On September 21, 2022, Netflix released a new series titled DAHMER-Monster: The Jeffery Dahmer Story. True crime fans flocked to the new show. It quickly became popular, staying in the top of Netflix’s charts for two weeks straight.

What is not revealed by watching is that many of the victims’ families were not asked for permission to be portrayed, and many did not even know that DAHMER was in the works. In the true crime scene, this happens way too often. These families wake up every few months to find out a new movie or series has been made about the people who killed their brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, mothers, and fathers. Since the quotes used are mainly from public testimonies and victim impact statements, technically these production companies don’t need to ask permission or pay the families. Errol Lindsey was 19 years old when he was killed by Jeffrey Dahmer. A recreation of his sister, Rita Isbell’s, victim statement appears in the series. When speaking about this portrayal of her, Isbell told Insider, “They didn’t ask me anything. They just did it.”

My main qualm with true crime as a genre is the posse of fans, typically young girls, who treat these tragedies as their own personal steamy obsession, making posts on social media about how “hot” Ted Bundy is. These true crime groupies completely overlook the victims and instead focus on the physical appeal of the killers. It doesn’t help that production companies often cast popular actors, that are widely considered attractive, to portray psychopaths (i.e. Evan Peters, Ross Lynch, Zac Efron, etc…)

It’s absolutely sick to romanticize a killer, but what’s even worse is viewers who comment the show “isn’t gory enough.” These completely tone-deaf murder fanatics have become so desensitized to the literal murder of human beings that they find the audacity to complain about a lack of blood. If you are truly not disgusted by the senseless slaughter of real individuals, you are sick – seriously sick.