Review by Chlo Hickson
I’m going to start this by mentioning some trigger warnings for if you decide to watch this series: Violence. Gore. Homophobia. Racism.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has one of the longest and honestly weirdest titles ever. Seems redundant saying this but it’s another re-telling of the life of Jeffrey Dahmer, but honestly this one is worth talking about because it’s not just another look at Dahmer’s crimes.
It’s a Ryan Murphy production, of American Horror Story fame, and I bring that up because I feel like this Jeffrey Dahmer series has a similar tone to Murphy’s other work. The show itself also has a stand out performance from Evan Peters as Jeffrey Dahmer – who I’ll talk about a bit later.
Something that I liked about how they handled Jeffrey Dahmer’s portrayal in this is that it did bring a believable humanity to the monster, that’s not to say empathetic or to make excuses for what he did it’s just in terms of context. You can show context for something or someone horrific without making excuses for them and I felt like that’s what this mini-series did well.
For people that are fans of true crime, it does have that true crime element.
Something that I liked was the subtlety of the tension and you can tell this show knows that they are dealing with a real story, with real lives that were affected and continue to be affected to this day, because of this you don’t actually see anything too awful that this monster did, we hear about the events instead and have his neighbour Glenda Cleveland, who I just want to say was also incredible, experience the atrocities.
There is a difference between gore and horror: you can have horror without gore and vise versa. What Jeffrey Dahmer did was horrifying so we don’t need to see it on the screen to know that it happened. It was honestly more interesting to focus on his neighbour and her experiencing these horrific events than focusing on the specifics of what Dahmer did. Because we’ve seen that countless times.
That’s not to say they don’t show anything because if you don’t show anything then you can’t get a sense of what Dahmer’s doing and then it becomes an injustice, there is a fine line with shows like this to do the families of the victims justice and I feel like this series did it very well.
I thought the scene with Shaun J Brown’s Tracey Edwards was so unnerving as Dahmer clearly had an ability to be an seemingly kindhearted person which is hardwired into him with the real monster lurking within ready to strike. The thought that Dahmer had a routine to get people back to his apartment is horrifying because it speaks volumes on how frequently he did it. Something else that was shown to us was how often this man was able to evade the police, whether it was telling them that Konerak was his boyfriend and was actually drunk or when he was stopped for swerving on the road, its unbelievable how he was able to keep calm and apply the right awkwardness to get the police off the scent. It honestly really got under my skin when the show featured the actual phone call between the police and Dahmer’s neighbour, despite stressing several times that she believed the boy to be a child the police state they took Dahmer’s word for it that they were boyfriends. It’s as if he had the entire system wrapped around his finger and this was mostly due to the race of his victims, because of this, Dahmer’s word was always taken over non-white people such as Cleveland not being taken seriously by the police. The police turned a blind eye to Dahmer on several occasions which is scary in itself.
It was a very interesting take to tell this story from Glenda’s point of view, but I can say that episode 6 elevated this series for me as it concentrated on one of Jeffrey Dahmer’s actual victims. It shows the deaf Tony Hughes’ life, it showed him hanging out with friends and his family. The show got creative when Hughes was signing, as all the surrounding noise went down, it was just this really good way of getting into the life of this unfortunate young man. This whole episode was literally about him so when he meets Dahmer it’s not ‘Dahmer’s about to kill another victim’, it was ‘Tony Hughes has met Jeffrey Dahmer and now you’re worried about him!’ And it’s from that episode on that the show focused more on the people around this killer.
This show actually makes you realise all the lives that this man destroyed. There are a lot more victims than the ones who were taken before their time. The families around those people are victims, the loved ones, and their friends are all victims. I appreciate this show for that and I hope that this series sets a new standard for how to tell serial killer stories now. I also liked that they took the time to show how the parents dealt with this.
In some interviews I’ve seen Evan Peters discuss how portraying the infamous serial killer was one of the hardest things he’s had to do in his life, but can I just say that his performance was legendary and deserved more than the Golden Globe that he won for taking on the role. After he took on the job, Peters’ voice and behaviour noticeably changed. His issues with alcohol got worse and he ended up needing a break from acting, and after learning that he stayed in character for six months I’m honestly not surprised. It’s upsetting what he’s had to endure for taking on this job but I think he was born to take on such a complex role and I hope he has recovered from the part.
While I’m on the topic of awards I also want to congratulate Niecy Nash for winning an Emmy for her role as Glenda Cleveland. I was surprised to discover that this series was nominated for thirteen Emmys but somehow only won one! It’s still an achievement to get that many nominations but I think it should’ve won more.
I’ve heard people say that it wasn’t a documentary, so it didn’t need to be 100% accurate but I think this is wrong.
The problem is tiny details they get wrong are completely avoidable. It makes absolutely no sense to critique a narrative in a true story. I mean, isn’t the horrific true story enough? Why fabricate anything if the actual story that REALLY happened is the unbelievable part.
I’m honestly not sure if the thing about roadkill is true, I do know it makes the dad look terrible and after this people would’ve been blaming Lionel Dahmer for his son’s actions.
I also know that Niecy Nash’s character Glenda Cleveland is a composite character of Pamela Bass and the real Glenda Cleveland. Which for a miniseries makes sense. Cleveland didn’t actually live next door to Dahmer she lived in the building next to the Oxford apartments, Pamela Bass lived across the hall from him. It was Cleveland’s niece and daughter that found and called the police about Konerak Sinthasomphone, though Cleveland later called the police to see what happened.
Truthfully, I liked the show but I didn’t like how many things got twisted. Apparently Lionel Dahmer actually sued Netflix because they didn’t contact him about the show which he claimed glorified the murders committed by his son and spread untrue information. Honestly, I wish people didn’t blame him, he had been through enough. I also heard that ‘fans’ found out where he lived.
Another point is that Ryan Murphy claimed that he contacted the families for information which is something that the families deny and claim that the show was a complete surprise to them.
For these reasons, the show can be vexxing for those who know about the case.
I appreciated that they included the voices of the victims and their families. At the end of the day, it is because of what the victims went through and suffered that Dahmer became the ‘Boogie Man’ of the 90’s.
My heart goes out to everyone that was impacted by the actions of this monster.
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story was honestly really well done. It showed us Dahmer’s upbringing, his past in a way that makes you ask why, like how did this happen? But it does this in a way that pays respect to the victims and their loved ones. Beyond Dahmer, it also has a conversation with the audience about the systems that failed his victims. It’s all part of a deeper and a far more interesting thing than Jeffrey Dahmer.
I think this is something worth checking out.
🌟🌟 🌟🌟1/2
I’m dedicating this review to the victims of Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer’s crimes are infamous, but it should be his victims who are remembered:
Steven Hicks, Steven Tuomi, James Edward Doxtator, Richard Guerrero, Anthany Lee Sears, Raymond Lamont Smith (Also known as Ricky Beeks), Edward Warren Smith, Ernest Marquez Miller, David Courtney Thomas, Curtis Durrell Straughter, Errol Lindsey, Tony Anthony Hughes, Konerak Sinthasomphone, Matt Cleveland Turner, Jeremiah Benjamin Weinberger, Oliver Joseph Lacey & Joseph Arthur Bradehoft.