the first 5 days. It broke records and is now the most watched new series in week 1, watched by more people than even ‘Squid Game’. What is concerning however is the reaction the series is getting.
According to Twitter, the Netflix series has made Jeffrey, a cannibalist into a sex symbol of sorts. People are now ‘thirsting’ over him and this is deeply unsettling. People watch a series on the cold-blooded murderer who was also into necrophilia and what they feel at the end of their watch is how good-looking the character is!
Netflix, despite all this, is in a happy spot it seems. The platform will also release another series related to Jeffrey Dahmer’s real-life interviews in the first week of next month. The series is titled ‘Conversations with a killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes’. Netflix is capitalizing on all the buzz around Dahmer. The upcoming series is expected to give an unsettling view into the mind of the infamous serial killer. But is Netflix taking the issue way too far?
Days ago a woman whose brother was an unfortunate victim of Dahmer revealed how watching the series’ portrayal of her delivery of the victim impact statement in Dahmer’s actual trial led her to again undergo the whole emotional trauma she had back then. The media company is being criticized for monetizing the suffering of the victims and their families, who still go through the same even after years.
To other unrelated viewers, it’s just a weekend binge. Something popular that they may check out. But for these families, they are reminders of a past they want to forget. For them, these contents are personal. For them, these shows are just salt on an ever gaping wound.