shades fills you in

In September, Netflix released the show “Dahmer -- Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”, starring Evan Peters. IndieWire says the show was the most watched debut ever for Netflix

The reactions from viewers online were... weird. Some people bragged about watching the show “unfazed”, others lusted after Dahmer, and some felt bad for him, reports In-The-Know

Vice writes that the reaction was pretty predictable. The same thing happened when Zac Efron played Ted Bundy. Filmmakers should really rethink how we depict these stories

WaPo: What’s the point in retelling this story? All it brings to the table is morbid shock value

Salon says one reason to tell the story might have been to show how biased policing and the justice system can be -- Dahmer didn’t get caught at first because his victims were mostly black and brown. But in this series, the victims are obvious afterthoughts

Right, says a WaPo Op. The story glides over the fact that Dahmer preyed on the vulnerable Black LGBTQ communities of Milwaukee

A family member of Errol Lindsey, a Dahmer victim, wrote that his family was upset. He said it was “retraumatizing” to watch media about Dahmer over and over again. Read his tweet here

And Errol Lindsey’s sister spoke with Business Insider. The show remade her court victim impact statement, and it felt like an immoral money grab

The mother of Tony Hughes, another victim, was also upset. She told The Guardian that she didn’t understand how Netflix could put out Tony’s name and story without talking to the family

DBK News writes that it’s a troubling trend in true crime media: Networks making exploitative media about tragedies without getting the families’ permission

Vox writes that the controversy begs a key question for true crime creators and viewers: How do we respect the victims? Maybe don’t do true crime, and if you have to, get the families involved

And in 2015, Reason Magazine said we shouldn’t outright ban offensive costumes. Criticize bad costumes all you want, but don’t step on someone’s freedom of expression