Hollywood may be turmoil amid the writers and actors strikes, but it’s safe to say that the cast and creative team behind Netflix’s Dahmer ― Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story had a relatively good week.
The 10-episode series, created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, received a total of 13 Emmy Award nominations.
Among those to receive nods were actor Evan Peters, who portrayed the titular serial killer, and Niecy Nash-Betts, who played Dahmer’s neighbour, Glenda Cleveland.
The show was also nominated for Outstanding Limited or Anthology series.
One person who wasn’t supportive of the Emmys recognition, however, was Thomas M. Jacobson, a retired attorney who represented some of Dahmer’s real-life victims.
In a statement issued to People, Jacobson blasted the nominations, noting: “Awarding Emmys to shows like the Jeffrey Dahmer series contributes to glamorizing or desensitising violence and crime in society.”
“The 13 Emmy Nominations and continued pomp and circumstance surrounding the Dahmer series glorify and romanticises the monster’s actions and motivations resulting in further trauma for the victims’ families,” added Jacobson, who represented the families of eight out of 17 people who were murdered by Dahmer.
He went on to single out Ryan Murphy for allegedly not getting the consent of the victims’ families before creating the show, thus having “further exploited and exacerbated the emotional burden they already carry”.
The Wisconsin-born Dahmer, alternately known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal” and the “Milwaukee Monster,” murdered and dismembered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. He also committed necrophilia and cannibalism on several of his victims, many of whom were people of colour, and some underage.
Convicted of 16 murders, Dahmer died in 1994 at age 34 after being beaten by Christopher Scaver, a fellow inmate at Wisconsin’s Columbia Correctional Institution.
Dahmer ― Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story premiered in 2022 to mostly positive reviews from critics.
Still, the series sparked controversy when relatives of the victims publicly objected to the way their loved ones were portrayed on-screen, and said Murphy admitted his team had neglected to ask for their consent prior to beginning work on the show.
For his part, Murphy has refuted those claims, telling Variety he reached out to around 20 families during his research but never heard back.
In recent weeks, Murphy ― whose credits also include Glee and Pose, among other shows ― has faced criticism in recent weeks for his decision to continue production on American Horror Story amid the Writers Guild of America strike, which began in May.
The forthcoming 12th season of the horror anthology series will be titled Delicate, and is set to star Kim Kardashian and Emma Roberts. Members of the Writers Guild of America picketed outside New York’s Silvercup Studios, where much of Delicate is being filmed, last week.
“We’re not here in protest of Ryan Murphy, the guy,” Josh Gondelman, a member of WGA East’s leadership, told The New York Times. “We’re here in protest of production happening without writers and while writers are on strike.”