After nearly a month on Netflix’s daily chart of most watched TV series, DAHMER - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Storywas knocked out of the top spot on Netflix’s Top 10 list, and slipped to the #2 spot on Friday. It was replaced by The Watcher, another true-crime limited series. Both shows are written and produced by Ryan Murphy, who signed a large deal five-year deal with Netflix in 2018.
Since its release on September 21, Dahmer has accumulated a total of over 701.37 million hours viewed. It broke multiple viewing records within the first week of its release, and it now stands at #13 in the overall list of Netflix’s most streamed series of all time. It is Netflix's second most popular English-language series of all time, trailing behind the 4th season of Stranger Things.
The true-crime series follows the horrific true story of serial killer and sex offender Jeffrey Dahmer, also known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal”, who murdered and dismembered 17 men between 1978 and 1991. Despite its immense popularity, Dahmer has received mixed reviews from critics and currently has a 57% rating on RottenTomatoes. Many viewers also criticized the show for being exploitative of Dahmer’s victims and their families because of the heavy dramatized depiction of the killer’s crimes. The show has also faced backlash for being put into the LGBTQ+ category on Netflix, and for inspiring a disturbing TikTok trend where users filmed their reactions to grisly crime-scene photos.
Dahmer’s replacement, The Watcher, follows a much different plot-line. Also based on a true story, The Watcher stars Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale, and is co-produced by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennen. Watts and Cannavale play a married couple who move into a dream mansion with their children in Westfield, New Jersey. However, what is supposed to be a dream-come-true quickly descends into a living nightmare as they are harassed through letters signed by an anonymous stalker named The Watcher. The stalker knows everything about their family, including when they moved in and how many children they have, and each letter becomes more and more threatening. The show is based on Reeves Wiedeman’s article entitled The Haunting of a Dream House, which was published for New York magazine’s The Cut in 2018.
The Watcher runs for a total of 7 episodes, and is currently available for streaming on Netflix. Check out the official trailer below: