‘Dahmer’: One person on the team describes it as “one of the worst series I’ve ever worked on”

“Dahmer” has become one of Netflix’s latest hits. The series got one of the best previews on the streaming platform, the best since the fourth season of “Stranger Things”. But the project by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan with Evan Peters in the role of the famous serial killer also arouses much controversy. Now also within the team.

Shortly after the miniseries was published, testimonies began to arrive from relatives of Jeffrey Dahmer’s victims claiming that the series is “retraumatizing”, as described by Eric Perry, cousin of Errol Lindsey, one of the men killed. Added to these complaints is Rita Isbell herself, the victim’s sister, whose reconstruction of her testimony at the trial held in 1992 is one of the most viral clips in the series. “When I saw part of the series it annoyed me, especially when I saw myself, when I saw my name on the screen and that woman saying word for word exactly what I said. If I hadn’t known, I would have. thought it was me “Her hair was like mine, she wore the same clothes. That’s why I felt like I was reliving them. She brought me all the emotions I felt then. They never contacted me about the show. I think Netflix should have asked if we cared or how we felt about it. They didn’t ask me for anything. they just made it. But I’m not hungry for money and that’s what this series is about: Netflix trying to make money. I would also have understood if they had donated some of the money to the children of the victims. Not necessarily their families. I am older. I live very comfortably. But the victims have children and grandchildren. If the series benefited in some way, it wouldn’t seem so harsh and reckless. It is sad that they make money from this tragedy. it is greed. The episode with me is the only part I’ve seen. I haven’t seen the whole series. I don’t need to see it. I have lived it. I know exactly what happened. “.

“Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” has also received complaints from its own employees, albeit not for the content but for their experience on set. Kim Alsup, one of the show’s production assistants, recently tweeted about her time on set, describing it to the Los Angeles Times as “one of the worst series I’ve ever worked on”. In his case it refers to the work environment, since he considers it “They treated her very badly”: “I was always called by someone else’s name, the only other black girl who didn’t look anything like me, and I learned the names of 300 extras.”.

Alsup criticizes the fact that there were no therapists on set, despite a Netflix spokesperson ensuring that all employees have access to free health care, including mental health. He also mentioned it in the tweet “now he also sees the black female lead in a different way”, but does not specify who it refers to. He says she couldn’t watch the series: “I feel like it will bring back too many memories from work. I don’t want to have situations similar to PTSD. The trailer itself gave me PTSD, which is why I ended up writing that tweet that I thought no one else would have laws. ” “. She says she didn’t feel comfortable anymore until they started filming the sixth episode, which is written by Janet Mock and directed by Paris Barclay, a black man and woman..

“Jeffrey Dahmer was never a meme”

Beyond the complaints, ‘Dahmer’ has managed to open a debate on the role of this type of series or film as a speaker, for better or for worse. Eric Perry, one of the first to condemn the series, tells the LA Times that he sees nothing positive in it: “Unfortunately a lot of the feedback I have received says that we should be grateful that this story is told. I want people to understand that this is not just a story or a historical fact, it is the life of real people. Lindsey was the son of someone, the somebody’s brother, somebody’s father, somebody’s friend, and they took him away from us. I think social media and Netflix, along with a big name producer and actors, have amplified Jeffrey Dahmer more than ever. never been a meme. We are at a traumatic event from the moment the worst day of our life is reduced to your neighbor’s favorite series to binge on. It’s more important: if you are going to create something that uses real people and their experiences, you should at least contact those people out of respect”.