‘Blonde’ And ‘Dahmer’, Netflix’s #1 Movie And Show, Both Face Exploitation Claims

I can’t say I’ve ever seen this happen before. Netflix’s #1 show right now is Dahmer, a drama based on the life of the infamous serial killer, and its #1 movie is Blonde, an NC-17 biopic about the life of Marilyn Monroe. And everyone is very mad about both of them, deeming them exploitative for different reasons.

Dahmer, I’ve discussed a few times already. Even though it’s roughly the ten thousandth piece of serial killer/true crime media to hit airwaves, its popularity has thrust it into the spotlight where many believe that the show exploits Dahmer’s victims by portraying them without their permission. This is has led for calls for Netflix to donate some amount of money to the victims’ families, and some of the families themselves speaking up. Rita Isbell, the sister of victim Errol Lindsey, told Insider, “It’s sad that they’re just making money off of this tragedy. That’s just greed.” Yesterday, the latest development was that rapper Boosie posted a public rant about the show, calling for a boycott (language warning):

Blonde runs into a different problem. In the case of Marilyn Monroe, the claim is that the actress herself is being exploited by the film, which is a devastating and brutal portrayal of her life, and the reason the film is NC-17 is not just the frequent nudity, but its depictions of sexual violence in which Monroe is raped. Those making Blonde may believe they are trying to “tell her story” that was glossed over by decades of Hollywood nostalgia, but others believe that it is exploiting her yet again. A quote from actress Ana de Armas that the cast and crew wrote messages in a card and brought it to her grave as a way of “asking for permission” from the dead actress certainly did not help.

It’s not that these two projects are the first portrayals of real-life figures to ever draw controversy, but to have both of them not just airing on Netflix, but being the most-watched things on Netflix is certainly a wild coincidence. Dahmer, from early viewership figures, appears to be one of Netflix’s biggest hits of the year. It’s too early to tell with Blonde yet, but it debuted instantly at #1 on the movie side.

Both Dahmer and Blonde have been generally panned by critics. Dahmer has a 53% on Rotten Tomatoes and Blonde has a 45%. Dahmer, however, seems more well-liked by viewers, with an 85% audience score. Blonde, meanwhile, appears to instead have upset audiences quite a bit, as it’s got an abysmal 35% audience score.

Netflix has yet to issue meaningful statements about either project, which are indeed both Netflix originals. My guess is that like with many high profile biopics, they were hoping for an Emmy for Evan Peters as Dahmer and an Oscar for Ana de Armas as Marilyn, but that seems somewhat unlikely at this point in both cases (perhaps Peters for a Limited Series, but who knows).

But for all the controversy, people are watching. You don’t make it to #1 on Netflix without hundreds of millions of viewing hours, and that’s exactly what’s happening here. So, what responsibility does the audience itself bear? That’s an eternal question with projects like these, even if Netflix is an easier villain to point fingers at.

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