Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Ryan Murphy Responds To 'Dahmer' Criticism From Victims' Families And Loved Ones

Ryan Murphy Responds To 'Dahmer' Criticism From Victims' Families And Loved Ones
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images; Netflix

Murphy told 'The Hollywood Reporter' his team reached out to 20 of Jeffry Dahmer's victims' families and loved ones.

Producer Ryan Murphy responded to criticism from family members of victims of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer who claimed his recent Netflix miniseries about the killer was rife with inaccuracies.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Murphy said the production team behind Dahmer—Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Storyconducted intensive research for several years before the miniseries came to fruition and also attempted to consult with the loved ones of victims.


According to Murphy, not a single family member of one of Dahmer's victims responded.

Murphy said:

"It's something that we researched for a very long time."
"Over the course of the three, three and a half years when we were really writing it, working on it, we reached out to 20, around 20 of the victims' families and friends trying to get input, trying to talk to people and not a single person responded to us in that process."

Because the production team was unable to obtain insights from close friends and family, the team "relied very, very heavily on our incredible group of researchers," Murphy said.

Murphy also responded to criticisms from several family members who'd complained about inaccuracies or otherwise said they'd not been contacted.

He said the series is centered around the circumstances that allowed Dahmer to slip through the cracks and resulted in the failure on the part of law enforcement to stop him much sooner.

"Something that we talked a lot in the making of it is we weren't so much interested in Jeffrey Dahmer, the person, but what made him the monster that he became."
"We talked a lot about that… and we talked about it all the time."
"It's really about white privilege. It's about systemic racism. It's about homophobia."

Murphy's collaborator Paris Barclay—who directed the sixth and tenth episodes of the series—concurred with his statements:

"It's about making sure these people are not erased by history and that they have a place and that they're recognized and that they were important and that they lived full lives."
"And they came from all sorts of different places, but they were real people. They weren't just numbers. They weren't just pictures on billboards and telephone poles."
"They were real people with loving families, breathing, living, hoping. That's what we wanted it to be about."

Murphy's statements have since received a negative response online from people who suggested the fact no one responded to the production team was a sign the series should not have been made.



Dahmer—Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Storyreached the number-one spot on Netflix in the first week of its release. It received polarizing reviews from critics.

While critic Caroline Framke wrote in Variety the series "simply can't rise to its own ambition of explaining both the man and the societal inequities his crimes exploited without becoming exploitative in and of itself," Decider's Kayla Cobb praised it, saying the series is "rewriting what a crime drama can look like if we stop glorifying murderers and start focusing more on systematic failures."

Earlier this month, the series was at the center of a controversy after Kim Alsup—a Black woman who worked as a coordinator on the show—said the set constituted a hostile work environment.

More from Entertainment/tv-and-movies

Screenshots from @elise_carlin's TikTok video
@elise_carlin/TikTok

Woman Weirded Out After Uber Driver Starts Playing AI Songs With Her Name Inserted

Whether we like it or not, AI is living among us and surely won't be departing anytime soon. That said, its uses and ubiquity can still be surprising at times.

TikToker Elise Carlin hopped into an Uber on the way to the airport, and the driver played music, which is pretty par for the course. But she soon realized this wasn't just any music! No, this was AI-generated, and each song was personalized with her name inserted into it.

Keep ReadingShow less
Aquilino Gonell
Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images

Capitol Officer Who Witnessed Jan. 6 Insurrection Goes Viral With Tweet About LA Protests

Staff Sergeant Aquilino Gonell, who lived through the January 6 insurrection and later testified before Congress, criticized President Donald Trump's demand to "bring in the troops" amid ongoing protests in Los Angeles against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's immigration raids.

Gonell testified after the attack that he and his fellow officers "were punched, pushed, kicked, shoved, sprayed with chemical irritants and even blinded with eye-damaging lasers by a violent mob who apparently saw us law enforcement officers, dedicated to ironically protecting them as U.S. citizens, as an impediment in their attempted insurrection."

Keep ReadingShow less
Martin Scorsese at the “Kundun” screening for the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival.
Dominik Bindl/Getty Images

Scorsese sparks debate on theaters

Martin Scorsese won’t be watching the latest summer blockbuster in a movie theater anymore.

Film critic Peter Travers interviewed the 82-year-old famed director of Goodfellas and The Irishman for his blog, The Travers Take. The website is the latest project from Travers, a film critic for Rolling Stone and Good Morning America, as well as a longtime friend of Scorsese.

Keep ReadingShow less
Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans on TODAY
TODAY/YouTube

Dakota Johnson Stuns 'Today' Viewers With Her Hilariously Blunt Dating 'Non-Negotiable'

Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans are excited about their upcoming film Materialists and have been actively touring to discuss the movie and its central themes of dating and dating expectations, often to hilarious effect.

Some highlights have been Pascal calling out Johnson for not remembering the first time they met, and Evans epically winning a round of identifying romance films based on one, sometimes incredibly obscure, line.

Keep ReadingShow less
Bernadette Peters; Cole Escola
Rob Kim/Getty Images; TheStewartofNY/FilmMagic

Bernadette Peters Offers Hilarious Reaction To Cole Escola's Tribute To Her Iconic Gown At The Tony Awards

Awards shows always have two competitions: the actual awards, and the red carpet outside.

Cole Escola, star and playwright of the hit show Oh, Mary!, did both at the Tony Awards this year. Escola, who won the Best Leading Actor in a Play for their performance, first showed up prior to the event to show off their intricate and stunning look, an homage to actor Bernadette Peters' iconic look from the 1999 Tony Awards.

Keep ReadingShow less