Monster (TV series)

## *Monster*

***Monster*** is an American biographical crime drama anthology series created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan for Netflix, which was released on September 21, 2022. Murphy also serves as showrunner and is executive producer along with Brennan. The first season is about the life of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, portrayed by Evan Peters. Other main characters in the first season include Dahmer's father Lionel Dahmer, portrayed by Richard Jenkins, stepmother Shari Dahmer, portrayed by Molly Ringwald, suspicious neighbor Glenda Cleveland, portrayed by Niecy Nash, and grandmother Catherine Dahmer, portrayed by Michael Learned.

On November 7, 2022, Netflix announced it had renewed *Monster* for a second and third season, as an anthology series to be based on the lives of "other monstrous figures". On May 1, 2023, it was announced that the second season would
focus on the lives of convicted murders Lyle and Erik Menendez, portrayed by Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch, respectively.

## Premise

**Season 1**
*Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story* chronicles the life of Jeffrey Dahmer, and how he became one of the most notorious serial killers in America. His murders were executed in Bath Township, Ohio, West Allis, Wisconsin, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin between 1978 and 1991. The series dramatizes instances where Dahmer was nearly apprehended until his ultimate conviction and death. It also explores how police incompetence and apathy contributed to enabling his crimes.

**Season 2**
*Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story* will tell the story of the brothers, who were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. Although the siblings eventually confessed to parricide, they have long sustained that the reason for their actions was due to physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

## Cast

### Season 1

* Starring

* Evan Peters as Jeffrey Dahmer
	+ Nick A. Fisher plays Jeffrey Dahmer as a young boy
* Richard Jenkins as Lionel Dahmer, Jeffrey's father.
	+ Josh Braaten plays a younger version of Lionel Dahmer
* Molly Ringwald as Shari Dahmer, Lionel's second wife and Jeffrey's stepmother.
* Niecy Nash as Glenda Cleveland, Jeffrey's neighbor.
* Michael Learned as Catherine Dahmer, Lionel's mother and Jeffrey's grandmother.

### Season 2

* Starring

* Nicholas Alexander Chavez as Lyle Menendez
* Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez

## Content

### Seasons

 Across more than a decade, 17 teen boys and young men were murdered by convicted killer Jeffrey Dahmer. How did he evade arrest for so long?

 Season 2 will tell the story of the brothers, Lyle & Erik Menendez, who were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents.

## Production notes

### Development

On October 2, 2020, it was announced that *Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,* a limited series co-created by longtime collaborators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, had been green-lit by Netflix, with Richard Jenkins co-starring, Carl Franklin directing and Janet Mock writing and directing. Production was slated to begin in January. Franklin will direct the pilot episode. Mock will direct and write several episodes. The two executive produce with Murphy and Brennan. Rounding out the writers room with Brennan and Mock will be David McMillan, who will serve as supervising producer for the 10-episode limited series that spans the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s and ends with Dahmer’s arrest in the early ’90s. Rashad Johnson of Color of Change, a racial justice project, also will serve as supervising producer. Also executive producing are Ryan Murphy Prods.’ Alexis Martin Woodall and Eric Kovtun; Scott Robertson (Halston) is a co-producer. Unlike most of the previous treatments of the story, which emphasized its sensational nature and gory details, *Monster*’s approach is psychological and focuses on how the murders were allowed to happen over more than a decade. On May 1, 2023, it was announced that Ryan Murphy would be diving into the psyche of not one, but two, infamous killers for Season 2 of his anthology series. In addition to the scripted series, Netflix also has exclusive access to Lyle and Erik Menendez for a forthcoming documentary feature. An announcement video released features the 911 call from the murders, where Lyle sobs on the phone as he tells the operator that his mom and dad have been shot. The new season is expected to hit Netflix in 2024. On May 18, 2023, *The Telsey Office* issued an open casting call for the two brothers. Both character’s descriptions ask for actors who have Tennis skills and that both roles will involve sexual situations and potential nudity.

### Filming

Filming for the first season took place in California from March 24, 2021 until July 31, 2021. Production on the second season was set to begin in Los Angeles, California in mid-to-late September 2023, and is now set to film from December 12, 2023 until February 16, 2024.

### Casting

In October 2020, Richard Jenkins joined the cast. In March 2021, Evan Peters, Neicy Nash, Penelope Ann Miller, Shaun J. Brown, Colin Ford and Michael Learned joined that cast. In June 2023, Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez joined the cast as headliners for the second season.

## Release

*Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story* was released on Netflix on Friday, September 21, 2022. *Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story* will be released onto Netflix in 2024.

## Reception

### Audience viewership

The series rose to the number-one spot on Netflix in the first week of its release. In the second week of its release, Netflix announced that *Dahmer* was its ninth most popular English-language TV show of all time, with 56 million households having viewed all 10 episodes. The series remained number-one for weeks and became Netflix’s second most-viewed English Netflix series of all time, and the fourth highest across any language with 701.37 million hours viewed in 21 days. The series amassed more than 865 million hours viewed in the first 28 days of its release.

*Dahmer* debuted at number-one on the Nielsen Top 10 streaming chart by garnering more than 3.6 billion minutes of viewing for the week of September 19–25, placing it 10th on the all-time list for single-week viewership. The following week, it jumped to No. 7 on the all-time list with 4.4 billion minutes viewed. The series topped Nielsen's streaming chart for the third consecutive week with 2.3 billion viewing minutes.

### Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 62% approval rating with an average rating of 6.3/10, based on 26 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "While *Monster* is seemingly self-aware of the peril in glorifying Jeffrey Dahmer, creator Ryan Murphy's salacious style nevertheless tilts this horror story into the realm of queasy exploitation." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 45 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Kayla Cobb at *Decider* said the show "isn't just well directed, written, and acted. It's rewriting what a crime drama can look like if we stop glorifying murderers and start focusing more on systematic failures." Caroline Framke of *Variety* argues that the show "simply can't rise to its own ambition of explaining both the man and the societal inequities his crimes exploited without becoming exploitative in and of itself." Dan Fienberg of *The Hollywood Reporter* praises episode 6 ("Silenced") as "easily the best episode of the series, an uncomfortably sweet and sad hour of TV that probably should have been the template for the entire show [and]...in placing a Black, deaf, gay character at the center of the narrative, the series is giving voice to somebody whose voice has too frequently been excluded from gawking serial killer portraits."

On September 23, 2022, Netflix removed the series' "LGBTQ" tag after backlash on social media.

## Trivia

* The series was announced on October 2, 2020.
* The series was made an anthology series on November 7, 2022.

## Gallery

### Images

* Posters
* Promotional

### Season 1

An Official Image from Episode 3An Official Image from Episode 1An Official Image from Episode 1An Official Image from Episode 5An Official Image from Episode 7An Official Image from Episode 8An Official Image from Episode 4Evan Peters as Jeffrey DahmerRichard Jenkins as Lionel DahmerMolly Ringwald as Shari DahmerNeicy Nash as Glenda ClevelandMichael Learned as Catherine DahmerDyllón Burnside as Ronald Flowers
### Videos

MONSTERS- The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story - Title Announcement - NetflixDAHMER - Monster- The Jeffrey Dahmer Story - Niecy Nash On The Untold Story Of Glenda ClevelandDAHMER - Monster- The Jeffrey Dahmer Story - Evan Peters On The Complexity Of Playing DahmerDAHMER - Monster- The Jeffrey Dahmer Story - Official Trailer (Trailer 2) - NetflixDAHMER - Monster- The Jeffrey Dahmer Story - Official Trailer (Trailer 1) - Netflix
## References

Template:Monster Navigation

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 ‘Monster’ Trailer: First Look At Evan Peters As Jeffrey Dahmer In Ryan Murphy’s Netflix Series
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Netflix Expands Ryan Murphy’s ‘Monster’ Franchise With Two More Installments Following ‘Dahmer’ Success & Renews ‘The Watcher’ For Season 2
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Ryan Murphy’s ‘Monster’ Anthology Series To Focus On Erik & Lyle Menendez For Season 2 At Netflix
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 ‘Monster’: Evan Peters, Niecy Nash, Penelope Ann Miller & More Join Netflix Series From Ryan Murphy & Ian Brennan
5. ↑ Evan Peters Transforms into Serial Killer Jeffrey Dahmer in First Set Photo from Upcoming Series
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Netflix Greenlights ‘Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ Limited Series From Ryan Murphy & Ian Brennan; Richard Jenkins Co-Stars, Carl Franklin & Janet Mock EP
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Michael Learned Joins Cast Of Netflix’s ‘Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ From Ryan Murphy And Ian Brennan
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 ‘Monster’ Season 2: Netflix’s Ryan Murphy Anthology Series Finds Its Menendez Brothers In Cooper Koch & Nicholas Alexander Chavez
9. ↑ DAHMER - “BAD MEAT”
10. ↑ DAHMER - “PLEASE DON'T GO”
11. ↑ DAHMER - “DOIN' A DAHMER”
12. ↑ DAHMER - “THE GOOD BOY BOX”
13. ↑ DAHMER - “BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS”
14. ↑ DAHMER - “SILENCED”
15. ↑ DAHMER - “CASSANDRA”
16. ↑ DAHMER - “LIONEL”
17. ↑ DAHMER - “THE BOGEYMAN”
18. ↑ DAHMER - “GOD OF FORGIVENESS, GOD OF VENGEANCE”
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 CASTING SEARCH: Seeking actors to play Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez in the Netflix anthology series MONSTER. #thetelseyoffice
20. ↑ ‘MONSTERS: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’ Netflix Series: What We Know So Far
21. ↑ ‘MONSTERS: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’ Netflix Series: Everything We Know So Far
22. ↑ Ryan Murphy Scores TV-Film #1 On Netflix With 'Dahmer' & 'Mr. Harrigan's Phone'
23. ↑ Jeffrey Dahmer Series 'Monster' Is Netflix's Ninth Most-Watched English-Language Series of All Time
24. ↑ 'Dahmer: Monster – The Jeffrey Dahmer Story' Locks Up Netflix's Biggest Audience Since 'Stranger Things' Return
25. ↑ ‘From Scratch’ Reigns Over Netflix Top 10, Dethroning Ryan Murphy’s ‘The Watcher’
26. ↑ ‘Dahmer’ Dominates Nielsen U.S. Streaming Chart As ‘House Of The Dragon’ Leapfrogs ‘The Lord Of The Rings’
27. ↑ ‘Dahmer’ Holds Top Spot On Nielsen U.S. Streaming Chart‘; ‘NCIS’ And ‘Gilmore Girls’ Make Top 10
28. ↑ DAHMER -- MONSTER: THE JEFFREY DAHMER STORY (2022 - PRESENT)
29. ↑ Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
30. ↑ 'Dahmer' Netflix Review: Stream It or Skip It?
31. ↑ Netflix's Jeffrey Dahmer Series 'Monster' Marks a Grim, All Too Predictable Addition to Ryan Murphy's Oeuvre: TV Review
32. ↑ 'Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story' Review: Ryan Murphy, Netflix, Rinse, Repeat
33. ↑ Netflix's Jeffrey Dahmer drama attracts huge ratings and strong reactions
34. ↑ Netflix Removes LGBTQ Tag From 'Dahmer' After Backlash From Viewers: 'Not The Representation We're Looking For'