S01.E02: Please Don't Go

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Quote

A young Jeff contends with troubles at home and school. Years later, his strange behavior evolves into murderous deeds that slip past the police

Original streaming date 2022.09.21

[chediavolo]

Oh my god is anybody watching this? I don’t know if I can go on after this episode. He was really literally a monster. It’s really hard to watch. And from what I’ve seen so far I don’t know how this guy turned  out this way. He really didn’t have more of a horrible home life then many many people. He wasn’t abused mentally or physically. His father was weird his mother was a drug attic but his grandmother loved him I think his parents loved him too. Is there an interesting how the father said last episode something about maybe the anesthesia when he was a little boy messed him up. It’s really piqued  my interest if there’s anything to that. Plus the fact it’s probably entirely possible that some people are just born evil

[casachess]

That was heartbreaking. Seeing those women beg and plead to save the life of a literal child... my God. Just heartbreaking.

[BeatrixK]

First and foremost - just hand Evan the Emmy now.  He is, no pun intended, slaying it.

I remember some of the more prominent details - but I distinctly remember the neighbor being in the press and thinking 'OK - as many times as she called the cops....as flat out, creepy ass unbelievably weird he was as a 'normal' person...how in the ever loving hell did he not even ping the cops radar?

I mean...good lord Dahmer was just so weird.  And on a level that's honestly not easy to wrap your head around:  He is so blunt and matter of fact about it - and that level of heinous masked as a near Reek-like (Game of Thrones Reek),  person - I honestly don't know how he didn't trip every alarm bell with an authority officer or medical professional or something.

Even Peters is just knocking this out of the park - It's a brilliant performance.

[Zima]

I think it's easy to dismiss people who do unthinkable (to us at least) things as "monsters", but there are everyday people out there doing all kinds of warped shit ...they just haven't been caught. 

[ShadowHunter]

I can't and can believe the cops being all "We don't watch to catch anything " because Dahmer was gay. Damn the ignorance in the 80s and early 90s.  2 brothers both being victims of Dahmer though one lived. How wild the universe is that 2 family members both met up with the same guy. 

[PrincessPurrsALot]

There are two things so prevalent in why he was able to do these horrific things so long - racism and homophobia.  Jeff says anything about being gay and the police get squicked out and don't want to deal with him or his supposed boyfriend as humans.  They would rather mock them and make comments about how they believe gay men are into all kinds of weird things.  It was clear that the child was not 19.  However, being presumed gay and non-white the police didn't care.  Add in that the people reporting it were black women and mysogynoir takes over.

[GiuliettaMasina]

On 9/23/2022 at 5:18 PM, BeatrixK said:

First and foremost - just hand Evan the Emmy now.  He is, no pun intended, slaying it.

I remember some of the more prominent details - but I distinctly remember the neighbor being in the press and thinking 'OK - as many times as she called the cops....as flat out, creepy ass unbelievably weird he was as a 'normal' person...how in the ever loving hell did he not even ping the cops radar?

I mean...good lord Dahmer was just so weird.  And on a level that's honestly not easy to wrap your head around:  He is so blunt and matter of fact about it - and that level of heinous masked as a near Reek-like (Game of Thrones Reek),  person - I honestly don't know how he didn't trip every alarm bell with an authority officer or medical professional or something.

Even Peters is just knocking this out of the park - It's a brilliant performance.

Racism 

Homophobia

White privilege 

[gesundheit]

Really appreciating how well this show depicts the utter system failure (and the multiple baked-in bigotries that precipitated it). We're so used to serial killer shows having brilliant detectives doggedly investigating, but here they didn't even care about the victims so they didn't bother to connect the dots to realize there was a serial killer to hunt down. Like the cops that did finally "catch" him didn't even have a moment of glory for being the ones who got him, because they didn't even know there was a "him." 

There's been so much backlash about this show even existing, but to me that's the answer to "why do we need this." (On the other hand, I haven't seen the other dramatizations about Dahmer so perhaps they addressed that just as well)

[sugarbaker design]

On 9/23/2022 at 10:49 PM, ShadowHunter said:

I can't and can believe the cops being all "We don't watch to catch anything " because Dahmer was gay.

I was in my early twenties in the 80's.  I'm sure they said much worse.

On 9/23/2022 at 10:49 PM, ShadowHunter said:

How wild the universe is that 2 family members both met up with the same guy. 

Dahmer always hunted in the same neighborhood, and had a specific type, so it's not that wild.

I had read about the incident with the 14 year old, the neighbors and the police.  At the time I found the story highly suspect.  But after seeing it dramatized, I totally believe it, and am totally horrified by it.

I loved the TV dinner scene with Jeff and his grandma for two reasons:

1. The scene from The Ropers or Three's Company really showed how omnipresent homophobia was, it was even in sitcoms.
2. It was great seeing Michael Learned on TV again.  Ma Walton looks, sounds and acts great for an 83 year old!

Edited September 27, 2022 by sugarbaker design

[Scarlett45]

On 9/23/2022 at 9:49 PM, ShadowHunter said:

I can't and can believe the cops being all "We don't watch to catch anything " because Dahmer was gay. Damn the ignorance in the 80s and early 90s.  2 brothers both being victims of Dahmer though one lived. How wild the universe is that 2 family members both met up with the same guy. 

Dahmer lived in one area, and hunted in the same area. Serial killers often have a “type”. I didn’t think it was that far fetched. 

On 9/24/2022 at 7:58 PM, GiuliettaMasina said:

Racism 

Homophobia

White privilege 

Yup!

[Scarlett45]

On 9/29/2022 at 2:48 PM, KingCharlesIII said:

After watching the very first two episodes today, I conclude it's not a show to binge - this is one I will limit to one episode a day and enjoy it going forward. 

Yes, this isn’t something I can binge. One episode every couple of days at best.