It's been over a week since Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story arrived on our screens - and it's been a veritable hit with true crime fanatics in terms of its initial viewing figures.
Since its release on September 21, Netflix's new series has been met with an onslaught of criticism for being what viewers deem "insensitive."
Some users have taken to social media to vent their frustrations, with one person writing: "If you enjoyed the [Jeffrey Dahmer] series, feel free to unfollow me. I can't stand true crime fanatics. The entire genre is a cash cow of insensitive depictions of trauma that effected real people. It isn't an aesthetic and these monsters don't need a new movie every 2 years."
The 10-episode show focuses on the story of Jeffery Dahmer, a serial killer who had a penchant for drugging, murdering, and dismembering men and boys. Despite being almost caught on several occasions - and also being reported to the police by neighbors who became concerned about his odd behavior - he was able to carry out his murderous sprees for years undetected.
Many people have speculated that this was because most of Dahmer's 17 victims were either Black, Latinx, Native American or Asian.
Dahmer was arrested in 1991 after a potential victim escaped - prompting his arrest and a highly publicized trial. He was eventually murdered by a fellow prison inmate in 1994 at the age of 34.
As previously reported, the Milwaukee native's real-life neighbor, Glenda Cleveland, alerted Milwaukee police numerous times about Dahmer's strange antics - even calling authorities after noticing a young 14-year-old boy stumbling out of his apartment building.
He appeared to have been drugged and could barely speak. Dahmer told police at the time that the pair were "lovers," and that the boy was 19.
Police - convinced Dahmer was telling the truth - handed the boy back to Dahmer, who eventually murdered him. The boy, Konerak Sinthasomphone, was the notorious serial killer's thirteenth victim. These events were all accurately portrayed in the series.
Now, it seems, the show has managed to clock 196.2 million hours viewed, in spite of the criticism, Variety has reported. During the measured window (the week of September 19-25), the miniseries beat other shows to the number 1 most-watched spot - including Fate: The Winx Saga, which received 61 million hours viewed during its first week.
While Evan Peters - who played Dahmer - has maintained that the show tried to be "respectful" to the victims and not "embellish" events, many of the victim's families have slammed the series.
A relative of one of Dahmer's victims took to Twitter to reveal that the show was "retraumatizing" them and that the families of the victims had not been notified about its production.
A cousin of 11th victim - 19-year-old Errol Lindsay - tweeted: "I'm not telling anyone what to watch, I know true crime media is huge [right now], but if you're actually curious about the victims, my family (the Isbells) are pissed about this show. It's retraumatizing over and over again, and for what? How many movies/shows/documentaries do we need?"
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