Dahmer_–_Monster:_The_Jeffrey_Dahmer_Story

<i>Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story</i>

Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

2022 American television series


Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story[lower-alpha 2] is the first season of the American biographical true crime television anthology series, Monster, created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan for Netflix, which was released on September 21, 2022. Murphy also serves as showrunner and is an executive producer along with Brennan. Dahmer is about the life of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (Evan Peters). Other main characters include Dahmer's father Lionel (Richard Jenkins), his stepmother Shari (Molly Ringwald), suspicious neighbor Glenda (Niecy Nash), and grandmother Catherine (Michael Learned).

Quick Facts Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Genre ...

Dahmer received mixed reviews, but was ultimately a commercial success, reaching the number-one spot on Netflix in the first week of its release. It became Netflix's second most-watched English-language series of all time within 28 days,[4] and the third Netflix series to pass 1 billion hours viewed in 60 days.[5] The series reached number one on the Nielsen Top 10 streaming chart in the first week of its release, and placed No. 7 on Nielsen's all-time list for single-week viewership in its second week.

The series received four nominations at the 80th Golden Globe Awards, including for the Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film, with Peters winning for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film. It received six nominations at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Peters. Ultimately, Nash won for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

The second season of the anthology, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story (2024), will be based on the murder case of the Menéndez brothers.

Synopsis

The series is about the life of Jeffrey Dahmer, and how he became one of the most notorious serial killers in America. His murders were executed in Bath Township, Ohio, West Allis, Wisconsin, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin between 1978 and 1991. The series dramatizes instances where Dahmer was nearly apprehended until his ultimate conviction and death. It also explores how police incompetence and apathy contributed to enabling his crimes.

Cast

Main

Recurring

  • Penelope Ann Miller as Joyce Dahmer (née Flint), Jeffrey's mother and Lionel's first wife
    • Savannah Brown plays a younger version of Joyce Dahmer
  • Dia Nash as Sandra Smith, Glenda’s daughter
  • Nigel Gibbs as Rev. Jesse Jackson
  • Michael Beach as Det. Dennis Murphy, one of the lead detectives on the Dahmer case
  • Colby French as Det. Patrick Kennedy, one of the lead detectives on the Dahmer case
  • Matthew Alan as Off. Joseph Gabrish, one of the police officers responding to the Konerak Sinthasomphone incident
  • Scott Michael Morgan as Off. John Balcerzak, one of the police officers responding to the Konerak Sinthasomphone incident
  • David Barrera as Chief Arreola, the Milwaukee chief of police
  • Shaun J. Brown as Tracy Edwards, one of Jeffrey’s intended victims
  • Dyllón Burnside as Ronald Flowers, one of Jeffrey’s intended victims
  • Cameron Cowperthwaite as Steven Hicks, the hitchhiker who is Jeffrey’s first victim
  • Vince Hill-Bedford as Steven Tuomi, Jeffrey’s second victim
  • Rodney Burford as Tony Hughes, the deaf aspiring model who is Jeffrey’s twelfth victim[11]
  • Kieran Tamondong as Konerak Sinthasomphone, the Laotian boy who is Jeffrey’s thirteenth victim
  • Karen Malina White as Shirley Hughes, the mother of Tony Hughes
  • Khetphet Phagnasay as Southone Sinthasomphone, the father of Konerak Sinthasomphone
  • Phet Mahathongdy as Somdy Sinthasomphone, the mother of Konerak Sinthasomphone
  • Brayden Maniago as Somsack Sinthasomphone, the older brother of Konerak Sinthasomphone and one of Jeffrey’s intended victims
  • Scott Paophavihanh as Anouke Sinthasomphone, the older brother of Konerak Sinthasomphone
  • Brandon Black as Dean Vaughn, one of Jeffrey's intended victims
  • Ken Lerner as Joe Zilber
  • DaShawn Barnes as Rita Isbell, sister of Errol Linsey who is Jeffrey's eleventh victim
  • Furly Mac as Christopher Scarver, an inmate who murdered Jeffrey and Jesse Anderson
  • Jeff Harms as Jesse Anderson, an inmate who was murdered alongside Jeffrey
  • Dominic Burgess as John Wayne Gacy, a serial killer and sex offender
  • Shane Kerwin as Ed Gein, a serial killer and body snatcher

Soundtrack

The score for the series was composed and performed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. The soundtrack album was released the same day as the series.[12]

Episodes

More information No. overall, No. in season ...

Reception

Audience viewership

The series rose to the number one spot on Netflix in the first week of its release.[13] In the second week of its release, Netflix announced that Dahmer was its ninth most popular English-language TV show of all time, with 56 million households having viewed all 10 episodes.[14][15][16] The series remained number-one for weeks and became Netflix's second most-viewed English Netflix series of all time, and the fourth highest across any language with 701.37 million hours viewed in 21 days.[4] The series amassed more than 865 million hours viewed in the first 28 days of its release.[17] In 60 days it became the third Netflix series to pass 1 billion views.[18]

Dahmer debuted at number-one on the Nielsen Top 10 streaming chart by garnering more than 3.6 billion minutes of viewing for the week of September 19–25, placing it 10th on the all-time list for single-week viewership.[19] The following week, it jumped to No. 7 on the all-time list with 4.4 billion minutes viewed.[16] The series topped Nielsen's streaming chart for the third consecutive week with 2.3 billion viewing minutes.[20]

Jermey Dick of MovieWeb stated that on "October 3rd through the 9th the views of the Dahmer series made up to 205 million hours streamed" into watching the show for that period, overall making it up to "701 million hours watched globally".[21]

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 57% approval rating with an average rating of 6.3/10, based on 30 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus says: "While Monster is seemingly self-aware of the peril in glorifying Jeffrey Dahmer, creator Ryan Murphy's salacious style nevertheless tilts this horror story into the realm of queasy exploitation."[22] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 46 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[23]

Kayla Cobb at Decider said the show "isn't just well directed, written, and acted. It's rewriting what a crime drama can look like if we stop glorifying murderers and start focusing more on systematic failures."[24] Caroline Framke of Variety argues that the show "simply can't rise to its own ambition of explaining both the man and the societal inequities his crimes exploited without becoming exploitative in and of itself."[25] Malik Peay of the Los Angeles Times stated that people felt like the show was for the "entertainment industry's commercialization of tragedy".[26] Dan Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter praises episode 6 ("Silenced") as "easily the best episode of the series, an uncomfortably sweet and sad hour of TV that probably should have been the template for the entire show [and]...in placing a Black, deaf, gay character at the center of the narrative, the series is giving voice to somebody whose voice has too frequently been excluded from gawking serial killer portraits."[27][28]

Accolades

More information Award, Date of ceremony ...

Controversies

On September 23, 2022, Netflix removed the series' "LGBTQ" tag after backlash on social media.[46][47]

The series also received backlash from the families of Dahmer's victims, accusing Netflix of profiting off their traumatic experiences and "retraumatizing [the families] all over again". Eric Perry, a relative of victim Errol Lindsey, stated "I want people to understand this is not just a story or historical fact, these are real people’s lives. [Lindsey] was someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s father, someone’s friend that was ripped from [our] lives".[26]

Production assistant Kim Alsup alleged mistreatment while on set. She stated she was one of two Black crew members below the line on Dahmer, adding that "I was always being called someone else’s name, the only other Black girl who looked nothing like me, and I learned the names for 300 background extras". Alsup also alleged an "exhausting" and "unsupportive environment," stating there were no therapists on set. A spokesperson for Netflix countered this allegation, stating that everyone on set had access to free health and wellness sources, including access to a therapist.[26]

Shirley Hughes, the mother of Tony Hughes, whose story is told in the sixth episode, spoke out against the series' depiction of events. Hughes told The Guardian "It didn't happen like that," and expressed frustration over use of real names in the show.[48]

Future

Having initially ordered the program in 2020 as a limited series,[1] Netflix announced on November 7, 2022, that it had renewed Monster as an anthology series, with two further editions based on the lives of "other monstrous figures" to be announced.[49]

