Dahmer is a Masterpiece

Warning: This article contains spoilers from the third paragraph and covers mature themes.

Dahmer Monster: The Jeffery Dahmer Story is the first edition of the Monster anthology series by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. (Fun Fact: The famous Haloween movie was originally meant to be an anthology series as well, with each addition focusing on a different story, but Jason's character became so famous that they stuck with him) The show has been subject to many controversies and covers gruesome topics, not for the faint of heart. Nevertheless, its dramatization of real-life events and high level of storytelling has made it somewhere between the realm of fiction and history for me. 

To me, Dahmer is not just a story about the real-life serial killer who wreaked havoc upon the people of Milwaukee. Even Peters's performance, along with great efforts from the entire team of people involved has elevated this show to a lot more than that. It is a story about moral degradation, on a personal and social level. It's about postpartum depression, the role of faith in our lives, our deep need for human connection, the influence our formative years have on us, and our search for meaning and purpose. 

The characters in Dahmer are so well-developed that simple interactions between them take on this depth and feeling of awe-inspiring dread filled with tension, where there's always more to it than meets the eye. The writing and direction show some brilliant uses of subtext, the sound design and cinematography are perfectly honed to elicit the exact feeling that needs to be created, and the performances tie it all together. I love how they use the modified whale sounds to indicate when the show shifts its genres from Drama to Horror and the melancholy piano keys for the other way around. 

Some of my favorite things were: The use of the smell to convey Jeffery's ominous aura and how it can be considered to portray moral degradation and lurking evil in a larger context. The character of Glenda as a representative of the community's feelings toward the events. The deconstruction of Jeffery's psyche to such a lucid and plain level that you can go from disgust at his appalling actions at the beginning of the story, to empathy towards him in the middle, and finally indifference to the threat he might pose by the end. I believe this wasn't done to glorify or humanize the real-world figure, but to me, it seemed like a genuine attempt to disarm his persona into something a lot less threatening and powerful. 

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Even Peters's casting in contrast to Jeffery Dahmer's real face says a lot about the level of thought that went into every aspect of this show.

I think the story picked up at the perfect moment in the entire series of events by drawing into the last victim in the first episode where Jeffery is sloppy, haphazard, and brutal while Tracy is able to get away with his life. This did a great job of building suspense and intrigue around Jefferey and the events surrounding him. It is also worth noting that Jeffery is not the hero of this story, he is clearly the villain even in his own words. I would say that the hero is Glenda Cleveland more than anyone else. 

Ultimately without focusing too much on every single detail about the show, as a huge fan of True Detective S01, I am happy to see a great addition to the crime genre with this show. Its drama allows us to get a glimpse of some really heavy parts of real life and consider some truly dark and mature themes in a meaningful way. I am glad that it has gotten the recognition it deserves because it is extremely well-made.