Into It with Sam Sanders
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Its a nice idea, considering the particulars.
Dahmer killed 17 people between 1978 and 1991, and the majority were queer men of color.
But in practice, the stories of Dahmers victims arent centered enough.
Critics are saying that.Families of the victims are saying that.
Having watched some of the series,Into Itpodcast host Sam Sanders is saying that too.
Oh, thoughts and prayers.Thank you.
I took one for the team on this.
I want to talk about the central question facing this series: Who is it centering?
Is it Jeffrey Dahmer, who is played by Evan Peters?
But theres an episode that is focused on Tony Hughes, one of Dahmers victims, who was deaf.
And they do focus on his father a little bit.
But its very much Jeffreys show.
I mean,it says Dahmer twice in the title.
What Happened to Ryan Murphy?
That was a show where I was like,I dont need to see this.
I know this story.
But he makes so many shows thatits hard to do any of them consistently well.
What shows do this right?Well, one that immediately comes to mind is a show calledUnbelievable.
Another one isIll Be Gone in the Dark.
Ultimately, the work she did in that book helped to finally apprehend that guy after decades.
Most of the reviews acknowledge the central problem that you and I are talking about.
Do we need to do this?
Theres a whole sequence inDahmerwhere they show people giving their impact statements about how what he did affected them.
And theres the sister of a victim who just starts yelling at him.
Youve probably seen it posted side by side with the actual video from when it happened.
And to me, thats like,Now were cosplaying reality.
The womans name is Rita Isbell.
Thats the real woman who was portrayed in the show.
Shes one of the people who said, I didnt know this was going on.
Nobody cleared this with me.
And next thing Im kind of a meme.
Dont re-create things shot-for-shot.
2: Acknowledge the impact that true crime has.
Theres some hand-waving in that direction withDahmer.
I would say stop making the killers hot.
Its weird.Ted Bundy was a decent-looking guy, but you dont have to make him Zac Efron, either.
But as were talking, theres another Jeffrey Dahmer documentary thats going to drop on Netflix.
3: Netflix and others platforms need to not do that.
All of this raises a larger point: It feels like true crime is everywhere these days.
Are we in a moment of peak true crime, Jen?
I had forgotten aboutMaking a Murderer.
That was a moment.Yeah.
I honestly thought beforeDahmerdropped andstarted really getting watched,This is going to be the tipping point.
People are going to be like, This is too much.And I was dead wrong.
Why is that the case?
And the reason is they dont have to explain to you who Spider-Man is.
So that part of the marketing is already done for you.
Serial killers are IP.
Its a horrible thing, but its true.
People know who Jeffrey Dahmer is.
They did no promotion.
They did not give critics screeners in advance.
There was a trailer and then, a few days later, it was on Netflix.
You leave feeling pretty shitty about it.
This interview excerpt has been edited and condensed.
