Featured Image Credit: Ovidiu Hrubaru/Alamy Stock Photo/Netflix
Topics: Netflix, True crime, Whoopi Goldberg
Emma Guinness
Topics: Netflix, True crime, Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg has hit out at Netflix's new controversial series about the crimes of notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
The actor, 66, slammed Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, starring Evan Peters, which has been topping Netflix charts since its release on 22 September.
Hear what she had to say here:
Advert
She made her remarks on The View, where she pointed out that Dahmer, who killed seventeen people between 1978 and 1991, didn't commit his crimes all that long ago, which means that many of his victims' families are still alive.
"Ryan [Murphy] is an amazing artist," Goldberg said, "If that were my family, I'd be enraged. Because it is being killed over and watching your child get [killed], and then you have to listen to how it went and all this other stuff that, as a person who's lost someone like that, it's just - you can't imagine."
The Sister Act actor continued: "Over and over and over! I think, if you're gonna tell these stories, be aware that a lot of the people who are part of these stories are still with us."
However, not everyone on The View was so critical of the series, which showed how a combination of racism, homophobia, and police failings enabled Dahmer to kill for over a decade.
Sunny Hostin said that it is serving an important educational purpose.
She said that the 'young, Black and Brown gay men' who were targeted by Dahmer still face a lot of oppression.
"These communities are still marginalised, and sometimes treated the same way," Hostin continued.
"There were other pieces to this story that even I didn't know."
She also pointed out the disturbing fact that the officers who had failed to apprehend Dahmer were reinstated after initially losing their jobs - one of whom, John Balcerzak, retired recently in 2017.
However, while Hostin might believe that the show serves an important societal purpose, the families of Dahmer's victims have already criticised the series.
Rita Isbell, whose brother's murder and her court appearance was depicted in the show, told Insider that watching it 'felt like reliving it all over again.'
She added: "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.
"It's sad that they're just making money off of this tragedy. That's just greed."
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is available to stream on Netflix now.