The most popular Netflix program this year has been the unsettling true crime drama Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which has garnered star Evan Peters a mix of enthusiastic and unsettling fan reactions as the Fall TV season begins in earnest for broadcast networks and heralds the annual return of widespread comfort television.
The sister of one of Dahmer’s victims offered her comments on the show after seeing an actor fictionalize her iconic courtroom appearance, although some of the most notable criticism had nothing to do with Peters’ acting.
Errol Lindsey, a 19-year-old Jeffrey Dahmer victim who was killed in April 1991, has a sister named Rita Isbell. Due to her intensely moving victim impact statement at the highly publicized 1992 trial, she received some national attention. DaShawn Barnes, the actress from Bosch, played the victim in a dramatization of the trial for Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series. Isbell gave a frank vocal essay to Insider in which she discussed her memories of the incident and how she witnessed it unfold on Dahmer. Her words are:
When I saw some of the show, it bothered me, especially when I saw myself — when I saw my name come across the screen and this lady saying verbatim exactly what I said. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought it was me. Her hair was like mine, she had on the same clothes. That’s why it felt like reliving it all over again. It brought back all the emotions I was feeling back then.
For the friends and families of the victims and other parties connected in the cases, true crime shows like this are frequently upsetting, especially for high-profile projects like those available on Netflix. Additionally, the fact that Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story remained towards the top of Netflix’s Top 10 for its second weekend of release indicates that many people are exploring this narrative, perhaps for the first time, which has sparked a lot of online discussions.
Rita Isbell acknowledges that she hasn’t seen any of the streaming drama other than the part that shows her courtroom address, but she doesn’t exactly take Netflix to task for the show’s existence. She does, however, wish there had been some sort of happy ending for the victims’ grandkids and offspring. She said this:
I was never contacted about the show. 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. But I’m not money hungry, and that’s what this show is about, Netflix trying to get paid. I could even understand it if they gave some of the money to the victims’ children. Not necessarily their families. I mean, I’m old. I’m very, very comfortable. But the victims have children and grandchildren. If the show benefited them in some way, it wouldn’t feel so harsh and careless.
According to a recent lawsuit concerning Inventing Anna and other projects, Netflix has fallen into issues with “true tale” episodes that purportedly stray too far from reality when it comes to persons whose life rights weren’t compensated for. Isbell’s court words and appearance are public record, so that is obviously not the case for her, but she also brings up another, perhaps unfavorable, effect brought on by the rise in true crime projects on linear TV and streaming.
If there is any sort of silver lining in this situation, DaShawn Barnes has earned it for giving Isbell’s reaction such a believable performance. She appears in three of the ten episodes of the show; episode eight, “Lionel,” has the victim statement referenced above.