When the Dahmer series was brought to our screen in September 2022, it was an instant hit reaching over 1 billion hours of streaming in the first 60 days. People’s morbid curiosity and wanting to know the motivations and thoughts of Dahmer led to this success, alongside the desire to learn more about such an infamous case. Despite its acclaim by viewers, the show had some controversies regarding the victims and their loved ones. The creator of the show reached out to over 20 of the victim’s friends and families but didn’t receive any response, perhaps because they didn’t want to relive the trauma of losing someone just to help make a documentary that could easily be seen as a glorification of the killer. Instead of taking this as a sign, the writers continued with production and released the show on Netflix where it quickly became one of the platform’s most watched shows. This is where some of the victim’s relatives first knew there was a series being made about Dahmer and many were rightfully quite upset by this with some saying that the portrayal of events was inaccurate.
Fred and Rose West: A British Horror (2025) looked at the abuse and murder of a number of women between 1967 and 1987 by Fred and Rose West. The series explained the events of the murders but didn’t really offer much new information and could be seen as simply a collection of previously known sources. It’s for this reason that the creation of the series seems unnecessary and merely a way to profit from the grief of the victims and their families.
the series seems unnecessary and merely a way to profit from the grief of the victims and their families.
Some may argue that docuseries can be empowering and bring light to potential motives or inspire social action to ensure the events aren’t repeated. I personally think they are very insensitive to the victims and have no real benefit apart from fulfilling the morbid curiosity of the viewer.