Despite controversy, Netflix’s true crime drama Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story drew nearly 200 million views in its first week.
Netflix’s new series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has divided opinion since it premiered on the platform, but there’s no denying the popularity of the Ryan Murphy-created series that tells the story of the cannibalistic serial killer. Just over a week after its release, numbers have revealed the series is Netflix’s second-highest series premiere of the year behind Weird stuff season 4 and is also the fifth most-watched debut of all time, with 196.2 million people tuning in during the first seven days.
While the true crime-based series is likely to see many viewers thanks to a wave of media coverage and an award-winning performance from Evan Peters in the title role, the show has already brought plenty of controversy in Netflix’s way, not least for its revival. tapping into a story that has been told many times and one that those affected would rather forget, including the families of Dahmer’s victims.
Sample attempts to tell the story of Dahmer, his victims, and the botched police investigation that caused his murders to last much longer than they should have. One of the moments narrated in the series is that Rita Isbell, the sister of one of Dahmer’s victims, was overcome with emotion on the witness stand. This is just one of the traumatic events of the Dahmer story that has been crushed by the families of the victims.
However, there is always a huge interest in true crime dramas and this is proven once again by the really high ratings. Sample the first week has entered, and that could lead to a whole new wave of similar series that will carry their own baggage through the families of those who were part of the story in the worst possible way.
Evan Peters proves himself as a great actor as Jeffrey Dahmer
While Evan Peters has starred in many movies and TV shows, his diversity as an actor is further evidenced by his captivating performance in the title role of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. In the ten-episode limited series, Peters gives the execution of his career to the man the tabloids dubbed “The Milwauee Cannibal,” whose heinous crimes went beyond cannibalism of his victims to include necrophilia and the preservation of body parts.
Peters previously worked with Ryan Murphy on his American horror story series, and while Murphy has opted to take this latest venture a more psychological route rather than the same campy gore-filled route of his other well-known hits, that has caused the wave of controversy as to why the story needed to be stopped altogether. As viewership continues to grow, even as many families of Dahmer’s victims speak out against the series, it looks like Netflix will soon be releasing their new docuseries. Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapeswhich will premiere on October 7.