According to Deadline, the biographical serial killer drama Dahmer: Monster – The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is currently Netflix’s second-most successful show ever.
On Netflix’s all-time list, the Ryan Murphy-produced series came in second only to the fourth season of Stranger Things in terms of hours seen in a single week. Dahmer received 205.33 million hours of viewing in its third week of availability, bringing its total to 701.37 million hours. In contrast, 1.35 billion hours of Stranger Things 4 were seen in its first month on Netflix.
The show has become extremely popular but also controversial. It stars Evan Peters as the notorious Wisconsin serial murderer, who was found guilty of 15 of the 16 murders he committed in his native state in 1992. The show has recently been under fire from Tony Hughes’ mother for its exploitative treatment of Dahmer’s killings. Tony Hughes was one of Dahmer’s victims.
“I don’t see how they can do that,” Shirley Hughes told The Guardian. “I don’t see how they can use our names and put stuff out like that out there.” She also noted that her son’s murder at the hands of Dahmer in 1991 “didn’t happen” the same way it was depicted in the show.
Eric Perry, who is the cousin of Dahmer victim Errol Lindsey, also revealed on Twitter that Netflix did not consult or notify the families of his victims. “Ok, I did not expect that tweet to get this much attention. To answer the main question, no, they don’t notify families when they do this. It’s all public record, so they don’t have to notify (or pay!) anyone. My family found out when everyone else did,” wrote Perry. “My cousins wake up every few months at this point with a bunch of calls and messages and they know there’s another Dahmer show. It’s cruel.”