Jeffery Dahmer, who is also commonly known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee monster, was a serial killer active between 1978 and 1991. Dahmer was responsible for the murder and dismemberment of seventeen men and boys and now there is a drama series on Netflix about him.  

For most true crime fanatics this series was exciting, especially because there aren’t very many dramatic retellings of the crimes Dahmer committed. My Friend Dahmer, which came out in 2017, does a great job showing how Dahmer’s childhood and adolescence might have looked. The Netflix series Dahmer, on the other hand, seems to be more focused on the crimes themselves, showing how Dahmer attracted his victims and what eventually led to their end. 

Dahmer isn’t 100% of the story though. There are a few things that the story got wrong. One being that it portrays Glenda Cleveland as Dahmer’s next door neighbor when she actually lived in another apartment building. I also feel like the series puts a bad light on cops in a world where there is already a lot of stigma around cops,  though that could just be a stigma of the times. The series makes it seem like the cops overlooked Dahmer’s crimes because his victims were queer and minorities. 

 Another thing that Dahmer got wrong was the part where they showed him and his dad, Linoel, driving around looking for roadkill. Dahmer’s father only ever taught him how to clean bones; Dahmer himself would go out and look for roadkill. Inaccuracies like these can discredit how terrible Dahmer actually was especially if people watch the series and have no prior knowledge. Inaccuracies do benefit the story though because it’s keeping a fair amount of details private to protect the families

As someone who enjoys true crime media, I think Dahmer was overall a good show to watch. Unlike a lot of dramatic retellings, it didn’t romanticize Dahmer for the things he did. It showed what it could of the crimes and relied heavily on the actors to portray the story with body language and dialect. 

The use of sound throughout the series is very limited, and I feel like that’s a nice touch, showing that even though it’s a dramatic retelling, it doesn’t rely heavily on sound to keep the storyline going. Evan Peters is known for his roles in American Horror Story, Never Back Down, One Tree Hill, and many more. Peters himself seems to bring a lot of attention to his shows due to his attractive nature. Honestly I think the resemblance between Dahmer and Peters is insane and made the series even more creepy.  As much as I loved it, I do not recommend watching it if you are sensitive to graphic materials.