On May 1, 2023, Netflix announced the second season of the series titled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story (2024), which is based on the murder case of the Menéndez brothers.[50] On June 29, 2023, Deadline Hollywood reported that Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch were cast as Lyle and Erik Menéndez respectively.[3]

Notes

  1. With some dialogue in Lao and American Sign Language
  2. Originally announced under the title Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,[1] with Dahmer (stylized in all caps) later added as the main title; on Netflix, Dahmer is treated as the main series title with its single "season" using the original name.[2] Monster subsequently became the overall title for the anthology series.[3]

References

  1. Andreeva, Nellie (October 2, 2020). "Netflix Greenlights 'Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story' Limited Series From Ryan Murphy & Ian Brennan; Richard Jenkins Co-Stars, Carl Franklin & Janet Mock EP". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on November 18, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2022.
  2. "DAHMER". Netflix. Archived from the original on October 1, 2022. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  3. Tassi, Paul (October 12, 2022). "'Dahmer' Is Netflix's Second Highest Viewed English Language Show Ever". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 4, 2022. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  4. Hailu, Selome (December 5, 2022). "'Monster: Dahmer' Becomes Netflix's Third Title Ever to Cross 1 Billion Hours Viewed in 60 Days". Variety. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022. Retrieved December 7, 2022.
  5. VanHoose, Benjamin (June 9, 2021). "Evan Peters Transforms into Serial Killer Jeffrey Dahmer in First Set Photo from Upcoming Series". People. Archived from the original on January 14, 2022. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  6. Gajewski, Ryan (June 9, 2021). "See Evan Peters Become Jeffrey Dahmer in First Photo From Netflix's Monster". E! Online. Archived from the original on January 14, 2022. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  7. O'Connor, Roisin (March 26, 2021). "Ryan Murphy's Jeffrey Dahmer series has found an actor to play the notorious serial killer". The Independent. Archived from the original on January 14, 2022. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  8. Andreeva, Nellie (March 23, 2021). "'Monster': Evan Peters, Niecy Nash, Penelope Ann Miller & More Join Netflix Series From Ryan Murphy & Ian Brennan". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on December 16, 2021. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  9. Hipes, Patrick (March 31, 2021). "Michael Learned Joins Cast Of Netflix's 'Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story' From Ryan Murphy And Ian Brennan". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 23, 2022. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  10. Rai, Aditi (September 23, 2022). "Dahmer Episode 6: Silenced is a Beautiful and Heartbreaking Story of a Man's Stolen Dreams". Leisure Byte. Archived from the original on September 25, 2022. Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  11. "'Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story' Soundtrack Album Details". Film Music Reporter. September 20, 2022. Archived from the original on September 20, 2022. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
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  13. Bell, BreAnna (October 4, 2022). "Jeffrey Dahmer Series 'Monster' Is Netflix's Ninth Most-Watched English-Language Series of All Time". Variety. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
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  16. Campione, Katie (November 1, 2022). "'From Scratch' Reigns Over Netflix Top 10, Dethroning Ryan Murphy's 'The Watcher'". Deadline. Archived from the original on November 6, 2022. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  17. Campione, Katie (December 5, 2022). "'Dahmer' Becomes Third Netflix Series To Cross 1B Hours Viewed, Joining 'Squid Game' & 'Stranger Things 4'". Deadline. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022. Retrieved December 7, 2022.
  18. Hayes, Dade (October 20, 2022). "'Dahmer' Dominates Nielsen U.S. Streaming Chart As 'House Of The Dragon' Leapfrogs 'The Lord Of The Rings'". Deadline. Archived from the original on November 6, 2022. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  19. Rice, Lynette (November 3, 2022). "'Dahmer' Holds Top Spot On Nielsen U.S. Streaming Chart'; 'NCIS' And 'Gilmore Girls' Make Top 10". Deadline. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  20. Dick, Jeremy (October 11, 2022). "Dahmer Becomes Netflix's Second Most-Watched Engliah-Language Series of All Time". MovieWeb. Archived from the original on November 11, 2022. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  21. Cobb, Kayla (September 21, 2022). "'Dahmer' Netflix Review: Stream It or Skip It?". Decider. Archived from the original on September 25, 2022. Retrieved September 25, 2022.
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