Review: Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

The new Netflix series “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” is interestingly titled. Yes, it’s about Jeffrey Dahmer, but it’s also about everyone he affected. The ten-episode series features the rock that is Jeffrey Dahmer, but it goes into great detail about the ripples his splash created in people’s lives.

Many people aren’t interested in this show, assuming that it’s just a gore-fest of him killing his 17 known victims. If that were the case, it wouldn’t be worth watching. But it is worth watching, because this story says a lot about him, but even more about us.

The first episode seems to have scared off many a potential watcher. It’s scary to watch Dahmer stalk his victim, a gay black man, and lure him back to Dahmer’s apartment, where Dahmer said he would eat his heart. But his would-be victim got away, running naked down the street and screaming. The two barely interested cops who returned to Dahmer’s apartment with him would — finally — find the evidence of Dahmer’s crimes. Thus the series begins with the end of his killing spree.

Dahmer, according to his father, was always different. He was “never the same” after a surgery at four. His father confesses that he was “never comfortable” around him. The Dahmer family was full of dysfunction, but not atypically so. Mom was a bit on the crazy side. Dad blamed her for all the pills she took during the pregnancy. Mom blamed Dad for indulging Jeffrey’s interest in dissecting roadkill. Both of them abandoned him at…