The High Demand for Documentaries
Raise your hand if you are fascinated by the stories and minds of horrific serial killers! I, for one, love to learn about the lives of serial killers either by reading books, reading released police reports, listening to podcasts, or by watching TV series. Netflix has gained a lot of popularity in recent years due to the increase in documentaries, docu-series, and other series that reenact the past.
Today I want to talk about a particular Netflix series that took off and was binge watched globally… Dahmer- Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Dahmer is described to be a crime thriller and biographical series. It follows the story of one of the most prolific serial killers in America as is told from the point of view of many victims' families and survivors. The actor that played the role of Dahmer was Evan Peters and he was an absolutely perfect match. Evan Peters had to get inside the head of Jeffery Dahmer for SIX MONTHS in order to understand how to authentically portray his personality. Evan Peters did such a phenomenal job with this role that he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television. For more information on how much Evan Peters put into this role I would give this amazing article a read!
This chilling series will have you on an emotional rollercoaster. I cried for so many different reasons, I had chills on my back from being so uncomfortable with the situation, and I was on the edge of my seat for almost every minute of the series. This series received a bit of backlash from some communities that claimed it glorified the life of Jeffery Dahmer. There are always so many ways of viewing a television show and its message, I think it's up to the you to decide if Dahmer is a series you want to watch or not.
The most interesting part about this series is how we get to follow Jeffery Dahmer's life from the very start. We see his drug addict, paranoid mother who used opiates while she was pregnant with Jeffrey and we get to learn about some key characteristics that he may have gotten from his fathers genes and from experience. Learning about Jeffery Dahmer's victims is so important as well because we often never remember the lives that were impacted by him when we should remember their names and stories first.
I would recommend this show to anyone that can withstand some uncomfortable scenes here and there. It is a wonderful production that allows us to see more than one side of the story of Jeffery Dahmer and the lives that he affected by murdering so many people. I will warn you that you will want to binge watch once you get started.
Hello Kaylynn.
ReplyDeleteI actually watched the Dahmer series when it came out, and it took me a long time to watch it because of how much it creeped me out. In a way, though, I can see why this show is bingeworthy, and I did come back to it often until I finished it. I agree that Evan Peters was the perfect fit to play the role, but I cannot imagine what he had to do in order to fully embrace the role of Jeffery Dahmer. It is interesting to see series like this one be criticized for romanticizing the life of a serial killer, but this is not always the case. For example, when the John Wayne Gacy documentaries came out, everyone seemed to only talk about how absolutely horrible Gacy was. I think the production and direction of Dahmer made it seem different to the audience because of how watcher-friendly most of the series was, except for the really terrifying parts.
Cheers, Oscar.
Hey Kaylyn! I think that it is interesting that you did a blog post about this show! I'm kind of glad you did. I heard a lot of mixed reviews about the show. Like you said, it received a lot of backlash for "romanticizing" Dahmer. However, I think that is really based on the viewer's opinion. I never actually watched it, so who am I to judge haha. I always thought it was nice set up for this documentary and how we were able to go through different periods of his life through the show. I just know that the actor had to enter and interesting headspace in order to portray that type of character. Really interesting to think about... Great job!!
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