Jeffery Dahmer, the serial killer who got away with murder for 13 years. Dahmer took the lives of 17 males. One was a 14-year-old boy who had escaped Dahmer but was handed right back by the police where Dahmer then drilled a hole into his head and poured acid into his skull. Dahmer was known for drugging, abusing, killing, and eating his victims.

The show Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffery Dahmer Story has been a very talked-about show around our school for a while now. I can say that I was definitely not expecting to watch the actual events of these horrid murders, sometimes I don’t know how I finished the whole series. There were many points in the show where I wasn’t sure if I could finish and I knew others felt the same way.

I decided to interview some people around our school and get their opinion on this controversial show. I was looking for five people, one who binged the entire season because they thought it was so good, one who liked it, one who didn’t really mind it, one who didn’t like it, and one who couldn’t even get past the first episode because they thought it was so bad. After talking with each of these five people, here is what they had to say.

Trey Miller: Miller was one of the few people that responded to my survey and said that he binged the entire season. When talking to Miller he told me that his urge to watch the entire season as fast as possible probably wasn’t a healthy one. There was a point in time during the episode when Miller almost had to stop but his curiosity kept him going. He thought it was very cool when the directors of the show put in an actual phone clip of Dahmer’s neighbor calling the police. Miller watched the show while remembering that these were real-life events but he thought it was “cool that they went out of their way to make this.”

Thora Hegarty: When talking to Hegarty, she told me that she really liked the show, but she thought of it more like a horror movie rather than real-life events. Thinking of it this way allowed her to enjoy the acting of the show without being too freaked out by the fact that real events were playing out right in front of her. She was very intrigued by the first episode and all the events that happened within that episode. Hegarty said that there wasn’t really any point throughout the show where she felt like she wanted to stop, she states “I have a pretty strong stomach when it comes to stuff like that.” Hegarty was very shocked by some of the “stuff” Dahmer did to his victims. She said, “I knew Jeffery Dahmer was a person, but I did not know that he was a cannibal.”

Makenzie Evans: Evans has not watched the show but she has seen little clips on social media sites such as Tik Tok. Many of her friends have told her that the show is very scary and she has decided not to watch it, there have been times when she was debating about watching it but has ended up choosing not to. Despite the fact that she has not seen the show, she would still recommend the show to someone she knows that likes scary shows and movies. Evans said that she might watch the documentary about Dahmer instead.

Noelle McDonald: McDonald had also not watched the series but she had seen bits and pieces of the show. Those bits and pieces made her decide that the show wasn’t for her, it creeped her out and made her very uncomfortable. McDonald said that she couldn’t get past the fact that this had happened in real life to real people. She did say that if you like horror movies then she would recommend it even though she hasn’t seen the whole show. There wasn’t a part that surprised her the most but she was just very weirded out.

Kelsey Greenslade: When I interviewed Greenslade she told me that she watched about an episode and a half but had to stop watching. She had to stop watching because of how disturbing and gross the show was and the fact that it was a real-life story. When asked if she would recommend the show to anyone Greenslade responded by saying, “I mean if you’re into like creepy shows that are like kinda weird then yeah. But like if you get grossed out really easily definitely no.” Greenslade was watching the show from the computer of the people sitting behind her, in the show, Dahmer kissed a head that had been removed from a body. Greenslade knew then that this show was not for her.

My opinion: As I had said before there were many points all throughout the show where I wasn’t sure if I could keep watching. The only thing that made me continue on was the fact that I wanted to give an honest opinion about this show. The show was very explicit about each murder and it almost seemed as if I was there, the scenes were very detailed and when compared to the documentary they were almost completely the same except for a little Hollywood exaggeration. I don’t think I would watch anything like this again but I would definitely watch the documentary version. I think it’s a good idea for people, mainly people who are mature enough, to watch things like this because it just makes us aware of what’s out there in the world and it teaches us to be cautious of our surroundings and the people around us. Watching this show on Jeffery Dahmer helped me and I think some other people realize that sometimes people aren’t always what they seem to be.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the Dahmer show. Despite the quick growing popularity the show had when it was first released, many of the family members of the victims have spoken out and not in a positive way. Rita Isbell, sister of Dahmers victim Errol Lindsey, talked to Time Magazine about how Netflix did not contact her or other families of the victims about the show. She was also “bothered” by the part of her speech that Netflix had exaggerated to make it more entertaining. She states that Netflix is just trying to make money off of the tragedy.

WARNING: This show is rated TV-MA due to substances, language, violence, nudity, gore, sexual violence, and smoking.

You can watch the actual events of Dahmer’s murders on Netflix. If you are intrigued but don’t actually want to watch the murders happen you can also watch the documentary on Netflix that gives you not only Dahmers perspective but also the perspectives of the officers that were on the scene and the investigators.