Whilst much of the controversy for Netflix has shifted from “Dahmer” last weekend to “Blonde” this weekend, the former is still on the receiving end of criticism in numerous circles since the show hit the service.
The Ryan Murphy-produced “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” series starring Evan Peters as the serial killer, has been a ratings juggernaut for the service. However, it has also been hit by criticism not just from viewers and families of the victims, but from staff who worked on the show.
The latest to weigh in now is journalist Anne Schwartz, who broke the story of Dahmer’s killings whilst working as a crime reporter at the Milwaukee Journal in 1991.
In a new interview with The Independent, Schwartz has criticized the show for different reasons than most – namely accuracy and how much artistic license the series takes. Schwartz says:
“[The show] does not bear a great deal of resemblance to the facts of the case. In the first five minutes of the first episode, you have Glenda Cleveland knocking on his door. None of that ever happened. I had trouble with buy-in, because I knew that was not accurate. But people are not watching it that way, they’re watching it for entertainment.”
Schwartz, who went on to work in communications for the Milwaukee Police Department and Wisconsin Department of Justice, said the depiction of city police officers as racist and homophobic is also incorrect:
“I’ve spent a lot of time with them, interviewing the people who were at the scene. Again this is a dramatisation, but at a time when it is not exactly easy for law enforcement to get trust and buy-in from the community, it’s not a very helpful representation.”
Dahmer reportedly preyed on men who were on the margins of society, and whose disappearance wouldn’t raise alarm bells, allowing him to get away with murdering seventeen boys and men before his crimes were discovered.
Schwartz says the people of Milwaukee are “absolutely done with hearing about the case”. The series has smashed Netflix records, pulling in 196.2 million hours of viewing in its first week to become the streamer’s biggest ever new series debut. The full ten-episode run is now available on Netflix.
Source: Indiewire
