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By: Amir Salaad

WARNING: This review has spoilers and talks about some scenes of the film.

‘Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ is a crime drama mini series made by Ryan Murphy and was released in 2022. This show follows the life of one of the most famous serial killers in history and the people he hurt. This series is rated TV-MA, because it has some violence, gore, sexual content, and some other disturbing parts.

Jeffery Dahmer is a quiet and awkward guy living in Milwaukee who is doing horrible things secretly in his apartment. He targets young guys and even though his neighbor, Glenda Cleveland, keeps calling the police because of the smells and noises coming from his apartment, they never do anything.

The show starts with Dahmer’s final arrest but then it goes back in time to show his childhood and how he became a monster. It’s different from other shows because it focuses on the victims and their families instead of just making Dahmer look like a main character.

As each episode of the series continues, the person watching gets to see how many times Dahmer almost got caught. One of the most frustrating parts is when 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone escapes the apartment, but the police walk the boy back inside because they believed the lie Dahmer told them being together. The tension gets higher and higher as you see the families struggle to get justice while the police just ignore them.

The closer you get to the end of the series, the more you see how much damage was done to the whole community, not just the people that he killed.

The character development is also what sets this show apart from the rest. Evan Peters, who plays Dahmer, is great at the role. He acts weird and sometimes it’s hard to watch. Niecy Nash also gives a great performance in the show as she plays his next door neighbor Glenda Cleveland. She shows how mad she is at the fact that the police don’t really do anything to Dahmer when Konerak manages to escape. He lies to the police and takes him back inside his apartment. One thing this show does a good job at is showing this part of Dahmer’s life because from here you can see how insane it is that he was allowed to just get away with it by lying to the police. And they chose to believe Dahmer over Glenda.

To be honest, watching this really opened my eyes. It’s actually scary how someone could get away with so much just because the police didn’t care about some of the neighborhoods. Like for example, Glenda literally lived right next door and called the police so much to tell them about Dahmer, but they didn’t listen to her. It made me think about how true crime isn’t just entertainment and that these were real people’s lives that got ruined.

Evan Peters was definitely the best choice they could’ve made for this role because he made the character feel human but still totally terrifying. He just had that uncanny look. The ending where he finally gets killed in prison doesn’t even feel like a good ending because I got left thinking about all the people who could have been saved if the cops actually listened.

It’s a very heavy and emotional show, but it’s worth watching if you want to see a different side of Jeffery Dahmer’s story.

I would give ‘Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ an 8.5/10. It’s available to watch on Netflix.

By: Maya Vossen-Nelson

In 2024, crime podcasts consistently occupied spots in both Apple Podcasts and Spotify’s Top Charts and IMDb announced that over 58 new TV documentary series were released in 2024.

On the surface, individuals who enjoy crime podcasts, crime TV and crime novels seem like sadists; they seek out media recalling the pain and suffering of others. But there is actually a deeper psychological component.

Individuals are attracted to tragedy because it is human nature to be highly attuned to threatening behavior. Humans want to discover the patterns, causes and outcomes of harmful situations to protect themselves and loved ones. This is a survival instinct ingrained in the human psyche since before homo sapiens emerged.

This draw is similar to the desire to know what is happening when an ambulance goes by or being unable to look away from a highway crash. Most people don’t wish harm on others, so why has an entire industry been built on this fascination?

Although the TV is relatively new, this question has puzzled philosophers for centuries. Aristotle first explored this topic and observed that “[W]e enjoy looking at the most exact portrayals of things whose actual sight is painful to us”. A Stanford Philosophy article reflects on Aristotle’s quote and reasons that there is “pleasure as arising from the knowledge acquired in viewing such representations”.

This can be further explained by brain research that shows human brains experience danger and passion in strikingly similar ways: both causing arousal, both releasing dopamine. Dopamine is often described as the brain’s ”pleasure chemical” and is responsible for actions relating to cognition and reward. Dopamine can be released during pleasurable activities (such as eating and social interaction), during the anticipation of rewards, foreseeing favorable outcomes and while achieving goals. The dopamine released while watching crime TV is produced from anticipation and from experiencing intense emotions regardless of if it is repulsion or fascination.

Studies show that women are more likely than men to seek out content that analyzes the killer’s motive, contains information on how victims escaped and what actions increase the risk of becoming a target for killers.

Female fascination with crimes is not because they are more likely to become murderers, it is actually quite the opposite. Women make up fewer than 20% of murders, are approximately 60% more likely to be victims of kidnapping and 90% more likely than men to be victims of rape.

So, the next time you see someone watching a crime documentary don’t be so quick to judge.