Don’t Worry Dahmer, We’re Still Talking About You – A Commentary

To start I’d like to provide some background for the main focus of the “Dahmer” series on Netflix: Jeffery Dahmer. He was the infamous American serial killer and repeated sex offender known as the Milwaukee Cannibal/Monster. He gained his infamy by dismembering and cannibalising his 17 victims’ bodies, all men and boys, during his active years, from 1978 to 1991. He died while in prison in 1994. 

The main question I’d like you to keep in mind while reading this commentary, alongside the background provided above, is: Why create this live-action series after, presumably, researching the case and consuming the many other media on the topic, in which there are meticulously re-enacted deaths and post-mortem mutilations depicted, sensationalising Dahmer and his actions, in spite of the fact that it is morally corrupt to do so?  

Play, Pause, Plead - Repeat 

In order to answer this question, I began watching the series, mainly in the hopes of writing the whole series review rather than a commentary on the single episode I watched, but I’ll explain why I couldn’t continue the series later. First episode opening scene: already showing red flags. While starting with the neighbour’s reaction to the sound of his saw from across the hall, maybe hoping to include the very real fact that witnesses at the time were ignored by police due to their gender, race and economic class, the dominant focus of the opening scene is Dahmer’s behaviour after he has performed his routine dismembering of one of his victims. The content of the first sequence is clearly meant to heighten our fear and disgust of Dahmer and his actions, even going so far as to set up the fact that his door gets stuck when he attempts to open it, likely foreshadowing a fatal delay in an upcoming victims’ attempted escape. 

The second scene shows Dahmer’s interactions at a gay bar, specifically with gay Black men, showing him dancing drunkenly, being teased, and him sharing some of his work as a nude photographer in an attempt tp lure in his victims. In the background you can even hear one of his potential victims saying “my rent has gone up” to his friends as a reason he should accept Dahmer’s request to pose for him for $50… during which the music and camera angles change to emphasise the unknown danger the victim is walking into by humouring this seemingly clueless/harmless guy. The shot didn’t sit right with me and for a while I couldn’t understand why. Later I realised it felt like they were trying to give an insight into what his victims perceived him as when he was luring them with this lie, but if that’s the case, then why set up shots that exclude the victim accepting his offer, fade their voice out and instead edit the whole end of the scene as a caricature of Dahmer revelling in success?  

The inequalities exploited by Dahmer here don’t seem to be depicted in an empathetic, nor even sympathetic light at all – the targets and eventual victim being gay men, especially gay Black men in America during the ‘70s. This intersectional group were especially vulnerable members of society for discrimination, hate crimes, and more brutal forms of victimisation, as evidenced by Dahmer himself. This discrimination came from every community too: straight people of all ethnicities; the justice system, especially the police; and most employers at the time, further pushing them into lower economic classes and stripping them of the option to refuse men like Dahmer when they offer cash for ‘favours/work’. To reduce them to the targets and by-product of Dahmer’s homosexual and cannibalistic exploration, while reflective of true events, paints an unsympathetic view of the vitcims of his crimes and a perverse interest in Dahmer’s reasoning in his selection of victims and his mental state at the time. Why do the show with this take… why? 

Inequalities & Communities 

While it’s true the show may be attempting to simply highlight the social inequalities displayed in the Dahmer case, both in the treatment of the victims and witnesses by police, the justice system and wider society, its overall production and the very fact that this much time, thought, and energy was spent in recreating Dahmer’s motivations, methods and even going so far as to depicting his mutilation and consumption of his murder victims bodies, leaves me shocked that so many people are okay with the more gruesome scenes I never even watched because I was uncomfortable well before the end of episode one. I’m also aware that later in the show they flesh out their characterisation of some of Dahmer’s victims like Tony Hughes, but I would argue that this doesn’t make up for the fact that they disproportionately focus on Dahmer and his victimisation of his targets rather than attempting to bring his victims’ names to the forefront, which is a contentious motivation when the creators of the show don’t know what the victims would have wanted…  

Living Loved Ones 

Which brings us to the incontestable nail in the coffin for the show’s rocky moral positioning: the fact that the living relatives and loved ones of some of Dahmer’s victims not only didn’t consent to the shows production and release, but also have since stated how traumatic the media revival of the murder of their loved ones has been for them in its harmful dramatization of their murders and the sensationalism of Dahmer and those of his ilk.* This includes the mother of Tony Hughes who is particularly appalled Netflix can use her son’s likeness and name and exploit it for entertainment, while also violating her privacy all in one episode ‘dedicated’ to him. 

Dahmer died in 1994. Leave him there, as ash, not reincarnated for entertainment at the expense of so many. 

Further Harm 

Separate to my issues with the shows production, but so relevant to its impact on people farther than just upon the victims’ relatives, I’d like to supply an anecdote of a video I saw this past week. This video is also the reason I couldn’t continue to watch it for a full review. It’s a short video of two men on a podcast speaking about the victim shown held hostage, emotionally tortured, and eventually murdered in the first episode. The entire clip, which they themselves snipped, edited, and released for promotion on their own social media, solely joked about how funny it was that he, the victim, was “windin’ for his life”, all while they replicate the victims attempts to appease Dahmer and laugh while doing it. This, even though there are critiques of the show out there, is not the only piece of media I have seen which disrespects the victims, or more popularly, encourages people to watch the show because it’s a great production, a must watch, amazing cinematography etc, and it’s very disheartening to witness. The show shouldn’t have happened at all, but, in my opinion, it should be taken down to hopefully lessen its harmful impact on so many individuals who did not consent to either their own names and likeness being used, the victims themselves, and the relatives and loved ones of the victims and others effected by Dahmer. One comment I saw on a YouTube video review of the show claimed the show did a service to the victims, allowing their names to be known and their stories heard and I can only respond by asking who in their right mind would think that the recreation of murders with such terrible context, in vivid detail in order to ‘stay true to the story’, solidifying these victims and their brutally infamous victimisation by Dahmer in a new generation, without the consent of the still living loved ones of said victims… is a good thing? 

Conclusion 

My guess at the answer to my question of why this show was made? Profits and prestige in the industry, at best… a collective perverse fascination with Dahmer and his actions, and those of his kind, at worst. When producing media on any True Crime events, there has to be a precedent of ethics and morality involved and I truly think this show lacks both. There is no justification I can accept for this show’s creation. They took the time and energy to set up Dahmer’s front door’s poor condition, a writer and director’s well-thought-out decision to dramatize the very real death of a victim of Dahmer’s, further extending Dahmer’s, and wider societies, victimisation of not only the actual murder victims of the time, but the communities he targeted then and now and the remaining loved ones of his victims today. The creators, writers, producers, directors, and other staff who worked on the Netflix Original show, while not all equally responsible for the moral culpability of the production of such a re-enactment series, clearly didn’t think this one through before greenlighting and financing it. Beware the red flags and do better going forward, please. 

**Disclaimer while this article relates to true events it also features the opinion of the author** 

*Vargas, R.A. 2022. Mother of Dahmer victim condemns Netflix series: ‘I don’t see how they can do that’. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/10/dahmer-victim-tony-hughes-mother-condemns-netflix-series