Netflix is known for its addictive and compelling tv shows that no one can seem to stop watching until the last and final episode, and I mean final because no one will stop watching halfway through a hooking crime show like Tiller Russels The Night Stalker. Like a car crash, many can’t look away. Netflix's new 2022 show DAHMER stars Emmy award winning Evan Peters as the renowned 1980’s serial killer, notorious for the killing and the dismemberment of seventeen men and boys between 1978 and 1991. The show, created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, has quickly become one of Netflix’s biggest ever, with netflix announcing that within one week of its release, Dahmer was the ninth most popular English-language TV show of all time with 56 million households having consumed all ten episodes. 

 

However, like most hit shows, that success hasn’t come without any form of controversy, with critics accusing Netflix of sensationalising the tragedy and sympathising too much with Dahmer himself.  The show devotes much of itself to painstaking recreations of some of Dahmer's grisly murdering sprees and how largely due to his white privilege and also failings of the police, was able to get away with many of his offences. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 50% approval rating with an average rating of 6/10, based on 20 critic reviews. Not just critics had something to say about the show’s graphic nature but actual family members of the victims commented on the Netflix show.  "I don't need to watch it. I lived it," Rita Isbell, the sister of Dahmer victim Errol Lindsey, said in an interview. "Netflix should've asked if we mind or how we felt about making it. They didn't ask me anything. They just did it." As well as the victims who were angered about the show, Netlfix were critizsed for labelling the show as an ‘LGBTQ show’ which the tag was later removed by Netflix. 

 

We as humans have been consumed by entertainment in horror and crime which has been socially accepted for years and years. However now, we consume it so consistently that we don’t really take into account the ‘true’ in true crime and don’t consider the impact these tragedies continue to have. In this lies the issue, a trauma expert warned that “We’ve become so enamoured with gossiping about these cases, we’ve been tossed aside all empathy” The idea of empathy has been completely thrown out the window some would say, as labelling this show as ‘addicting’ almost seems wrong. Maybe the word ‘addicts’ is wrong and the word ‘intrigues’ is more suitable, but some would ask what intrigues us about such a gruesome story. 

 

On the other hand, others would say that the show was a significant way of conveying to the world the terrible barbaric crimes he commited as well as the cannibalism carried out by Dahmer, and therefore the show’s success was a positive in portraying the racism and oppression the black men and boys who were attacked faced as it spreads awareness and also educates people on the topic. A major contributing factor to the success of the show was through good old social media, which as we all know tends to influence everything we do and see these days. Therefore potentially the show's success wasn’t so much to do with the story itself but the media's portrayal of it. Many praised Evan Peters for the award winning acting but still claimed it to be ‘unsettling’. Overall, the show was a large success for Netflix, but was it a success for the audience, who really is what the show is for?