Why Is Netflix's Monster So Controversial? 11 Times The Show Faced Backlash

“We’re all one traumatic event away from the worst day of your life being reduced to your neighbour’s favourite binge show.”

Since it premiered with its first season about Jeffrey Dahmer, Netflix’s anthology series Monster has become one of the most talked-about shows of the 2020s – but it’s often not for the reasons any creator would hope for.

The premise of the show is that each iteration focusses on a different dramatised true-crime case, with Evan Peters’ outing as Dahmer followed by seasons about Lyle and Erik Menendez, Ed Gein and, most recently, Lizzie Borden.

While they may have all pulled in hoards of viewers, each season has generated differing levels of debate and backlash, which has all contributed to the Ryan Murphy co-creation becoming one of the most controversial TV series in recent memory.

Here are 11 past instances when Monster has landed in hot water…

The families of Jeffrey Dahmer’s victims spoke out against the show following season 1’s debut

The first season of Monster, titled The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, was made without consent or involvement of the titular serial killers’ families, and when it premiered, many of them were quick to speak out against the show.

In a piece published in Business Insider, Rita Isbell, the sister of Errol Lindsey, who was murdered by Jeffrey Dahmer at the age of 19, said: “I feel like Netflix should’ve asked if we mind or how we felt about making it. They didn’t ask me anything. They just did it.

“I could even understand it if they gave some of the money to the victims’ children … The victims have children and grandchildren. If the show benefited them in some way, it wouldn’t feel so harsh and careless. It’s sad that they’re just making money off of this tragedy. That’s just greed.”

Errol Lindsey’s dad also told the LA Times: “I want people to understand this is not just a story or historical fact, these are real people’s lives. He was someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s father, someone’s friend that was ripped from [our] lives.”

“We’re all one traumatic event away from the worst day of your life being reduced to your neighbour’s favourite binge show,” he claimed.

“And most importantly, if you’re going to create something that uses real-world people and experiences, you should at minimum contact those people out of respect.”

“If you’re actually curious about the victims, my family (the Isbells) are pissed about this show,” another family member wrote on X. “It’s retraumatising over and over again, and for what? How many movies/shows/documentaries do we need?”

In a 2023 statement, Thomas M. Jacobson – a retired attorney who represented the families of eight of Dahmer’s victims – said the show’s success contributed to “glamourising or desensitising violence and crime in society”.

He added that the “continued pomp and circumstance surrounding the Dahmer series glorify and romanticise the monster’s actions and motivations resulting in further trauma for the victims’ families”.

Co-creator Ryan Murphy later claimed that he’d made an attempt to reach out to victims’ families but did not receive a response.

The focus being so much on Jeffrey Dahmer’s back story, rather than those of his victims, was also a controversial........

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