✔️ 2022-10-07 22:23:00 – Paris/France.
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Editor's Note: Sara Stewart is a film and culture writer living in western Pennsylvania.
(CNN) Is interest in true detective series declining? The heated debate surrounding Netflix's new series 'Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story' suggests that the genre must evolve if it is to survive.
The cumbersomely titled Ryan Murphy series starring Evan Peters as Dahmer was the most-watched new show on the platform. Streaming during its first week. But there has been a strong backlash over the fact that the series has not consulted the families of the victims, despite the program intending to put their stories at the center of the drama.
Rita Isbell, whose brother was one of Dahmer's victims, has written poignantly about the traumatic experience of having her court appearance re-enacted on the Murphy series. "I could even understand it if they gave some of the money to the victims' children... If the show benefited them in some way, it wouldn't be so harsh and neglectful," he said. she stated.
Members of the black gay community in Milwaukee, where Dahmer lived and chose his victims, also opposed "Dahmer," saying his stated intent to focus on victims rings hollow. And a black crew member who worked on the show tweeted about the terrible and allegedly racist treatment he received on set and being "re-traumatized" upon seeing the show's trailer.
Murphy has apparently yet to respond to the show's criticisms, although Peters said in a previous interview that the production "had a Ryan rule: never say it from Dahmer's perspective." As an audience, you don't sympathize with Dahmer. " the ". But that hasn't stopped the disturbing trend of viewers lusting after the actor who plays the serial killer on TikTok and other social media (and in some cases, sharing their feelings for the killer himself). The disconnect between Murphy's stated intentions and how his series has been received by audiences points to a larger set of ethical questions about the genre as a whole.
Could the fever of our true obsession with crime be at breaking point? Netflix's numbers don't lie, but there has been a palpable shift towards criticism in the conversation on social media. The release this Friday of "Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes" may push some viewers into complete apathy toward serial killers after a decade of burgeoning content in this popular genre.
This macabre subgenre has been a golden goose for Netflix (and other platforms and networks) for years, but its power over viewers may be giving way. Ted Bundy's 2019 drama "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile" insisted, via its star Zac Efron, that it underlined how white privilege allowed Bundy to get away with it for so long.
But "Dahmer" and "Extremely Wicked" are shows featuring young, handsome actors, a thinly veiled invitation to sympathize on some level with the notorious killers (or, at the very least, to consider them endearing and endearing). glamour). And Murphy's failure to reach out to those actually affected by the killer underscores a related problem: "True crime" often veers into exploitation, even when it claims to be acting in the interests of justice, of education or explanation of cases.
Another new series being criticized for similar reasons is Lifetime's "The Gabby Petito Story," which rehashes a crime from just a year ago. In August last year, Petito, 22, was killed by her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, with whom she was traveling across the country in a van. A police video recorded before Petito's disappearance, in which the officers are seen questioning the estranged couple and in which they fail to notice all the signs that Laundrie had abused her, has gone viral, sparking a firestorm of investigation into social media and a backlash over the media and law enforcement fixation on white women at risk, while countless victims of color are ignored.
Actress Thora Birch, who made her directorial debut with Petito's film, told The List in an interview published Sept. 27 that she sees the film as potentially educational for other young women. "To explore [the historia] as realistically as possible, given the facts that we knew, was something that I found very intriguing, but also, I saw it as an opportunity to be maybe- be useful as a cautionary tale. »
Petito's mother released a statement about the Lifetime Drama, saying the family has not been contacted. "We believe our fans should know that the Lifetime film about Gabby Petito has no connection to the Petito family and does not endorse it," she wrote. “Lifetime made the movie on its own. »
And earlier this year, Renee Zellweger produced and starred in an NBC miniseries, "The Thing About Pam," based on a Dateline podcast of the same name about the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria. Faria's mother and daughter said they weren't told about the production, and said the show got countless facts wrong and took an oddly comedic tone in its depiction of the most unsettling event in their life. Series director Jenny Klein spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the importance of honoring "Betsy's story, her family's story, and honoring the truth as we know it," though she did not mention contacting them.
Although both of these series had contacted the families of the victims for consultation and clearance, they are representative of another central problem of the true crime genre: its almost exclusive focus on white people.
According to journalist Veronica Wells-Puoane, “For people like me, black women and other people of color, the phenomenon of true crime is a reminder that while we are being watched, interrogated and ridiculed for dinner, white people, at the Literally and figuratively, get Instead of calling it what it is, a parody, we call this content “marathon-worthy”. Also, he says, "I'm afraid that these shows, whether they're documentaries or fictional shots, are sending some sort of sick notice to white audiences… Commit a crime and go to the infamy with a Netflix documentary. »
The 'Dahmer' debate also makes for an interesting juxtaposition with the latest 'Serial' event, in which accused murderer Adnan Syed was released after more than 20 years behind bars due to a series of flaws in the way your case has been processed. 'Serial', the seminal 2014 podcast, is credited with bringing Syed's case to light, although some have also pointed out that his attorney Rabia Chaudry did most of the heavy lifting that led to the dismissal from court. . Either way, “Serial” and a handful of other high-profile shows have spawned countless couch potato impersonators and sleuths, and genuine cop show listeners and viewers hope they can help crack some cold cases. .
But make no mistake: the human fascination with scary news is largely voyeuristic. True crime is addictive because it is often fascinating. Many true crime series have been meticulously researched and well-told; others simply offer a dark escape. The statistical rarity of serial killers makes their stories a safer fear than the mundane, but more likely, everyday terrors.
Just as there are ways to be a more ethical consumer of true crimes, there are more ethical ways to tell true crime stories. Include victims' families in the storytelling process. Focus on the stories of the victims themselves. Do not include unnecessary or explicit depictions of violence. Avoid the easy game of marketing sensationalism.
I'm a lifelong true crime fan, and I'm sure I won't be quitting anytime soon. But the more we talk about gender issues, the more likely we are to think about what we're taking in and what that means for people who have been impacted by these events. If we continue to consume trauma as entertainment, we owe them at least that.
SOURCE: Reviews News
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