I had a whole range of reactions to this as it unfolded. Initially, after two episodes I disliked it, finding it grubbily mean and rather exploitative. But when I posted this, a smart younger friend (and it is purely coincidental that I taught him English at prep school and so introduced him to thoughtful critical thinking on literature and the arts in general) who had seen it all advised me to continue. I took his advice and at the end I was glad that I did. The series became more than it seemed it was going to be at the start and I was powerfully involved. This was not so much with Dahmer, his psychology, his actions etc., but more the effect that he had on those around him. His father’s ‘journey’, particularly in the final episodes when he was on trial and imprisoned, was superbly powerful and very painfully true. Also his neighbor and her attempts to alert the police, which were brushed off. And in this the police did Not come over well, with their embedded racism and assumptions and backing of each other, regardless of what had been, or had not been, done.
Dahmer, as a character (and if this was true or not I do not know) almost came across as a blank cipher. There seemed to be little human depth in him. I do not know if this was deliberate, or if it is genuinely not known what sort of a person he was inside and so could only be seen by his external actions, but it was intriguing.
However, once finished and gradually becoming aware of reactions to the series, the matter became a little more complicated. I think that I had the tendency to think that all I saw and heard was true – not down to the actual words spoken, of course, but certainly the main events, the sequence of events, the relationships, generally, between the protagonists. This was a mental, not overly conscious, assumption on my part. The PR did not say it was precisely and faithfully accurate but, as we know with The Queen, there is a tendency to think that what is depicted is TRUE rather than being a dramatic re-creation with a degree of creativity in it – even if we are told that this is the case at the outset.
Therefore, some pretty major changes were made for (very effective) dramatic reasons. A major one was the fact that in the series, the immediate neighbor of Dahmer was disturbed early on by sounds and smells coming from the apartment and her many attempts to alert the police were ignored/dismissed. However, this was (very) dramatic license; the person who did, on occasion, go to the police, actually lived in an adjacent building it seemed and so the dramatic tension and irony of someone calling ‘danger’ and being brushed off or ignored (and this helping to give a negative portrayal of the police) was a dramatic device and not historical truth.
I suppose this is true of very many series of this nature, but it was fascinating to read, in some detail, how inaccurate it was. And I am sure critics of the Crown can give many, many examples of this.
So, finally, a range of changing and evolving views – and now I am still not quite sure what my final verdict on the series is.