Dahmer (Netflix; 2022)

By all means, watch Dahmer, the new Netflix series about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer...but know what you're getting into. It is not easy to watch. 

Me, I was a kid when Jeffrey Dahmer was caught and his story came out, and a teenager when he (spoiler alert...?) was killed in prison. And I have no particular interest in serial killers, cults, or insane criminals, so I did not know hardly anything about him. Now that I know -- because of the show and because of some internet research (Wikipedia for 20 seconds) -- I almost wish I didn't. 

After the first episode of Dahmer I almost quit watching the series. Hell, I almost quit watching it during the first episode. But like any good citizen of the 21st century -- and by that I mean saturated with visual stimuli to the point where I can almost not go an hour without watching lights flickering on a screen, and pretty much completely desensitized to on-screen violence -- I quickly resumed and finished the series. 

I cannot say this series is for everyone, and an explanation of exactly why would take longer than I want to spend writing or thinking about Jeffrey Dahmer. But essentially, the series is done in a time-jumping format in which you watch Dahmer plotting and performing his heinous acts of violence, and then jump back to scenes of his adolescence and childhood, as the series attempts (attempts) to explain how and why Dahmer developed into an ice-veined, methodical, and essentially remorseless killer. In the final scene one character sums it up best when he basically says there is no way to explain why Dahmer did what he did, and it was time to move on from the whole thing. Good advice. 

The series also directly takes on the racial politics of Dahmer's crimes which -- again, not enough time and space to fully get into -- are stomach-churning enough in themselves to make a separate documentary. The fact that Dahmer's victims were almost exclusively young, gay, black men, and that he lived in and carried out his crimes for years in an under-policed, predominantly black neighborhood are aspects of this whole saga that I personally never heard about. Perhaps that's because I was a kid when all this happened, but more likely it's because the systemic racism and homophobia that allowed Dahmer to operate so freely were too easy for the media, and history, to brush aside at that time. I'd like to think today things might have played out differently. 

Shout outs have to be made to an incredible cast including Evan Peters as Dahmer, Neicy Nash as Glenda Cleveland, Dahmer's neighbor in the Milwaukee apartment building where he did most of his killing, and the person who attempted on numerous occasions to get the attention of the police, but to no avail. 

Richard Jenkins as Dahmer's father almost brings a little too much latent humor to the show. I think I've seen him in too many funny roles to take him seriously as the father who is mystified and a little afraid of his son, while still trying to do the best for him. Molly Ringwald is a pleasant surprise as Dahmer's step-mom. And Penelope Ann Miller (back from wherever she's been? Or maybe I just haven't seen her since Kindergarten Cop) turns in what I think is probably the sleeper star performance of the series, as Dahmer's mom.