I started watching the miniseries Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story on Netflix last night. I watched the first two episodes and am eagerly looking forward to watching the remaining eight. Although the show is receiving some backlash from the families of the victims, it’s also receiving accolades for its realism. Evan Peters does, IMO, an excellent job as portraying the serial killer.
Anybody else watching this? What are your thoughts thus far?
How realistic is it? Do they show what he did to those poor boys and men, or just imply it?
I’m only through two episodes, so it hasn’t really gotten into many of the gory details. But it did show the skulls and other body parts that the authorities found when searching his apartment.
Based on your recommendation, I’ll give it a go. However, expect a late-night call if I have any nightmares.
Feel free. I’ll be awake.
I already watched the entire series. The latter half of the episodes (last five) were the better episodes, in my opinion. The details of Dahmer’s background were not particularly interesting to me. The sixth episode, “Silenced”, is probably the highlight of the whole series.
I made it about 20 minutes into the first episode, [kitchen sounds, lady looking puzzled and sniffing, Dahmer going to bar for hookup, Leaving bar] Some reason it simply didn’t interest me.
Do you think, that knowing the rough details of the case, I could simply jump into the middle of the episodes? Do I have to sit through bunches of stuff I more or less am familiar with?
[I adored the series about the more or less beginnings of the whole profiler thing, Netflix I think, my brain isn’t working right now so I can’t remember hte title. It is the guys interviewing serial killers.]
I watched two more episodes last night, and I’m now ready for episode five. As @SwissMan stated above, they’re getting better as the series moves along. But, to me at least, the background on Dahmer is still quite interesting.
Are you thinking about Mindhunter?
It took me until episode 8 to realize his step mom is being played by Molly Ringwald 
I agree that Evan Peters does a great job capturing his apathy towards the crimes he committed.
As someone who was pretty aware of this when it happened, including discussing it w/ several Chicago cops, I find it a somewhat curious choice of subject matter for entertainment.
Why do you find this interesting/entertaining/what?
Same reason that a lot of people are interested in the Unabomber or Ted Bundy or BTK or David Berkowitz or any other serial killer. People want to know what goes on in the minds of these monsters, and what made them what they are. Plus, this series is very well-made, which adds to the entertainment value.
Right now this series is the #1 show on Netflix. Lots of other folks are finding it interesting and entertaining.
[quote=“Railer13, post:1, topic:972282, full:true”]
Although the show is receiving some backlash from the families of the victims, … [/quote]
The real complaint from the families of the victims (the one they emphasized with an exclamation point) was that the story is factual & public domain, and so Netflix did not pay them.
Several non-documentary movies have already been made about him. Being Netflix, they expanded this into mini-series length.
(Molly Ringwald plays his STEPMOTHER? Yikes, time DOES march on.)
Started watching an episode a night a few nights ago. I’m on ep 4 tonight. Man, this role is Evan Peters’ sweet spot. He does creepy so well.
Yes, that’s the bunny. Excellent series, the actor they have playing Kemp is surprisingly good.
Mrs. solost and I are 2 episodes in. I agree it’s well done, but not the kind of show you want to binge-watch-- the atmosphere is oppresive. You can almost smell the decay in that creepy yellow apartment. We have to watch something light and funny as a chaser after every Dahmer ep we watch.
Agreed. And he’s doing a pretty good Midwest / Wisconsin accent. I associate that accent with open, friendly, neighborly people, so hearing that accent in his flat, disaffected tone is incongruous and adds to the creepiness.
It seems like they are playing up the role of his parents as a child in making him what he became: pill-addicted, checked-out mother, parents constantly fighting in front of him (Father to mother: “you should get a lobotomy!” Young Dahmer: hmmm…), dad who thinks it’s a good father-son bonding experience to dissect roadkill together. Which contrasts with what I remember in the aftermath at the time, where his father did interviews, and I think even wrote a book claiming that Dahmer’s childhood family life was normal and happy, so he didn’t know where the evil came from. I wonder how much of that is fatherly denial, or how much is manufactured drama on the show.
Wow, did not notice that, but I think they’ve only shown brief glimpses of her so far. Will be interesting to see how soon Mrs. solost notices it’s Molly Ringwald- she’s really good with faces and identifying actors who are almost unrecognizable in certain roles.
Episode 4 has an extended scene in which Dahmer meets his step-mom-to-be for the first time. Perhaps Mrs. solost will figure out who the actress is…I certainly didn’t. Surprisingly, Ringwald has changed a bit since The Breakfast Club.
You might be interested in an interview with the sister of one of Dahmer’s victims and her response to Netflix. I was unable to link to the article but if you search Insider Jeffrey Dahmer you should see it.
Several of the victims’ family members, like this one, have stated that the thing they found the most difficult was that Netflix never got in touch with them to let them know what was coming or get their feelings or anything.
Was it this one?
Yes, thanks Railer13. Don’t know why that would not link for me. Browser? Operator Error?