Another true-crime hit for the streamer
Ryan Murphy has created another hit for Netflix, proving once again that sadistic true-crime stories prove to be a popular binge.
Did you watch at least one of the 196.2 million hours of 'Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story'? Because if so, well done, you contributed to making the series a huge hit for Netflix.
The series trailer dropped unexpectedly a few days out from its release on Netflix on September 21, and since then it has racked up millions of hours on the streaming service worldwide. Appearing in Top 10 lists across 92 countries, the 10-part saga comes in fifth position in terms of the most-viewed series, behind 'Squid Game', 'All of Us Are Dead', 'Stranger Things' season four and 'Bridgerton' season two.
Evan Peters ('American Horror Story', 'Mare of Easttown') stars as the notorious serial killer who murdered a string of young men between the years 1978 and 1991. Known as The Milwaukee Cannibal or The Milwaukee Monster, he gruesomely took the lives of 17 innocent victims in plain sight, even though neighbours were suspicious of Dahmer and filed numerous complaints about him acting strangely. Police incompetence is the main reason he got away for over a decade.
The latest Ryan Murphy series might have millions of views but it hasn't, however, been a critical success. Murphy's stylised and over-the-top way of telling stories has rubbed some critics (and viewers) up the wrong way, some remarking that his direction sometimes glamorises the man in question. There is, however, high praise for Peters and the supporting actors.
While the focus of the series is mostly on the victims and their families, the consensus is that the series would have benefitted from being shorter than 10 episodes. Families of the victims 17 have also claimed that no member of production reached out to them during filming.
A fiend for all things horror, the next Ryan Murphy project is another true-crime series, 'The Watcher'. Based on the freakish happenings detailed in a New York Magazine/The Cut article by Reeves Wiedeman in 2018, it will tell the story of a real-life family who begin to receive death threats to their house - and anyone could be the culprit. Starring Naomi Watts, Bobby Cannavale and Jennifer Coolidge, it lands on Netflix on October 13.
Read up on all of the latest Netflix releases here.
Watch 'Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story' on Netflix.